Shadow Touch (Dirk & Steele, Book 2)
by Marjorie M. Liu
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marjorie M. LiuEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02
ISBN: 0505526301
Number of pages: 354
Publisher: Love Spell
Book Reviews of Shadow Touch (Dirk & Steele, Book 2)
Book Review: You'll enjoy the second installment!
Summary: 5 Stars
SHADOW TOUCH
By Marjorie M. Liu
(Book 2 of the Dirk and Steele series)
Grade: A-
In this next installment of Marjorie Liu's Dirk & Steele series, we find
Artur, a former Russian Mafia gunman who now works for the detective
agency, kidnapped by the Consortium, who want him to work for them. Our
stalwart and loyal hero naturally refuses and finds himself tortured for his
refusal. His torture takes a unique form -- he's forced to walk naked
through the Consortium's facilities because Artur has a gift. He can receive
imprints of people and emotions and memories from anything he touches. The
Consortium's facilities are filled with other talented individuals like
himself, many of whom have been tortured and killed.
In the same facility is Elena, a gifted healer who has also been kidnapped
for an unknown reason. She and Artur pass each other in the hallway of the
facility and a link is formed when she saves his life.
The remainder of the book is Artur and Elena's escape from the facility and
their discovery of the Consortium's true purpose.
Marjorie Liu has written another excellent book that's going on my keeper
shelf. I liked this one even more than TIGER EYE. Elena is a heroine who
holds her own and makes her own decisions. She's strong and it shows very
well and stays consistent within her character. Artur fits beautifully into
the tortured hero role, yet Liu never allows us, or the hero, to be
completely dragged under into pages and pages of angst. There's angst, but
it's counterbalanced by the quickly paced plot of the book, and by the witty
dialogue between characters, as well as by the poignancy of the love story.
The villains are purely evil, yet fascinating to read about. While they
stayed mostly two-dimensional, their pure badness was just amazing,
particularly Charles Darling, a serial killer and rapist. Other secondary
characters also captured my attention, and seem to be promises for future
books, particularly Rictor, Elena's jailor
Now for the criticisms. Elena, previously a healer, is forced to kill in the
book. Although handled a little better than Kenyon's UNLEASH THE NIGHT, I
still had some problems with her lack of... Follow up. She and Artur do
discuss the possibility of her killing someone, yet when it's done, her
concern is that Artur will be repelled, and there's no remorse. Okay, the
people who were killed deserved it. I think what made it palatable was
simply because you knew these characters were pure evil. Yet... I still
wanted to see something. Trauma or drama. Even without knowing of Liu's
X-Men fandom, I cannot help but draw comparisons between her book and the
X-Men universe. Although her Dirk & Steele agency has more layers, some of
them quite dark, than Professor X's school, the same premise is there, as
are the manifestation of the characters' powers. One of the villains even
points out that the powers tend to manifest at puberty, something also
mentioned in the X-Men movies (I haven't read many of the comics).
But all the same, even if some of the ideas are leaking from Liu's
subconscious into her books, her treatment of the same themes is different
enough that she makes the books hers and not a knock-off. Her characters are
unique, with no echoes of characters from the X-Men universe, and the plots
fascinating, along with the layered story arc that's sure to span several
books. I'm intrigued, that's for sure, and I'll keep reading them to get the
next piece.
Summary of Shadow Touch (Dirk & Steele, Book 2)
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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