Dirk & Steele by Marjorie M.Liu – a Synopsis

Tiger Eye- book 1
Release Date: March 2005

Long ago they roamed the earth — dragons, tigers . . . shapeshifters — men who wore the forms of beasts. Their world was magic. Now it is gone. But some remain . . .

He looks out of place in Dela Reese’s Beijing hotel room— exotic and poignant, some mythic, tragic hero of an epic tale. With his feline yellow eyes, he’s like nothing from her world. Yet Dela has danced through the echo of his soul and knows this warrior will obey her every command.

Hari has been used and abused for millennia. But he sees, upon his release from the riddle box, that this new mistress is different. There is a hidden power in Dela’s eyes—and with her, he may regain all that was lost to him. Where once he savaged, now he must protect; where before he knew only hatred, now he must embrace love. Dela is the key.

For Dela, he will risk all.

Shadow Touch- book 2
Release Date: February 2006  

Elena Baxter can work miracles with her fingers. She can coax bones to knit, flesh to heal. She can mend the mind and spirit.

That is why she is taken.

Artur Loginov joined Dirk & Steele, an international detective agency that specializes in the impossible, to help extraordinary souls in need—and to keep their secrets safe. For Artur himself is not like ordinary men—handsome, powerful, and tormented, he is able to do wondrous things with nothing but a thought and a touch. That is why he, too, is taken . . .

Drawn together into the darkness, Elena and Artur find themselves caged and cornered, joined in a desperate fight for their lives. But they will find strength where they never expected it: in a passionate look, in a tender kiss, in a heart-soaring, breathtaking.

The Red Heart of Jade – book 3
Release Date: July 2006  

Beneath passion and purifying fire is . . . The Red Heart of Jade

Dean Campbell can see and sense things that others cannot—an extraordinary ability that drew the ex-cop to the Dirk & Steele Detective Agency, a global association of more-than-human men and women. Dean and his peers—shapeshifters, psychics, and other paranormals—are dedicated to protecting life. But there are those who live for destruction.

Now Dean’s investigation into a series of unthinkable killings is calling him to Taipei, where a pattern is emerging that is more deadly than anything he could have foreseen. At the center is a power that could change the world . . . and the woman who can truly complete him: Mirabelle Lee, the girl Dean loved in his youth, the childhood sweetheart he once believed dead. Now that his heart has been reawakened, he will not lose her again—even as the forces of an immortal evil gather to destroy them and everything they love.

A Dream of Stone and Shadows – book 4
Release Date – September 2006 – part of anthology Dark Dreamers
Re-released March, 2012 as standalone ebook

There are those who do terrible things in this world, and those who simply watch. Charlie would do neither. Imprisoned, his only release is through his own destruction—or through Aggie Durand. Sweet as a kiss or a rescued child, she is the one dream he does not dare desire. As an agent of Dirk & Steele, she could be his salvation. Today, Charlie’s dream is waking.
(See Sandy’s full review below)

Book 5 – Eye of Heaven- book 5
Release Date: December 2006  

Like every member of the Dirk & Steele Agency, Blue Perrineau is far from “normal”—and he believes in the organization’s creed: Protect the innocent in secrecy. Now an obligation to the family that rejected him is leading Blue into the light and shadow of Sin City . . . and to a remarkable woman, beautiful, desirable, and untamed.

Iris is a headliner in Vegas, dazzling crowds with her feral sensuality and her uncanny affinity for dangerous beasts. But there is a darkness in her world that she never knew existed, and a champion has appeared to protect her—a man charged with electricity, who guards a secret as strange and powerful as her own. And every secret is a liability when darkest evil exists that follows no rule under heaven. Yet with passion and love sustaining them, together Blue and Iris might yet live to see the dawn.

Soul Song- book 6
Release Date: July 2007  

Against her will, Kitala Bell foresees the future.  But only deaths, and only violent.

