Synopsis
Gem cutter gets cracking, from the hugely popular author of, most recently, Running Scared (2002). When her gay half-brother Lee Mandel disappears, Kat Chandler wants answers. Was Lee murdered by mysterious South American baddies trying to get their swarthy hands on the Seven Sins, rare natural sapphires that everyone wants? Could be-and Kat might have stumbled on the first of these matchless stones. Next: explanations. Lowell (a.k.a. mystery writer A.E. Maxwell, a husband-and-wife team) dutifully covers absolutely everything there is to know about precious and semi-precious stones, gem dealing, and the so-called science of gemology, providing exhaustive detail on various techniques to improve the appearance of colored stones and hence raise their value to unsuspecting buyers. A handsome cop pops up as a love interest and brawny shoulder to cry on, as do more bad guys, including Peyton Hall, the whining, ambitious, unscrupulous son of jewelry retailers and his bitchy girlfriend Sharon Sizemore, who's into picking her cuticles and watching porn when not plotting everyone's downfall. Were the Seven Sins stolen by Lee dressed in drag? Hey, maybe he's still alive! Is Jack Kirby, a former fed, in cahoots with Sharon's father, a hard-bitten security expert? And check out all those people skulking around in dopey disguises (the story's chock-a-block with wigs, stuffed bras, and even fake facial hair)-what's up with that? A few obligatory references to scary people like crack whores are thrown in here and there-as if this ladylike author ever got near one. In fact, much of this seems to have been written by someone else, and the dated tough-guy prose borders on the ridiculous: "White went out ofthe van like a hundred-and-seventy-pound cat. His lead-filled sap hit the base of her skull with a meaty sound." James Patterson-style microchapters, some not even a page long, keep things moving, but the end result is no big whoop.
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About Elizabeth Lowell
E
Elizabeth Lowell
Born 1944
Individually and with co-author/husband Evan, Ann Maxwell has written seventy novels and one non-fiction book. There are 30 million copies of these books in print, as well as reprints in 30 foreign languages. The novels range from science fiction to historical fiction, from romance to mystery to suspense. Writing as Ann Maxwell, she began her career in 1975 with a science fiction novel, CHANGE. Since then, seven of her nine science fiction novels have been recommended for the Science Fiction Writers of America Nebula Award; A DEAD GOD DANCING was nominated for what was then called TABA (The American Book Award). In 1976 Ann and Evan (as A. E. Maxwell) collaborated with a Norwegian hunter and photographer, Ivar Ruud, on THE YEAR-LONG DAY, a nonfiction work that was condensed in Reader’s Digest and published in four foreign editions and three book club editions. In 1985, the first A. E. Maxwell crime novel featuring a couple called Fiddler and Fiora was published by Doubleday. The second in the series, THE FROG AND THE SCORPION, received a creative writing award from the University of California. The fourth book in the series, JUST ENOUGH LIGHT TO KILL, was named by Time Magazine as one of the best crime novels of 1988. Ann and Evan (writing as Ann Maxwell) have published four suspense novels, the most recent of which is SHADOW AND SILK. These novels appeared on nation-wide bestseller lists. In 1982, Ann began publishing romances as Elizabeth Lowell. Under that name she has received numerous professional awards in the romance field, including a Lifetime Achievement award from the Romance Writers of America (1994). Since July of 1992, she has had more than thirty novels on the New York Times list, as well as other national and international best seller lists. Her most recent romantic suspense is BEAUTIFUL SACRIFICE.
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