Synopses & Reviews
"Like grains of sand grinding inside the oyster,
Like pearls being formed from the grains;
Still waiting, though in unbearable patience
Still believing, though almost in disbelief.
"--Zhou Liangpei
Seattle, Washington
"November"
Archer Donovan wasn't easily surprised. It was a hangover from his previous line of work when surprised men often ended up dead. Yet the unique, peacock-and-rainbow radiance of the teardrop black pearl Teddy Yamagata was holding out did more than surprise Archer. It shocked him. He hadn't seen a black pearl with such color for seven years.
That particular pearl had been clutched in a dead man's hand. Or nearly dead. Archer had fought his way through the riot in time to pull his half brother out of the mess and get him to a hospital in another, safer place.
Long ago, far away, in another country.
Thank God.
Archer had done everything in his power to bury that part of his past. Years later he still was shoveling. But he had learned the hard way that no matter how determined he was, his previous undercover life had a nasty habit of popping up and casting shadows on his present civilian life. The proof of it was gleaming on the palm of Hawaii's foremost pearl collector and trader.
Teddy wasn't in Hawaii now. He had flown to Seattle with a case full of special pearls to show Archer. The extraordinary black pearl was one of them.
"Unusual color," Archer said neutrally.
Peering through the thick, blended lenses of his glasses, Teddy measured the expression of the man who was a sometime competitor in the pearl trade, an occasional client, and an invariably reliable appraiser. If Archer was particularly interested in the tear-shapedblack pearl, nothing showed on his face. He could have been looking at a picture of Teddy's grandchildren.
"You must be a helluva poker player," Teddy said.
"Are we playing. poker?"
"You've got your game face on. At least I think you do. Hard to tell under all that fur."
Absently Archer rubbed his hand against his cheek. He had given up shaving several months ago. He still wasn't quite certain why. One morning he just had picked up his razor, looked at it as though it was a remnant of the Spanish Inquisition, and dropped the blade in the trash. The fact that it was six years to the day since he had quit working for Uncle Sam might have had something to do with it. Whatever, his beard had grown into a short black continuation of his short black hair.
And if there were a few gray hairs among the black, tough. The dead didn't age. Only the living did.
"Must be hot when you go to Tahiti," Teddy said.
"It's always hot there.
"I meant the beard."
"I never sent it to Tahiti."
Teddy abandoned subtlety and tried the in-your-face approach. "What do you think of the pearl?"
"South Sea, maybe fourteen millimeters, teardrop, unblemished surface, fine orient."
"Fine?" Teddy hooted. His black eyes nearly vanished into lines of laughter. "It's goddamn spectacular and you know it! It's like ... like . . ."
"Molten rainbows under black ice."
Teddy's thin black eyebrows shot up and he pounced. "You do like it."
Archer shrugged. "I like a lot of pearls. It's a weakness of mine."
"In my dreams you're weak. What's the pearl worth?"
"Whatever you can get for it." Archer's cool, graygreen glance stopped Teddy's immediate protest. "What do you really want to know?"
"What thedamn thing's worth," he said, exasperated. "You're the best, most honest judge of pearls that I know."
"Where did you get it?"
"From a man who got it from a woman who got it from a man in Kowloon, who supposedly got it from someone in Tahiti. I've looked for that man for six months." Teddy shook his head emphatically. "He's not there. But if you buy the pearl, I'll give you the names.
"Are there more?"
"I was hoping you could tell me."
"I'll bet you were."
Archer looked at the stainless steel space-age clock his father had brought back from Germany and placed in the front room of the series of suites that were the Donovan family residence in downtown Seattle.
Two o'clock in Seattle. Wednesday afternoon. Autumn closing in on winter.
Where the black pearl had come from, it was early morning. Thursday. Spring closing in on summer.
What went wrong, Len? Archer asked silently. Why, after seven years, are you selling your unique Pearl Cove gems?
He looked at the radiant black gem, but it had no answers for him except the one he already knew -- seven years ago, his half brother, Len McGarry, had mixed the undercover life with one too many shady deals. It had nearly killed him. It had certainly maimed him.
Archer was one of three people on earth who knew that Len had discovered the secret of how to culture extraordinary black pearls from Australia's South Sea oysters. But Len had refused to sell even one of the thousands upon thousands of black gems Pearl Cove must have produced in seven years.
Yet here was one of those gems: beautiful black ghost of the past.
Part of Archer, the part that stubbornly refused to bow to bleak reality, whispered that maybe Teddy's pearlwas a sign that something had gone right, not wrong. Maybe Len was finally healing in his mind, if not his body. Maybe he was beginning to understand that no matter how many glorious South Sea pearls he hoarded, he was still the same man.
