

UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · ROMANCE
Ann Maxwell
Also known as: Elizabeth Lowell, A.E. Maxwell
Ann (Elizabeth) Maxwell (born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), also known as A.E. Maxwell and Elizabeth Lowell, has individually, and with co-author and husband Evan, written over 70 novels and one non-fiction book. These novels range from science fiction to historical fiction, and from romance to mystery to suspense (Evan, exclusively, has covered all kinds of crime - from local to international). Ann and Evan have been married for over 40 years. - Wikipedia
Do be reasonable, my Lord Wolfe.
— from Only Mine, 1991
Most acclaimed

Granite Man (MacKenzie-Blackthorn, Book 4)
Mariah had returned home to her sprawling Colorado ranch with nothing but a battered car, some clothes and a map for gold. And what she got was an ornery prospecting partner named Cash, with a chip on his shoulder as big as the Rockies and a past that was chasing him. Cash couldn't hide his distrust . . . or his awareness of her sensuality. More info: HEART OF STONE Cash McQueen was a hard man, a man who believed in the land and nothing else. With the land, a man knew where he stood. It was different with a woman. There wasn't one alive who could be trusted--and Mariah MacKenzie was no exception. The minute she showed up at the Rocking M Ranch with not much more than the clothes on her back and a map of a longlost gold mine, Cash knew she was trouble. Yet he couldn't seem to stop wanting her brand of trouble. But nothing would ever again make him place his trust in a woman--not even a woman he wanted as badly as Mariah MacKenzie. WESTERN LOVERS: Men as tough and untamed as the land they call home.

Blue smoke and murder
2008
Jill Breck was just doing her job as a river guide when she saved the life of Lane Faroe, son of two of St. Kilda Consulting's premier operators. But when a string of ominous events—including a mysterious fire that kills her great-aunt and a furor in the Western art world raised by a dozen Breck family paintings—culminates in a threat to her life, Jill reluctantly calls in a favor.Zach Balfour works part-time as a consultant for St. Kilda. His expertise is gathering and analyzing information from unlikely and often dangerous sources. Though he's got the skills to be a highly effective bodyguard, being a bullet catcher isn't his preferred way to spend time.Protecting Jill will take him into familiar territory—among a strange, savagely competitive bunch of collectors who'll do anything to stay at the top. But Jill is in deeper waters than she's ever known; as she soon discovers, the perils of running wild rivers are tame compared with the hidden dangers in the high-stakes game of art collecting.From the cozy rooms of the Breck homestead cabin to the cold multimillion-dollar galleries of the Western art circuit, Zach and Jill must race against time to unmask a ruthless killer hidden in a blue smoke of money, threats, lies, and death...

Death Echo (St. Kilda, Book 5)
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell cuts a new edge in suspense with this thrilling tale of passion, danger, and international intrigue in which a pair of former operatives must stop a deadly plot that threatens a major American city—and ultimately the worldWhen she joined St. Kilda's, the elite security consulting firm, Emma Cross thought she'd left behind the blood, the guilt, and the tribal wars that defined her life at the CIA. Yet, trading spying for investigating yacht thefts didn't alleviate the danger—or melt away her professional paranoia. Now, the same good instincts that got her into trouble at the agency might be what will help her survive her latest case.With some arm-twisting, St. Kilda and Emma are tracking a yacht named Blackbird, a dead ringer for another ship that went missing somewhere between Vladivostok and Portland a year earlier. Emma knows the boat's intended cargo is lethal. What she needs to find out is whether it's biological, chemical, or fissionable. And she's only got seven days to uncover the truth...or a major American city will be lost.Fortunately, she's working with a new partner as menacing and distrustful as the worst enemy she's ever faced—and as deadly. A honed killer, MacKenzie Durand led a special ops team that was deployed to some of the world's nastiest places. But five years ago everything went to hell in Afghanistan, when bad intel hung his team out to dry. The only survivor, Mac walked away and never looked back, preferring to make money sailing high-end boats like Blackbird.But Emma and Mac aren't the only eyes watching Blackbird. Taras Demidov, an expert in extortion and execution in the pay of the oligarchs running the former Soviet Union, is also waiting in the shadows, determined to intercept a fearsomely powerful arms dealer with the money, weaponry, and connections to alter the geopolitical balance.Thrown together by an organization of enemies with global ties more dangerous than either of them realize, Mac and Emma must put aside their growing attraction for each other to save more than just their own lives. In a deadly game where the rules change without warning and the line between friend and foe is blurred, the pair must find answers fast—or watch as innocent civilians are sacrificed in a cold-blooded grab for power and supremacy. And even Mac and Emma aren't sure just who will get to the finish line alive...A breathtaking tale of passion and danger, Death Echo is superb entertainment from the queen of suspense, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell.