Morning, Noon, & Night

'''That would be wonderful!' Julia said excitedly. 'I'll be so glad when this is over.''' So will you. Sidney Sheldon (one of the world's best-selling authors) has thrown together a brew pot of stale notions: fabulous wealth, too much power, spousal abuse, drugs, suicides, fatal hit-and-runs, crooked judges, drug addicts, polo-playing drunks, blackmail, high-fashion models, noble young lawyers, sexless romance and loveless sex, a guy who's rotten to women, women who are good and pure and blinkingly innocent, and just plain flat writing. (''She followed me to Boston and tried to murder me,'' says one judge. ''My God! That's terrible!'' responds another.) Morning, Noon, & Night's banal prose is built on a banal plot: A tycoon falls overboard and drowns; his children stand to inherit billions, except — well, except for the Sheldon plot, complete with masquerading heirs and a murderous (if stupid) sibling. Sheldon's twist ending might come as a surprise to someone who's never read a book before. D-