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THE SILVER OAR, by Howard Breslin (310 pp.; Crowell; $3.95). For quite a while it looks as if Cormac O'Shaugnessy Doyle, Papist and imprisoned 17th-century pirate, is going to march up the gallows, but not even the rock-ribbed Puritans have the heart to hang him after saucy Jill Murdoch takes up his defense. Told in the first person by Hero Doyle with a nice mixture of racy yarn-spinning and blarney.
THE AFFAIRS OF CAROLINE CHERIE, by Cecil Saint-Laurent (218 pp.; Crown; $3). One in a series of bestsellers that took Caroline through all phases of the French Revolution. Now her soldier-husband heads the Napoleonic occupation in Como in northern Italy, where he finds ample cause for jealousy. One wild night of Italian revolt. Caroline is tempted hourly by a series of suitors, ranging from a fisherman to the revolutionary leader, but every time the hot-blooded French lass is ready to succumb, the boudoir door crashes open or the long hand of coincidence plucks her up on her feet. Frustrating but fun.
AMERICAN CAPTAIN, by Edison Marshall (407 pp.; Farrar, Straus & Young; $3.95). How a Massachusetts seaman is double-crossed by the aristocratic father of the English girl he loves, falls into the clutches of Barbary pirates, is released and not only slips his arms around a dusky native princess but also gets his hands on so much gold it takes 25 baggage camels to transport it. After taking a 16-year beating in Africa, the seaman gets a ship to skipper plus an English girl to love, and the villain of the piece gets his comeuppance.