Linked with the thought of Len came unwelcome memories of Hannah McGarry, Len's once innocent, always alluring wife. Alluring to Archer, at least. Too much so. He had seen her only twice in ten years. He could recall each moment with brutal clarity.
She was like the black pearl, unique. And like the pearl, she hadn't the least idea of her own beauty, her own worth.
When he had showed up with her broken, bleeding husband in his arms and told her she had two minutes to pack, she didn't faint or argue. She simply grabbed blankets, medicine, and her purse. It had taken less than ninety seconds. Their flight out of hell had taken a lot longer...
Synopsis
Surrounded by potential enemies, Hannah McGarry faces the mystery of her husband's suspicious death, the prospect of bankruptcy ... and the disappearance of the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security. Desperate, she calls Archer Donovan, a silent partner in Pearl Cove, her late husband's pearl farm venture. He might help her ... if the price is right.
Synopsis
He might help her...if the price is right.
Surrounded by potential enemies, Hannah McGarry faces the mystery of her husband's suspicious death, the prospect of bankruptcy...and the disappearance of the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security.Desperate, she calls Archer Donovan, a silent partner in Pear Cove, her late husband's pearl farm venture.He might help her...if the price is right.
Archer Donovan would rather forget he'd ever heard of Pearl Cove...its memories of living on the dark side, the soul-numbing certainty that there was no law, no justice, no mercy; just hunters and the hunted.That life taught him to trust no one but family.But when Hannah McGarry calls in an old debt Archer is back in the game.And at his side in pursuit of the stolen fortune is a woman he shouldn't want, yet cannot resist...a woman who may know more than she's telling about her husband's death...and more than is safe to know about the dark and elusive black pearls.With deadly competitors on their tails, Archer and Hannah race through uncharted waters in search of the fabulous Black Trinity.And the closer they come to finding the coveted pearls, the closer they come to danger and death...and to each other.
Synopsis
He might help her...if the price is right.
Surrounded by potential enemies, Hannah McGarry faces the mystery of her husband's suspicious death, the prospect of bankruptcy...and the disappearance of the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security. Desperate, she calls Archer Donovan, a silent partner in Pear Cove, her late husband's pearl farm venture. He might help her...if the price is right.
Archer Donovan would rather forget he'd ever heard of Pearl Cove...its memories of living on the dark side, the soul-numbing certainty that there was no law, no justice, no mercy; just hunters and the hunted. That life taught him to trust no one but family. But when Hannah McGarry calls in an old debt Archer is back in the game. And at his side in pursuit of the stolen fortune is a woman he shouldn't want, yet cannot resist...a woman who may know more than she's telling about her husband's death...and more than is safe to know about the dark and elusive black pearls. With deadly competitors on their tails, Archer and Hannah race through uncharted waters in search of the fabulous Black Trinity. And the closer they come to finding the coveted pearls, the closer they come to danger and death...and to each other.
Synopsis
Surrounded by potential enemies, Hannah McGarry faces the mystery of her husband's suspicious death, the prospect of bankruptcy ... and the disappearance of the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security. Desperate, she calls Archer Donovan, a silent partner in Pearl Cove, her late husband's pearl farm venture. He might help her ... if the price is right.
Synopsis
There is no safe haven in Pearl Cove ...Her husband died suddenly and mysteriously, potential enemies surround her, bankruptcy looms ... and the fabulous Black Trinity necklace that was to be her financial security has vanished. Now desperate and alone, Hannah McGarry has no choice but to turn to Archer Donovan, one-time silent partner in her late husband's Pearl Cove pearl farming venture.
Archer would like to forget he'd ever heard of Pearl Cove and the dark memories it conjures up. But an outstanding debt is pulling him back into the lethal game -- alongside a beautiful, frightened woman who may know more than she is telling about a strange death and a missing treasure. Dangerous, uncharted waters lie ahead of them in their race for answers. And the closer they get to the coveted Black Trinity and its secrets, the closer Hannah and Archer come to their own inevitable ends ...
About the Author
Elizabeth Lowell's acclaimed suspense novels include the
New York Timesbestsellers
Blue Smoke and Murder,
Innocent as Sin,
The Wrong Hostage,
Always Time to Die,
The Color of Death,
Die in Plain Sight,
Running Scared, and
Moving Target, as well as four books featuring the Donovan family:
Amber Beach,
Jade Island,
Pearl Cove, and
Midnight in Ruby Bayou. Lowell has more than thirty million books in print. She lives in Arizona and Seattle, Washington, with her husband, with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.
Las aclamadas novelas de suspenso de la autora Elizabeth Lowell incluyen varios bestsellers en la New York Times. Lowell ha vendido mÁs de treinta millones de ejemplares. Vive con su esposo en Seattle, Washington y Sedona, Arizona, con quien escribe novelas de misterio bajo un seudÓnimo.