We study the Cohen-Macaulayness and the defining equations of Rees alg
ebras of ideals with good residual intersection properties, especially
for ideals having second analytic deviation one. In particular we sho
w that, under certain conditions, the Cohen-Macaulayness of the Rees a
lgebra forces the ideal to have the expected reduction number. (C) 199
7 Elsevier Science B.V.