Friday Memes: Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 was hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Something was wrong.

Heart beating wildly, Modesty Breck sat up in bed.

Friday 56:

When it was full dark, Score finally stirred from his observation post in the back of his minivan.

This week I am spotlighting Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell. It is the fourth book in the St. Kilda series. Here's the description from Amazon:

Jill Breck was just doing her job as a river guide when she saved the life of the 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 finally calls in a favor.

Zach Balfour works part-time as a consultant for St. Kilda. Though he’s got the skills to be a highly effective bodyguard, being a bullet catcher isn't his preferred way to spend time. But Jill is in deeper waters than she’s ever known, and she’ll need his protection; 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. Together, Zach and Jill must race against time to unmask a ruthless killer hidden in the blue smoke of money, threats, lies, and death. . . .