BEACH-BLANKET BOOKS

* Blue Moon Luanne Rice (Bantam, $5.99) Family-saga novels are usually gooey; this one is brilliant. The Keatings, who have been sea fishers and restaurateurs for generations, have produced Nora, Bonnie, and Cass, sisters who cope matter-of-factly with crises like a teenager's satanism, a toddler's deafness, and one devastating emergency that stuns the town. *Playing for the Ashes Elizabeth George (Bantam, $21.95) Elizabeth George has been hailed as a master of the modern English mystery, and if you delve into this book, you'll see why.