The heroine of The Spanish Smile, Lucinda de Cabrillo y Benvides, is the sheltered only daughter of the proud descendant of Spanish conquistadors, Don Enrique. Cloistered away in a gloomy castle, Lucinda is allowed no radio, television, newspapers or even any book written in the 20th Century. Her father pursues a deranged dream of restoring Spanish rule to California. All of the gothic machinery is in place in this story: the castle with its mysterious crypt guarded by deadly serpents, the young girl in distress and the charming young man who comes to her aid; and O'Dell's fluid style moves it along crisply.

Readers who are put off by a plethora of literary and historical references may get bogged down in a few spots. There are times also when credulity is stretched almost to the breaking point, even for a gothic. In spite of overwhelming evidence, it takes...