Kitala’s own future is in peril.  From the ocean’s depths rises an impossible blend of fantasy and danger, a creature whose voice is seduction incarnate, whose song can manipulate lives the way that Kitala herself manipulates the strings of her violin…even to the point of breaking.  He is a prince of the sea, an enigma-a captive stretched to the limit of his endurance by a woman intent on using him for the purest evil. And when survival requires he and Kitala form a closer partnership than either has ever known, the price of their bond will threaten not just their lives but the essence of their very souls.

The Last Twilight – book 7
Release Date: January 2008  

Duty called Dr. Rikki Kinn to the Congo. One of the world’s top virus hunters working for the CDC, she is on a mission to investigate a deadly new plague. But there are those determined to stop her—at any price.

Shape-shifter Amiri was born in this land of untamed splendor. Here he woke with the sun and raced as the cheetah . . . until he was kidnapped and subjected to terrible experiments by the evil Consortium. Now his colleagues and brothers in Dirk & Steele want him to return to Africa to face his nightmares. For a good woman has been targeted for death—a beautiful healer who holds the fate of millions in her hands, whose destiny is intertwined with his—and whose need leaves Amiri vulnerable, threatening his heart, his passion . . . and his soul.

The Wild Road- book 8
Release Date: August 2008

Those who look upon Lannes Hannelore see only an exceptionally handsome man. But his beauty is a prison, locking the dark truth inside his tormented soul. For Lannes is one of a dying race of remarkable creatures, hiding in plain sight among earth’s human masters. His existence is solitary and sad—until the night he encounters a young woman on a deserted street, desperate, frightened, with no memory . . . and covered in blood.

She has no recollection of who she is or what she’s done—and now she must trust a mysterious stranger whose imposing presence masks a gentle heart. Her need draws Lannes into a mystery that will cause him to confront his worst fears and question everything he believes—and compel him to risk his secrets for the one woman who might well be the love of his life . . . or the destruction of it.

The Fire King- book 9
Release Date: August 2009  

Long ago, shape-shifters reigned as gods. But even gods have laws that they break at their own peril . . .

Each member of Dirk & Steele has a unique ability. Soria’s is the gift of communication—which is why she’s been chosen to learn the language of a tormented warrior resurrected after thousands of years of icy sleep.

He is Karr, and once he was a king. Strong as a lion, quick and deadly as a serpent, he saw everything he loved consumed in flames. Death was to be his salvation, but thousands of years later he has been awakened against his will. Now a breathtaking human moves him in ways he neither understands nor desires. But Soria can see beyond his rage . . . and only she can speak the words that will cool the destructive fury in his soul.

Words of love.
In the Dark of Dreams- book 10
Release Date: November, 2010  

She could never forget the boy with the ice blue eyes . . .

She was only twelve when she saw the silver boy on the beach, but Jenny has never stopped dreaming about him. Now she is grown, a marine biologist charting her own course in the family business—a corporation that covertly crosses the boundaries of science into realms of the unknown…and the incredible.

And now he has found her again, her silver boy grown into a man: Perrin, powerful and masculine, and so much more than human—leaving Jenny weak with desire and aching for his touch.

But with their reunion comes mortal danger—from malevolent forces who would alter the world to suit their own dark ends.  For Perrin and Jenny—and all living creatures— their only hope for preventing the unthinkable lies in a mysterious empire far beneath the sea—and in the power of their dreams
Within the Flames- book 11
Release Date: November, 2011

Joining the Dirk & Steele Agency turned Eddie’s life around. A pyrokinetic and former car thief, he cannot refuse an assignment to cross the continent in order to rescue an extraordinary woman in peril . . . even though he fears losing control of the destructive power of flame at his fingertips.

The last of her shape-shifting kind, Lyssa hides in the abandoned tunnels beneath Manhattan, seeking refuge from those who murdered her family a decade ago and would now destroy her as well. Like Eddie, fire is her weapon, her destiny . . . and her curse. Yet she wants nothing to do with this mesmerizing stranger who seeks her trust while enflaming her passion. For beneath Lyssa’s extraordinary beauty are dangerous secrets . .  and even darker, nearly irresistible urges. But she has won the heart of a fearless protector . . . and all the demons in the world will not make him back down.
(See Miranda’s full review tomorrow)