PARLIAMENTARY INTRIGUE TURNS ON LONG-AGO LIE.

Byline: Linda Litchfield Special to the Daily News

``In the Presence of the Enemy'' by Elizabeth George (Bantam; $23.95) Our rating: Four Stars

Elizabeth George's latest British police procedural featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley is a tour de force. All the more surprising, then, that this local writer is not even English and relies on careful research for the authenticity of her fiction.

In this, George's eighth crime novel, the 10-year-old illegitimate daughter of a high-ranking junior minister, Eve Bowen, is kidnapped. The ransom? Reveal the embarrassing truth about the girl's birth - that her father is Dennis Luxford, the hated editor of a sleazy tabloid who loves to skewer Tory politicians. Eve refuses to yield, totally convinced that Dennis is behind the kidnapping so he can use it as an excuse to run a damaging story about her. She calls the kidnapper's bluff, and tragedy results.

From this unusual premise, George has concocted a stunning tale of revenge that twists and turns in unexpected ways for more than 500 pages until the shocking finale. You can't put it down. Ruined lives and murder all result from a stupid lie told years before.

As always, the author intermixed her story with the personal lives of her protagonists. The case damages Lynley's relationship with those closer to him, and his prickly female sergeant unexpectedly finds romance while working in the case.

The author also has painted a compelling picture of the harm done when the media, especially in the name of party politics, intrude upon the private lives of public figures. It's not just a British problem. Americans should take note that everybody suffers from this piranha-like behavior. We lose the services of qualified people and it demeans us all.

``Mistress of the Bones'' by T.J. MacGregor (Hyperion; $21.95) Our rating: Three Stars

``Mistress of the Bones'' is a surprising mix of the traditional private detective novel and a ghost story. It is a tribute to the author's skill that the book works on both levels.

When bail bondsman Lou Hernando is murdered on Florida's Tango Key, the prime suspect is Ross Blade, the 17-year-old juvenile delinquent he had befriended (and left a bequest in his will). The boy has fled and is hiding somewhere on the island. Lou's friends, Quin and Mike McCleary, a husband and wife team of investigators, move into the house while they conduct their search for the killer.

There's no shortage of suspects - including Lou's ex-wife, his crooked partner, and the greedy land developer who wanted Lou's land. Also, in the months before his death, Lou had been behaving strangely; although he had no artistic talent, he began painting pictures of local scenes. Years before, his father had done the same - and then committed suicide.

Rumor has it that the Hernando family's home is haunted by the spirit of a beautiful slave named Luz, the mistress of the pirate who built the house 300 years ago and may have left some kind of treasure hidden there.

``Mistress of the Bones'' is about love - married love, as in the believable relationship between the McClearys; young love as in Ross and the girl who helps him; obsessive love as in Lou's passion for Luz; and the kind of destructive passion that can get you killed. Fans, take warning: the book's devastatingly violent ending is a heart breaker.

``Lord of the Dead'' by Tom Holland (Pocket Books; $23) Our rating: Four Stars

Most people don't know that the first real vampire story in estern literature - featuring not the traditional monster of folklore but the cultivated aristocrat with an unfashionable thirst for blood - was written by Lord Byron's doctor, John Polidori, in the same writing contest that produced ``Frankenstein.'' The physician in turn based his tale on an idea of Byron's and based his protagonist on the poet himself. With Byron's notorious love life, it was not a surprising choice.

Several books have played with the connection between the great romantic poets and the vampirism that fascinated them, but ``Lord of the Dead'' is the first to take that association to its logical conclusion. Byron scholar Tom Holland not only turns the poet into a vampire - courtesy of an ancient magician-fiend - on his first trip to Greece but Byron kills his mentor and in turn becomes a leader of the undead. Between murders, he tries to find the meaning of the undead and the meaning of his prolonged life. As Byron eventually discovers, he is doubly cursed because, in Holland's mythology, vampires still age unless they drink the blood of a close relative.

In the tradition of Anne Rice, this literary tale is for people who ordinarily don't read books in the horror genre. The author seamlessly combines his in-depth knowledge of Byron's life and works with his fictional plot, and real-life figures such as Shelley and Caroline Lamb play key roles. The result is a refreshing angle on an often overworked subject.

``McNally's Puzzle'' by Lawrence Sanders (Putnam; $24.95) Our rating: Two Stars

Lawrence Sanders' series of books about Palm Beach dilettante sleuth Archie McNally is reminiscent of the Golden Age of the detective story when debonair detectives such as Philo Vance deducted in style. If you don't mind hearing about Archy's every meal (most of which sound quite delicious) and every wardrobe change - all served up with ``witty'' quips - then Sanders is the writer for you.

In ``McNally's Puzzle,'' a disappointing entry from the veteran author, Archy is called in when one of his attorney father's clients, millionaire Hiram Gottschalk, reports that someone close to him is playing macabre jokes, like strangling his pet mynah. He suspects that the perpetrator is about to kill him, and he's dead right.

Besides Gottschalk's mentally disturbed son, the other murder suspects include the victim's beautiful identical twin daughters and his equally attractive Latin housekeeper (lovely women are prominently featured in the series). The latter's stepson manages Hiram's bird store, where two employees are killed in gangland style.

The perceptive reader will be one step ahead of the plot, but anyone who enjoys breezy writing and skulduggery among the glamorous elite of the Florida resort should be delighted.

``Name Withheld'' by J.A. Vance (Morrow; $22) Our rating: Three Stars

``Name Withheld'' is another competent police procedural from J.A. Vance. Set in Seattle, it features homicide detective J.P. Beaumont, who is a familiar figure in mystery fiction - the tired middle-aged detective who's seen it all, flawed (a now-sober alcoholic), divorced. The only difference may be that Beaumont has inherited money and can afford to be more nonchalant about his career, determined not to accept the ``obvious'' solution to a crime or allow office politics to sway him from his search for the truth. That doesn't make him very popular with some of his fellow detectives.

In this book, he is investigating the murder of Don Wolf, an unlikable executive at a local biotechnology firm. The victim's unscrupulous pursuit of power at his office and his leisure-time womanizing ensure that there is no shortage of suspects. When his wife's body is found, however, the plot takes an unexpected turn.