The Collector

by Nora Roberts

[EBookObsessed]

It seems Lila Emerson spends a good deal of time watching the world through her binoculars. Lila likes to people watch. As a writer, she likes to make up stories about the lives of the people in the neighboring buildings and as a house sitter, there was always new windows to peek into. At her most recent job, she is enjoying watching the little boy and his new puppy on ten imaging all the adventures they will have. There’s the exotic dancer on twelve who’s hoping for his big break on Broadway. There is also Blondie and Mr. Slick on fourteen. If they are not dressing up for a night on the town, they are bickering, probably just for all the make up sex.

It is one sleepless night that’s going to change everything for Lila. When she sees Blondie take a punch to the face, she races to call 911 but before she can even punch in the three little numbers, Lila see her get pushed out through the window, falling the fourteen floors to her death.

She wants to help the police catch Mr. Slick and have him pay for what he did, but the police already have Oliver Archer in custody. He’s on his way to the morgue with a bullet to the brain. But not everyone is willing to believe Oliver would orchestrate a murder/suicide. His brother, artist Ashton Archer, knows his brother was no saint. Oliver was always looking for the next big thing, but he wasn’t violent and he wasn’t a killer. He was more likely to call big brother Ash to get him out of a bind rather than take his own life.

Ash seeks out the only witness to Sage Kendall’s death. Lila can see the pain that this is bringing Ash and she is more than willing to help Ash find some answers. Kindness from a stranger was the last thing Ash expected, nor did he expect how desperately he wanted to paint Lila. All he sees when he looks at her is her free spirit and he wants to capture that on canvass.

As some of the puzzle pieces start to fall together, Ash and Lila are starting to see the set up behind Oliver and Sage’s deaths, as well as the valuable piece of art and history which Oliver stumbled onto. Oliver might have recognized the value of what he found, but he didn’t recognize what kind of man he was trying to extort more money out of. Oliver thought he would be willing to pay a more reasonable finders fee for such a treasure, but this Collector would rather just remove the finder permanently and take his own treasure.

So Ash and Lila are on the trail of Oliver’s hidden treasure but Oliver’s killer is on their trail waiting for them to uncover the valuable piece of history.

THOUGHTS:
The hunt for the treasure is only half the story. The rest is a great romance between Lila who reaches out with compassion to Ash for his loss and Ash’s need to paint Lila. Both are very interesting characters, I love the way Ash sees what he wants to paint when he looks at Lila and how he keeps working on her until she caves. The more their attraction grows, the more Ash focuses on Lila and he keeps seeing different paintings featuring her.

Of course Ash’s rich father accuses Lila of being a gold digger and somehow orchestrating her witnessing of the murder to worm her way into Ash’s life. It is so far fetched you can only scratch your head how he can jump to that conclusion.

We also get a secondary romance with Lila’s best friend and Ash’s best friend. They had a history so although it is more behind the scenes, it does not feel awkward or rushed and we feel how they are lost lovers from their initial meeting and how easily they reconnect and have a chance to start over.

The hired killer in this story is as intriguing as she is dangerous. She begins to obsess about Ash and Lila and you know that even if they give up the treasure, she isn’t going to let them walk away. She wants to kill them just for her own pleasure. She is a stone, cold killer. I think it was very fascinating that Nora Roberts chose to make her killer for hire a woman.

As always, Nora Roberts hits it out of the park with The Collector with both the mystery and the romance.

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