Hidden Riches

After purchasing an odd assortment of auction items, a Philadelphia antiques dealer becomes the deadly focus of a sinister international smuggler, and she and her handsome upstairs tenant, an ex-cop, set out to uncover the truth

There are many riddles to unravel in Nora Roberts's latest novel before the chain of seemingly random murders and robberies swirling around a lovely Philadelphia antiques dealer can be resolved. There's no mystery, however, about why Roberts is a bestselling author of romances and mainstream novels: she delivers the goods with panache and wit. This time out, she skillfully blends a stirring love story with nonstop suspense, effortlessly shifting from melodrama to light comedy. Antiques dealer Dora Conroy's hidden riches start with the painting she bids for at a local auction, unaware of the treasure it conceals. Then there's her new tenant, handsome, brooding Jed Skimmerhorn, who moves into the apartment above her shop. Though the ex-cop and scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family first appears rude and rough, he surprises Dora with acts of tenderness. And Dora needs plenty of TLC after her shop is broken into, she's nearly raped and she learns that others who purchased goods from a particular shipment at the auction are turning up dead. Joining forces with Dora to track down the culprits behind the thefts and murders, Jed is drawn into the life of the effervescent Dora and her endearingly eccentric theatrical family. Readers will be too. Reader's Digest Condensed Book; Literary Guild and Doub le day Book Club alternate .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Roberts (Private Scandals, 1993) keeps us sensuously engrossed in a suspenseful romance that moves smoothly between the harsh world of high-stakes crime and the zaniness of theater, antiques, and bric-a-brac. Jedidiah Skimmerhorn, a prematurely retired police captain, has moved into an apartment above an antiques shop owned by Isadora Conroy. Jed has money, social position, and power, but he is wary of love and burdened by guilt for the death of his sister Elaine, who was killed by a car bomb intended for him. Dora is small, tough, and beautiful, with an impeccable sense of style. She was raised in a family of actors who lived the romances they played on the stage. Jed's world of ``minks and diamonds, heirlooms and fat portfolios'' is contrasted with ``the noise, the smells and the freedom of being in the center of things'' that characterize Dora's life. Jed and Dora's physical proximity and inevitable chance encounters lead to comic intimacy and a quick repartee that thinly masks sexual attraction. When a lot of smuggled antiques is accidentally shipped to a country auction house, Dora unwittingly becomes owner of priceless antiquities and an original Monet concealed under a superficially rendered abstract painting. She and Jed team up to follow the path of ``collectible objects d'art'' and murders to an obsessive collector and ruthless killer. The suspense relies not in discovering whodunit--the murders are violently obvious--but in the inevitable confrontation between Jed and Dora, our detective team, and the culprit. Jed and Dora's romance is as fast-paced as the plot. The refreshingly contemporary style of their courtship, romance sparked with funny dialogue, makes this book a good choice for light summer reading. (Literary Guild featured alternate) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This latest by Roberts (Private Scandals, Putnam, 1993) will please her established fans and win her new ones. Isadora, a quirky antiques dealer, inadvertently buys a few knickknacks at an auction that were supposed to be in the hands of Edmund Finley. Isadora soon discovers that the heinously evil Finley is completely ruthless in his quest to retrieve his merchandise. Having just rented the empty apartment above her shop to a disillusioned, albeit rich and handsome, ex-cop, Isadora finds herself falling in love and trying to stay alive. Employing a story line that is a bit trickier than expected, a lot of witty sexual dialog, and an endearing assortment of secondary characters-including parents who really care about their adult child's welfare-this book is a sure winner for aficionados of contemporary romantic suspense. Recommended for public libraries.
Margaret Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., Mich.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

At an auction in Virginia, antiques dealer Dora Conroy purchases a mismatched box of porcelain figurines and an abstract painting on a whim. Across the country, a man opens his expected shipment to discover the items he received are not the ones he arranged to have shipped. A search begins immediately for the lost shipment; it's a search that brings a murderer closer and closer to Dora Conroy. With the help of her tenant, ex-cop Jed Skimmerhorn, Dora unravels the nature of the violence that has trailed the auction items. As that same violence begins to swirl around Dora, she and Jed are drawn together in a relationship complicated by Jed's past and his undecided future. Hidden Riches returns to the strength Roberts showed in her novels of a few years ago, Sacred Sins (1987) and Brazen Virtue (1988), avoiding the extensive flashbacks of Honest Illusions (1993). Highly recommended for all public libraries. Melanie Duncan