Gifted with the power to heal by touch, Elena Baxter is
quietly working her miracles in the pediatric ward of a
Wisconsin hospital near her family farm when she's
kidnapped by a group calling themselves "The Consortium."
The group takes gifted people for medical study and to
serve their more criminal pursuits. And Elena is of special
importance to the scientists and doctors who are using her
as a guinea pig. Beatrix Weave, The Consortium's twisted
mastermind, hopes Elena can cure her paralysis, making her
whole and facilitating her plan to control criminal
activities on a global scale.
For Artur Loginov, acceptance of his gift has been a long,
hard road. Artur is a psycometrist, able to read secrets
and emotions through touch. Abandoned as a child, Artur
fell into a life of petty crime after leaving a Moscow
orphanage. He continued in this vein as an adult employed
by the Russian mob. By the time he finally walked away,
sickened by the life he'd led, Artur was ready for a
change. Salvation came from a U.S.-based detective agency,
Dirk & Steele. With the agency, Artur discovered that
others like him exist -- a group of people with special
powers. The agency gave him acceptance, a new direction in
life and, most importantly, friends. In the middle of a
particularly nasty murder investigation, The Consortium
kidnaps Artur.
With a little inside help and a lot of luck, Elena and
Artur escape The Consortium with a pair of shape-shifters
the group has also captured for study and experimentation.
With Beatrix and her thugs never far behind, the fugitives
make a bid for freedom and safety. While it's true that
Beatrix needs Elena to cure her physical ailments, one of
her lackeys desires Elena for other reasons. It's his
degenerate fixation that keeps the group running. Finally
able to contact Dirk & Steele, Artur and friends are
rescued...or so they think. What should be their moment of
triumph could turn out to be a clever trap and the end of
them all.
In 2005,Marjorie M. Liu has seen three books
published: her debut novel, TIGER EYE (3/6/05), was the
first of the Dirk & Steele series; A TASTE OF CRIMSON
(8/30/05) was the second book in the Crimson City series;
and her X-Men novel, DARK MIRROR (12/27/05). All have been
greeted with rave reviews from fans and reviewers alike and
deservedly so. Ms. Liu is simply one of the best new
writers to appear on the romance scene in quite a while.
This new year looks like it will be just as exciting for
fans. Her next Dirk & Steele novel, THE RED HEART OF JADE,
is due out in July 2006. Then in September 2006, look for
DARK DREAMERS, an anthology featuring the 4th Dirk & Steele
story, as well as a novella by Christine Feehan.
Great news for romance readers everywhere!
Elena Baxter can work miracles with her hands. She can coax
bones to knit, flesh to heal. She can mend the mind. She
has been doing such work for almost all of her twenty-eight
years. That is why she will be taken.
The media called it a rampage of terror, the recent
murders. But fighting crime is why Artur Loginov joined
Dirk & Steele. The international detective agency
specializes in the impossible, and their creed is simple:
Help those in need, no matter how difficult, and no matter
what, keep the secret safe. For the agency helps its
employees, too; people like Artur -- the gifted, the
tormented. Dirk & Steele gave the Russian emigre purpose,
protection, community...and refuge from his past, for who
can trust a man who can start a fire with his mind, or
shape-shift, or read others' thoughts as easily as drawing
breath? For his similar talent, Artur will be taken.
Into the darkness Elena and Artur will be drawn, into the
clutches of evil. Cornered, isolated, caged, they will
fight for their very souls. But salvation awaits. it exists
in a form least expected: a dream of a face, a brush of a
mind, the hint of a kiss, and finally, at long last, a
SHADOW TOUCH.
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