Blue Smoke and Murder

Elizabeth Lowell

Summary

Jill Breck was just doing her job as a river guide when she saved the life of Lane Faroe, son of two of St. Kilda Consulting's premier operators. But when a string of ominous events—including a mysterious fire that kills her great-aunt and a furor in the Western art world raised by a dozen Breck family paintings—culminates in a threat to her life, Jill reluctantly calls in a favor. 
Zach Balfour works part-time as a consultant for St. Kilda. His expertise is gathering and analyzing information from unlikely and often dangerous sources. Though he's got the skills to be a highly effective bodyguard, being a bullet catcher isn't his preferred way to spend time. 
Protecting Jill will take him into familiar territory—among a strange, savagely competitive bunch of collectors who'll do anything to stay at the top. But Jill is in deeper waters than she's ever known; as she soon discovers, the perils of running wild rivers are tame compared with the hidden dangers in the high-stakes game of art collecting. 
From the cozy rooms of the Breck homestead cabin to the cold multimillion-dollar galleries of the Western art circuit, Zach and Jill must race against time to unmask a ruthless killer hidden in a blue smoke of money, threats, lies, and death. . . .

Available since: 07/08/2009.

Other books that might interest you

A Stranger in Town

Vivian Stuart

INTRIGUE. TENSION. LOVE AFFAIRS:
In The Historical Romance series, a set of stand-alone novels, Vivian Stuart builds her compelling narratives around the dramatic lives of sea captains, nurses, surgeons, and members of the aristocracy.
Stuart takes us back to the societies of the 20th century, drawing on her own experience of places across Australia, India, East Asia, and the Middle East. 
 
Doctor Sarah Hamilton came to the little mid-west town of Granville in an effort to make herself more acceptable to the American people. She hoped that by taking over as locum to one of the towns best-loved doctors she would get to know the people and their way of life.
But there were two other strangers in town . . . one an ex-patient of Sarah's, the other a deranged and dangerous man with whom Sarah was to become involved to a degree she had never anticipated. Were they, in fact, one and the same man? Was Sarah right to trust and believe in Steve Gresham, with his tragic past and uncertain future . . .

Show book

The Devil in Love

Barbara Cartland

Travelling alone to France to take up her position as governess to the Duc de Valmont’s grandson, beautiful young Larisa Stanton receives dire warnings about the child’s father. ‘Keep away from Comte Raoul de Valmonte’, they say. For Monsieur le Diable, (the devil), is handsome, wickedly charming, and utterly irresistible to women. Sure enough, at Château Valmont Larisa finds herself in a seething cauldron of violent passions, wickedness, and murderous intent. Is it possible to fall in love with a man known as ‘the devil’, she asks herself? With Comte Raoul’s life at stake, Larisa, and Monsieur le Diable are about to find out…

Show book

Desperate Defiance

Barbara Cartland

Isolated monasteries nestling in the peaks, precipices and giddying gorges of the snow-capped Himalayas… The filth-encrusted and lice-infested hovels of the native people… It’s all a far cry from the genteel sophistication she’s left behind in Monte Carlo. But as always, Vivian Carrow’s as defiant as she’s beautiful – and, nursing a broken heart, she’s determined to accompany her father on a perilous mission to Tibet. Faced with a haughtily handsome and arrogant Captain whom she suspects is a murdering spy, a lecherous, drug-crazed Indian prince and gangs of murderous monks, that defiance is tested to its limits – indeed almost to the death. Will Vivian plunge to an icy death in a mountain crevasse? Or fall into love with the man she so hated.

Show book

The Play's the Thing

Jessica Barksdale Inclán

Shakespeare has never been this sexy!

One evening when helping a colleague stage The Merchant of Venice, English professor Jessica Randall slides momentarily back to 1598. Later that night, she lands for good in the chambers of one William Shakespeare, a down-on-his luck playwright.

His biggest problem of late has been a non-stop stream of Jessicas apparating into his chambers nightly. Yet Jessica's appearance halts the visitations, though neither have a clue why. Can she get back to 2018? They don't know that either, and together they begin to craft a life together, all the while trying to break the time travel curse and avoid falling in love.

As Jessica grapples with practical (what is and how does one put on a farthingale?) and emotional (how to risk your heart when everything might disappear in an instant?) aspects of adapting to Elizabethan London, she must try to solve the mystery of the other Jessicas. More importantly, she must figure out how to get home without suffering from the broken heart she knows she can't avoid.

Despite being thwarted at every turn, Jessica manages to navigate her new world and her old one and save not only herself but Will Shakespeare and his legacy.

Praise for the books by Jessica Barksdale Inclán

“A magical, mystical tale, one you won’t soon forget.” —Amanda Ashley, author of A Fire in the Blood

“An author to watch.” —Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone

“Jessica Barksdale Inclán brings a profound understanding of human nature to her characters.” —Sally Mandel, author of Take Me Back

“A rich blend of fantasy, farce and spot-on history, The Play's the Thing is a joyous journey through time, place, and the universal complexity of the human heart. A delightful marriage of Peggy Sue Got Married and Shakespeare in Love—a celebration not to be missed.”—Warren Read, author of Ash Falls and One Simple Thing

Show book

Wings on My Heart

Barbara Cartland

Handsome, wealthy and some might say spoilt, Hugo, Lord Roxburton, the ‘Don Juan of St. James’s Street’ has all London’s beauties falling at his feet. But, one day when skiing in the mountains above St. Moritz, one of those feet lets him down. In agony from an injured ankle, he’s at the mercy of the icy elements – until a lovely Swiss girl called Utta comes to his rescue. And instantly his whole life and outlook are transformed.Discovering that this innocent young beauty is a gifted skater competing for the Swiss Championship, he’s suddenly revolted by the attentions of high society fraud Carole Munton. When he finds out that Utta is none other than his deceased, older brother Andrew’s long-lost daughter, Hugo is determined to take her to Rox, his English family estate, to meet his sister Pamela and Grandmother Lady Loth.Utta arrives in London bewitched and bewildered by its glamour. How is she to know Carole is lying when she claims to be pregnant with Hugo’s child? How is she to know the evil in her heart or that of the predatory ‘talent scout’ who tries to seduce her? Overwhelmed by the hopelessness of her love, Utta flees to the closest thing to home she can find, working at a tawdry London ice rink where the man who gave wings to her heart can never find her…

Show book

Journey to a Star

Barbara Cartland

The dashing Marquis of Oakenshaw is asked by the Foreign Secretary to visit Siam to reassure the King who has been upset by Britain and France quarrelling over the frontiers.
Wealthy, handsome and a confirmed bachelor, the Marquis asks several friends to accompany him on his yacht to stave off the boredom of the long journey, including the latest Social Beauty – the recently widowed Lady Bradwell.
At the last moment, Lady Bradwell, having accepted excitedly, finds herself without a lady’s maid. Her cousin Tarina, also very beautiful but extremely poor, agrees to come with her under a disguised name.
How Tarina learns for the first time of the intrigues and temptations of Society but how she also lifts her eyes to the stars is told in this romance novel by Barbara Cartland.

Show book