Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Love Spell (2006), 369 pages
Description
"If you have yet to add Liu to your must-read list, you're doing yourself a disservice." --Booklist Marjorie M. Lui has created a most unusual investigative organization in the Dirk and Steele Detective Agency--a collection of shapeshifters, psychics, and other uniquely gifted individuals--and in doing so has revitalized the paranormal romance genre. In The Red Heart of Jade, an ex-cop with extraordinarily heightened senses follow a trail of death to Taipei--and finds the woman of his heart there, the childhood love he once believed dead, whom he must now protect from an unspeakable evil. Thrilling, sensuous, surprising, remarkable...The Red Heart of Jade is all that and more. No wonder Christine Feehan says, "Anyone who loves my work should love hers."… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member reneebooks
I found it slow reading because there was so much going on that I had to re-read portions occasionally. The first chapter made absolutely no sense at all. Dean Campbell is a clairvoyant who works for the Dirk & Steele detective agency (3rd book in the series). He's having a dream where he's burning
Mirabelle Lee is a professor of archeology who hasn't seen Dean for 20 years. In fact they were childhood sweethearts who each thought the other was dead. I'm not going to go into the plot because it was very intricate. I loved the setting that starts out in Taipei and moves to HongKong and mainland China. My biggest problem with the book is that it does not have enough romance in it. I would classify it as a paranormal with a smidge of romance. (Grade: B-)
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alive and it took me a while to figure all that out. There seemed to be more blood and guts in this one with an evil dragon shapeshifter that rips people apart and burns them alive. One scene where he rips off a guy's ear and pops it in his mouth to crunch like a potato chip really turned my stomach. That was probably the worst scene.Mirabelle Lee is a professor of archeology who hasn't seen Dean for 20 years. In fact they were childhood sweethearts who each thought the other was dead. I'm not going to go into the plot because it was very intricate. I loved the setting that starts out in Taipei and moves to HongKong and mainland China. My biggest problem with the book is that it does not have enough romance in it. I would classify it as a paranormal with a smidge of romance. (Grade: B-)
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LibraryThing member rocalisa
I really enjoyed this. Liu has given out more of the puzzle pieces that describe her world without spelling it out for us or even telling us enough to come up with any answers on our own yet. We're being left to discover what's really going on in that alternate version of the world at the same
I like both Dean and Miri. I liked the way their shared history and current reunion stank of writer-contrived coincidences under the story unfolded further and we found out the real reasons why it seemed that way. It was an interesting take, too, on the whole fated lovers/lifemates/soulmates thing, without been quite like that at all. I can't explain why it felt different, but it did. Maybe because Dean and Miri accepted it, and it was completely equal between them. Their "bond" has been a friendship between them from the first day they met and so it felt natural rather than forced. (The feeling of things being forced was their twenty years apart, but we were given enough hints that that really had been forced - and by one of the characters rather than the author - so it worked out pretty well.)
It was interesting to see Rictor pop up again, with no more hints about who or what he is, or what he wants. We also got another enigmatic character whose agenda and loyalites and possible limits are unknown but there to tease us. We don't know much about Robert, but like Rictor, he's certainly interesting enough to want to know more. He's neither an obvious good guy nor an obvious bad guy, although I'd say he's capable of being either, and he's clearly powerful and dangerous. Liu has stated on her website that Rictor will be getting his own book. I rather suspect Robert to be slated for one at some point as well. So far we've been let in on the secret of who he was so long as we were paying attention to one seemingly throw-away pair of words, combined with a comment about how much people change. Unfortanately, at this point it's a secret that doesn't explain anything. This woman knows how to keep me coming back for her next novel.
We're also getting more hints about the true history of the world, which doesn't bear a lot of reality to what we think we know - or what the D&S agents think they know. I'm now wanting to know about immortals, especially the one who wanted to die, black oily smoke (I get a visual of the essence of the demons taking over the First Slayer in Buffy, but I don't know if there's really a connection there or not) with a agenda to remake the world and some brothers that seem to be unable to enter the world as it is now. There's a lot still to come and I hope the stories live up to the promise of the early ones. Now I just need a concordance to help me keep everyone, their talents, friends and lovers and enemies (and anything else that might be useful) straight, since it won't stay clear in my head for long, I'm sure.
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trickle feed pace as the Dirk & Steel agents, and while I respect this as a perfectly valid writing exercise (and marketing one as well to keep me spending my money), it's also extremely irritating. I like both Dean and Miri. I liked the way their shared history and current reunion stank of writer-contrived coincidences under the story unfolded further and we found out the real reasons why it seemed that way. It was an interesting take, too, on the whole fated lovers/lifemates/soulmates thing, without been quite like that at all. I can't explain why it felt different, but it did. Maybe because Dean and Miri accepted it, and it was completely equal between them. Their "bond" has been a friendship between them from the first day they met and so it felt natural rather than forced. (The feeling of things being forced was their twenty years apart, but we were given enough hints that that really had been forced - and by one of the characters rather than the author - so it worked out pretty well.)
