Shadow and Silk

Description

Professor Dani Warren was willing to risk her reputation searching for that priceless piece of sacred Tibetan silk. And if she had to trust mysterious 'risk-management specialist' Shane Crowe to help her recover it, she was willing to take the gamble - even if the real danger lay in Shane's fierce desire to protect her at all costs.Shane suspected there was a lot more to this recovery job than his clients were letting on - even if they were Tibetan monks. And with this company's reputation on the line, he had no choice but to rely on Dr. Warren's expertise in his search. But Dani's surprising savvy in handling big-time trouble was shaking up the icy concentration and well-honed instincts Shane relied on most. And now every move, every heated embrace was bringing them closer to the treasure of two lifetimes - and an unthinkable choice...

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The ever talented Ann Maxwell (who also writes as Elizabeth Lowell and A. E. Maxwell--the E is for her husband, Evan, a co-author) always provides satisfying romance. In this thrilling contemporary, Dani Warren is a textile expert who is such a dilettante she will chase a rare and mythical piece of antique silk to the most remote corners of the world. In Lhasa, Tibet, Dani is almost killed for a fragment of cloth and finds herself smuggled out of the country to safety by Shane Crowe, an ex-mercenary employed by a mysterious private enterprise. Forced to work together to catch a ring of international criminals, the two reluctantly share their expertise despite their growing attraction to one another.

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Beautiful Sacrifice: A Novel

Description

According to Maya legend, December 21, 2012, will mark the end of the world as we know it. Is it myth . . . or will their prediction become reality?

Archaeologist Lina Taylor has devoted her life to studying ancient Maya artifacts, splitting her time between digs in South America and the classroom teaching college students. But the professor's structured, academic life is about to spin out of control. Some extremely valuable and important Maya artifacts have gone missing. Are the culprits fanatics determined to create chaos and usher in annihilation?

Helping out a friend, former immigration and customs enforcement officer Hunter Johnston is determined to recover the missing pieces and he needs Lina's help. A man used to calling the shots and working alone, he isn't comfortable letting anyone get close, especially a beautiful and brainy woman like Lina. His gift for reading people tells him there's a lot going on below that professional exterior, and he's more than a little curious to probe her depths.

Burying herself in her work, Lina's had little experience handling men, especially one as fascinating and exasperating as the secretive, headstrong Hunter. A devoted archaeologist, she has the skill to excavate those protective layers all the way to his core.

But finding the missing artifacts is only the beginning of a mystery that will plunge these unlikely partners into adventure, romance, and danger more thrilling, sensual, and deadly than either of them knows. . . .

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Just Another Day in Paradise (A Fiddler and Fiora Mystery)

Description

When you say paradise, I think snakes. Maybe that’s because I live in the slice of paradise known as southern California’s Gold Coast. And maybe it’s because I spend my time killing other people’s reptiles.

So I wasn’t too surprised when my ex-wife and sometime lover, Fiora Flynn, came to me because Danny, her beloved dunce of a twin brother, was in trouble.

What did surprise me was the kind of trouble he was in. The killing kind. Complete with the FBI and international spooks.

I didn’t think Danny boy had it in him.

The good news is that unraveling Danny’s snarl brought Fiora back to me. The bad news….

Well, there’s always bad news, isn’t there?

"Fiora and Fiddler are an unbeatable duo." --Faye Kellerman

"Fiddler, growing from book to book, gives Travis McGee a run for his money." --Kirkus Reviews

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Forbidden

Description

They call her "Amber the Untouched" throughout the Disputed Lands -- a chaste, golden-haired beauty who fears the remarkable love that was prophesied at her birth . . . and the death that must inevitably follow. Now Duncan has come to her in darkness, as was foretold -- a wounded warrior with no memory, seared by passion's fire and irresistibly drawn to the innocent enchantress who divines truth with a touch. Their romance is legend in a time of war. But when Duncan's memory returns, he sees Amber as his enemy. Still, he cannot forsake the lover who healed his body and heart. And he will defy to the death the dread forces that have proclaimed their love . . .

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The Wrong Hostage

Description

The latest masterwork from one of the leading writers of suspense . . . New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell returns with a chilling tale of the law gone wrong and a kidnapping that threatens more than one life.

The Wrong Hostage

Orphaned at thirteen, Grace Silva clawed her way out of poverty and violence to become one of the most respected judges on the federal bench. Grace believes in the rule of law -- lives it, breathes it. She has always been buttoned up and buttoned down.

Except once.

Joe Faroe has learned that laws are made by politicians, and politicians are all too human. He believes in the innocents, the ones getting ground up by governments that are too polarized or too corrupt to protect their own citizens. He's been through the political meat grinder himself. It cost him his career, his freedom, and the woman who still haunts him. Since then Faroe has worked outside the rules and politics of government as a kidnap specialist for St. Kilda Consulting, a Manhattan-based global business that concentrates on the shadow world where governments can't go. He is good at his work -- intelligent, confident, ruthless.

Until a friend dies trying to kill him.

Now Faroe is out of the business. Retired. He's through trying to save a world that doesn't want to be saved.

Then Grace comes to him, past and present collide, and Faroe finds himself sucked back into the shadows, tracking a violent killer who holds the life of Grace's son in his bloody hands.

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Redwood Empire

Description

At her mother's grave, Maya vowed that her children would never know the hunger she and her sisters had faced. What Maya didn't know was the price of redeeming that vow.

Hale Hawthorne was a ruthless man who had gained success at the price of his gentler, human side. As his wife, Maya and her children would be secure. Yet Hale's son Will had made Maya his. In one wild afternoon, he taught her the depths of her own sensuality, and his.

Maya chose a secure future for her unborn children. Will vowed revenge.

Together they tested the boundaries of hate, forgiveness, and love.

BONUS: This novel has been revised and edited by Elizabeth Lowell and includes excerpts from two additional historical novels, GOLDEN MOUNTAIN and GOLDEN EMPIRE.

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