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

Playground for the rich, arena for the powerful, graveyard for the unlucky . . . welcome to Palm Springs! The wealthy socialite wife of an impotent husband wants to know why he's made a secret deposit—at a sperm bank. Former LAPD cop turned PI Breda Burrows is on the case, and she retains soon-to-be retired Palm Springs cop Lynn Cutter as a guide, leading this odd couple straight into danger. "Hilarious and chilling . . . had me wide-eyed