It was interesting to see Rictor pop up again, with no more hints about who or what he is, or what he wants. We also got another enigmatic character whose agenda and loyalites and possible limits are unknown but there to tease us. We don't know much about Robert, but like Rictor, he's certainly interesting enough to want to know more. He's neither an obvious good guy nor an obvious bad guy, although I'd say he's capable of being either, and he's clearly powerful and dangerous. Liu has stated on her website that Rictor will be getting his own book. I rather suspect Robert to be slated for one at some point as well. So far we've been let in on the secret of who he was so long as we were paying attention to one seemingly throw-away pair of words, combined with a comment about how much people change. Unfortanately, at this point it's a secret that doesn't explain anything. This woman knows how to keep me coming back for her next novel.
We're also getting more hints about the true history of the world, which doesn't bear a lot of reality to what we think we know - or what the D&S agents think they know. I'm now wanting to know about immortals, especially the one who wanted to die, black oily smoke (I get a visual of the essence of the demons taking over the First Slayer in Buffy, but I don't know if there's really a connection there or not) with a agenda to remake the world and some brothers that seem to be unable to enter the world as it is now. There's a lot still to come and I hope the stories live up to the promise of the early ones. Now I just need a concordance to help me keep everyone, their talents, friends and lovers and enemies (and anything else that might be useful) straight, since it won't stay clear in my head for long, I'm sure.
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LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Dean Campbell is an ex-cop, now working for Dirk & Steele, a detective agency who used their paranormal powers to deal with both mundane and paranormal cases. They kept trying to keep innocent people alive and stop some of the more evil paranormals from gaining an upper hand, sometimes compromising
Dean is in Taipei. He finds a few shocking things there. Someone or something powerful is killing people, and in the middle of the mystery is a woman he thought long dead - Dr Mirabelle Lee. Can he keep his mind on the case while the woman he loves is in danger?
It's a story that romps away and keeps you entralled even when you have questions about plot issues and the questions about the world. This is a world quite like ours and you can't help feeling sometimes that the author is using the books as a way of worldbuilding and even she isn't sure about some of the backbone of the series.
She did keep my attention and did make me want to read more so that's a bonus.
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in order to achieve the greatest good.Dean is in Taipei. He finds a few shocking things there. Someone or something powerful is killing people, and in the middle of the mystery is a woman he thought long dead - Dr Mirabelle Lee. Can he keep his mind on the case while the woman he loves is in danger?
It's a story that romps away and keeps you entralled even when you have questions about plot issues and the questions about the world. This is a world quite like ours and you can't help feeling sometimes that the author is using the books as a way of worldbuilding and even she isn't sure about some of the backbone of the series.
She did keep my attention and did make me want to read more so that's a bonus.
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LibraryThing member Capnrandm
Maybe it's the result of reading these two write next to each other, but I saw a lot of SHADOW TOUCHED in THE RED HEART OF JADE. Nothing overt, but Mira and Dean's banter reminded me a lot of Elena and Artur, Mira's feelings for Koni reminded me of Elena's reaction to Artur's team, and Robert and
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Ricter had a lot in common. Nothing bad, just a sense of deja vu. Loved Mira and Dean, I can't figure out why it took me so long to read these books. Show Less
LibraryThing member oldriverbooks
This is the 3rd book in the Dirk & Steele series. The book has 282 pages on the Nook. I liked this book the story moves at a fast pace but it took longer for me to get into the story then the first book did. I think that all the characters in the Dirk & Steele detective agency are interesting and
This time it's clairvoyant Dean Campbell, set on the trail of a nonhuman criminal in Taipei who is flagrantly setting people on fire. Also in Taiwan is anthropologist Mirabelle "Miri" Lee, who makes a rare discovery at an archaeological site: a 4,000-year-old piece of red jade, embedded in the body of a mummy. When Dean and Miri meet up, it's a shock: Twenty years ago, they were best friends -- beginning to be teenage lovers -- when an accident killed Miri. Or so Dean thought. Now someone is being paid to kidnap Miri and steal the jade. On the way to finding the murderer, Dean discovers an old love, an older magic, and the beginnings of a new future.
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like finding out more about them and their powers. This time it's clairvoyant Dean Campbell, set on the trail of a nonhuman criminal in Taipei who is flagrantly setting people on fire. Also in Taiwan is anthropologist Mirabelle "Miri" Lee, who makes a rare discovery at an archaeological site: a 4,000-year-old piece of red jade, embedded in the body of a mummy. When Dean and Miri meet up, it's a shock: Twenty years ago, they were best friends -- beginning to be teenage lovers -- when an accident killed Miri. Or so Dean thought. Now someone is being paid to kidnap Miri and steal the jade. On the way to finding the murderer, Dean discovers an old love, an older magic, and the beginnings of a new future.
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Original language
English
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
369 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
050552631X / 9780505526311