The Red Heart of Jade [Mass Market Paperback]

"The Red Heart of Jade" is the 3rd instalment in MML's paranormal romance series; "Dirk & Steele", a detective agency which employs very unusual people to tackle even more unusual crimes. Dean Campbell, a clairvoyant who has cropped up in both "Tiger Eye" and "Shadow Touch" finally takes a leading role in "The Red Heart of Jade" and finds himself drawn into a world of magic whilst investigating gruesome murders occurring in Taiwan.

We learn the Dean grew up with a close friend, Mirabelle (Miri) Lee, a young woman he fell in love with, only to watch her die from a gunshot wound at the age of 16. Badly hurt himself in the attack, for many years after the incident Dean found himself using his gift to try and track Mirabelle; only to find no trace of her. Now chasing a psychopathic murderer, a being who just happens to be a shape shifting dragon, he finds a photo of the killer's next target; Dr Mirabelle Lee.

Discovering Mirabelle is alive proves shattering for Dean, a woman he believed died in his arms 20 years ago, yet for the first time he momentarily finds a trace of her and is just in time to stop her being snatched by Robert, an immortal being hired to kidnap her. Only that morning Mirabelle extracted a mysterious piece of red jade from the mummified remains of a woman, yet it appears this gem houses significant power, a power someone is willing to kill for.

On the run from the dragon shape shifter and Robert, Miri too tries to comprehend that Dean is alive. Having been resuscitated in an ambulance following the attack, she firmly believed she saw Dean die too; however his appearance is somewhat easier to deal with than immortal mercenaries, powerful ancient magic and an assortment of shape shifters, some of whom want to kill her although she has no idea why.

I cannot find fault with this author at all; this is another fantastic paranormal romance from MML, with enough action and mystery to thoroughly grip the reader from the first page. The passion between Dean and Miri positively sizzles and the dangers they face whilst trying to stay alive against some formidable enemies creates an exciting and enthralling read. I now eagerly await further stories in the Dirk & Steele series; "A Dream of Stone & Shadows" will appear in the anthology "Dark Dreamers", due for pub. Sept 06, and the story of Blue, the electrokinetic who made a brief appearance in "Shadow Touch will be told in "Eye of Heaven", due for pub. Dec 06. I can't wait for either.

I recently had the opportunity to review Marjorie's new book that is being released on the 4 July 2006 here in the UK and wow...

Dean Campbell currently works for the Dirk & Steele Detective Agency. With his abilities he is the perfect man to investigate several murders in Taipei.

While searching for a murderer Dean finds the photo of his Childhood sweetheart.

A Childhood sweetheart who is dead or is she really?

What happened so many years ago?

To find out you need to read the book!

When reading The Red Heart of Jade you have hit the jackpot, the third book in the series has romance, suspense and so much more and true to form Marjorie is magnificent, the plots is ingenious, fresh, spellbinding and the characters are well developed.

I could not put the book down as it has everything you want.

I rate The Red Heart of Jade as five stars.

I highly recommend this book - it is money well spent.

As children Dean and Miri were best friends, they told each other everything and had no secrets and even their own form of language. When they were 16 they decided to take that friendship to the next level, but was interupted when a man tried to steal their and shot Miri. Dean left thinking that Miri was dead, unable to 'find' her using his special abilty.
Now, years later, Dean is a member of Dirk and Steele and is known for his humour and his fondness for women. What they don't know is that he has never been able to forget his first love.
Imagine his suprise when, after waking up by someone clawing a hole in his chest, he sees a picture of a beautiful woman with an uncanny resemblence to the one woman he's never been able to forget.
Dean's even more suprised when he realises that the woman IS Miri. She's been alive all these years, believing that he had died.
Now they have bigger problems as bad guys are chasing them, after the Jade that Miri has while Miri tries to find her friend and get her head around the fact that the boy she has always loved is very much alive and is now one sexy man.

This is my favourite out of the series. The big reveal as to what's going on is amazing and well thought out and Dean and Miri's love story will make even the hardest of heart's melt. Especially, when you find out Dean's secret and his 'magic fingers'.
An amazing read and id reccomend it to anyone interested in Marjorie M Liu's work.