Moving Target

From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Lowell leaves behind her best-selling Donovan clan (although they do make a cameo appearance) and introduces a fresh cast of characters in her latest romantic-suspense tale. Serena Charters, a weaver by profession, was raised in an isolated, primitive stone cabin in the desert outside of Palm Springs by her seemingly paranoid grandmother. When her grandmother dies a violent death, Serena inherits an ancient scarf and beautiful illuminated pages from a medieval manuscript. An accompanying note cryptically refers to their source, the Book of Learned , which, it suggests, will be her heritage if she wishes to search for it. When Serena decides to have the pages appraised, the ninetysomething patriarch of the House of Warrick, an auction house akin to Sothebys, insults her, proclaims the pages to be fakes, and then offers her $1 million. Deciding to get a second opinion, she meets Erik North, a local manuscript expert who, it turns out, has also been searching for the Book of Learned . Even though both she and Erik have had dreams about the medieval couple described in the book, Serena keeps her distance, unable to trust men as a result of her traumatic past. Undaunted, Erik comes to her rescue when he realizes that their quest has unleashed the same evil that drove her grandmother into hiding. Nothing is quite as it seems in this intricate story, which is as finely woven as the wondrous scarf Serena inherits, granting Lowell fans everything they want and have come to expect from her enormously popular romances. Patty Engelmann Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved