Shannon C.’s review of The Red Heart of Jade (Dirk and Steele, Book 3) by Marjorie M. Liu
Paranormal romance published by Love Spell 1 Jul 06
Whatever there is to say about Marjorie Liu’s books, “boring” is not an adjective that describes any of them. In the third installment in Ms. Liu’s Dirk & Steele series, the action starts from the first and doesn’t let up until the end.
This time Ms. Liu transports the reader to Taiwan, where Dirk & Steele agent Dean Campbell is investigating a series of grisly murders which all clearly have a paranormal bent. Soon the fires aren’t the only thing that Dean, a clairvoyant, is involved with. He meets up with Mirabelle Lee, a girl he grew up with and whom he always loved, and the two of them are caught up in a dangerous quest to find a missing piece of jade that may be the key to unleashing a deadly force upon the world.
What I like about Ms. Liu’s paranormals is that her world-building is consistent. The world she’s created is a pretty grim place, but it’s one of the few paranormal worlds that I feel meshes well with reality. And I always love the exotic settings that Ms. Liu employs. Here we have Taiwan, and it definitely feels like a place the author is familiar with.
The characters here were likable. I’ve liked Dean from his appearances in the previous two books, and was curious about how Ms. Liu would make this smart-ass, porn-loving complete guy into a romantic hero. Dean is all of those things, but he’s also never forgotten Miri, the woman he loves, and his determination to be with and protect Miri was absolutely sweet.
Unfortunately, Miri works less well for me as a heroine. I like her well enough, but she’s nowhere near as cool as Dean. I understood why the two of them would want to be with each other, and they definitely had chemistry, and I suspect that Miri would have been a kick-ass heroine in any other story. But she’s not, and so she easily gets overshadowed by the plot.
The plot itself moves along at a breakneck pace, though there are quiet, introspective moments along the way which allow for character development. Ms. Liu throws the reader directly into the middle of the action, and one must either keep up or get lost. thankfully, I kept up fine, though I did feel at times that all the intrigue between the characters was a bit much and things got too convoluted. The book ends on a satisfying note, with plenty more for Ms. Liu to do in this universe, and I’m anxious to see where she goes from here.
I wish the heroine had been a bit more memorable, and I could have dealt with a plot that was a bit less complex, but overall I very much enjoyed this entry into the series.
Grade: B
Summary:
Imagine a world where magic rubs elbows with science, where men and women with supernatural powers secretly risk their lives to help others. It is a world where one right turn can deliver a mystery that will change your life forever, a world of shape-shifters, immortal magicians, criminal underworlds run by powerful psychics — intrigue, mystery, and romance.
The saga continues in THE RED HEART OF JADE as Dean Campbell — clairvoyant, dangerous, and irreverent — finds himself hot on the trail of a murderer who is part of an ancient hunt for power, a hunt that has only one outcome: death or destruction. And at the heart of that hunt — both prize and mystery — is a women who died in Dean’s arms twenty years earlier: Mirabelle Lee, childhood sweetheart and the love of his life. Together, alive and reunited, Dean and Miri are forced to rely on each other — and the strength of their enduring love — as they race to unravel the mystery that threatens not only their lives, but the entire world.
You can read an excerpt here.
