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Fiction, Romance
Moving Target (Rarities Unlimited Series #1) by Elizabeth Lowell — book cover

Moving Target (Rarities Unlimited Series #1)

by Elizabeth Lowell
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Overview

The troubling message from Serena Charters's late grandmother appears in a package containing four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript — a strange inheritance that hides many secrets...and has already cost many lives. Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning, they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds — one long dead, yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril. In the blink of an eye, Serena and Erik have become targets of an unseen and determined stalker as they get closer to shocking revelations about Serena's legacy, the cold murder of an eccentric old woman in the heat of the Mojave Desert...and just how far a remorseless killer is willing to go. And now their only slim hope of survival is to keep moving.

Synopsis

"When you read this, I'll be dead...."

These are the troubling words Serena Charters's grandmother has written on a note accompanying four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript delivered after the old woman's passing. That the strange inheritance has considerable worth seems obvious -- but what Serena doesn't realize is how many secrets it hides...and how many lives it has already cost.

Seeking answers, she turns for professional help to Rarities Unlimited, and specifically to Erik North, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past, its people, and its treasures. But Erik's careful examination of the vellum pages and the agonized jottings of a medieval scribe is raising perplexing questions -- about the true importance of Serena's legacy, the possible location of the remainder of the lost manuscript...and the senseless murder of an eccentric old woman in the blistering beat of California's Mojave Desert.

Suddenly, without warning, Serena and Erik find themselves thrust into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds...between a past long dead yet living on in an ancient text and a contemporary landscape fraught with peril and terror. Now there is no one they dare trust except each other as they make their way across the concrete and neon deserts of Palm Springs and Los Angeles, getting closer by the minute to a shocking revelation about what really is at stake and how far a killer will go to possess a vanished treasure. In the blink of an eye, Serena Charters and Erik North have become targets of an unseen and determined stalker. And their only hope of survival is to keep moving....

A spellbinder that bristles with almost unbearable intensity, Elizabeth Lowell's Moving Target is a masterful tale of intrigue, secrets, danger, and murder -- a breathtaking work that brings one of America's favorite storytellers to an electrifying new level."

News & Observer Raleigh

Elizabeth Lowell's keen ear for dialogue and intuitive characterizations consistently place her a cut above most writers in this genre.

About the Author, Elizabeth Lowell

Elizabeth Lowell has written a variety of genres under a variety of names, some with her husband Evan Maxwell and some on her own. But it is her romance novels -- starring the romantic, swashbuckling Donovan family -- that have been her biggest solo success.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Elizabeth Lowell departs from her bestselling Donovan family series long enough to craft a bit of spellbinding suspense in Moving Target, a story of ancient relics, powerful magic, and timeless adventure. When Serena Charters inherits pages from a rare medieval manuscript after her grandmother’s murder, it launches her into a life-and-death race that will span an inhospitable desert and centuries of time. The pages are part of a legendary tome known as The Book of the Learned, and when Serena has them appraised, rumors of their existence trigger several events. An old man with a vile temper and a desperate need to own the pages seems ready to go to any lengths to get them. A handsome rarities expert named Erik North has his own interest in authenticating and securing the pages. And Serena, who knows only that her grandmother’s final words to her were to trust no man, must try to find the truth behind the power of the pages and the destiny that lies within her heart.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Romantic suspense is her true forte.

News & Observer Raleigh

Elizabeth Lowell's keen ear for dialogue and intuitive characterizations consistently place her a cut above most writers in this genre.

Library Journal

When Serena inherits some rare pages from the mysterious Book of the Learned, she discovers that someone is willing to kill to keep their secrets under wraps. Of course, this being a novel by a doyenne of romantic suspense, Serena also gets involved with the man set to appraise her valuable inheritance. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A legendary illuminated manuscript has vanished—or has it? The ancient book has been handed down in the Charters clan from woman to woman, all of them named Serena. But the present Serena has inherited only four unbound pages from her grandmother, who died in a blaze set by an unknown arsonist. The rest, some 600 priceless pieces of handpainted vellum, has yet to be found. There isn't much to go on besides a Swiss bank account number and those few surviving pages, which may or may not be forgeries. Serena takes them over to the sinister mansion of Norman Warrick, a grasping, ultrarich art dealer and owner of the House of Warrick, serving grasping, ultrarich art collectors worldwide. Norman is aided in his nefarious endeavors by his equally unpleasant grown children, playboy Garrison Warrick and whiny divorcée Cleary Warrick Montclair, neither of whom seem surprised when the old man contemptuously dismisses the unbound pages as well as Serena. She then seeks out Erik North, a restorer of medieval manuscripts who also replicates them now and then. Can she trust him? Well, Erik is astoundingly handsome, incredibly sexy, well versed in medieval languages—and smitten with Serena. They join forces to track down her grandmother's killer, traveling from the Southwest to the Northeast to find "Manhattan wrapped around the House of Warrick like a concrete anaconda." Back to the Mojave they go, pursued by thugs who apparently can't be seen sneaking up through miles of empty, flat desert. Various red herrings are strewn about with abandon, wary looks and grim smiles abound. It all works out eventually. Romancer Lowell (Midnight in Ruby Bayou, 2000, etc.) has done her rare-bookresearch, and it's all here—along with a Nancy Drew-ish plot and prose that's about as subtle as a calliope.

Book Details

Published
May 1, 2002
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
464
Format
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN
9780061031076

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