Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5) [Mass Market Paperback]

Marjorie M. Liu (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2006

When Blue, an electrokinetic and a member of the Dirk & Steele detective agency, is sent to Las Vegas to track down his half-brother, he finds himself embroiled in an organ smuggling plot -- and protecting a young beauty who is more than she appears.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once again, Liu has managed a brilliant blend of fantasy, action and romance in her latest Dirk & Steele novel, which follows the members of a paranormal detective agency. When electrokinetically gifted agency detective Blue Perrineau is blackmailed by his father, dying billionaire Felix Perrineau, he's forced to track down Felix's other son, Daniel—the brother Blue never knew he had. His search for Daniel takes him to a small Las Vegas circus that features Iris McGillis, a slinky shape-shifter with a lion act and a global fan base. After Blue saves Iris from an ecoterrorist sniper, they form an instant attachment, but he runs into trouble when he finds Daniel and, later, a dangerous flesh peddler—both of whom also have plans for the hypnotically sexy Iris. Liu brings her skewed universe to life with skill and conviction, grounding the comic-book plot with fully realized personalities and the workaday details of circus life. Though a bit drawn out, this entry will undoubtedly please fans of the series and should provide a fresh thrill for anyone in the market for an extraordinary romance. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Dirk & Steele agent Blue's hunt for a black-market organ harvester is interrupted by news of his father's death, news that is greatly exaggerated. His father has faked his death as a ruse to lure Blue back home, blackmailing him to turn his attention to finding a half brother he never knew existed. In the Vegas heat Blue finds his brother, as well as the intriguing Iris, and a tightening web of secrets and betrayals that threaten whatever future he may have with both. Liu dispenses more hints to her universe in this latest installment in the Dirk & Steele series (Tiger Eye, 2005;The Red Heart of Jade, 2006). Mutant humans dealing with acceptance and self-confidence are not new, but they've never had it so good. Liu is masterful in merging espionage, romance, and the supernatural into fiction that goes far beyond the boundaries of action-adventure romance or romantic suspense. Nina Davis
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (December 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843957654
• ISBN-13: 978-0843957655
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marjorie M. Liu is an attorney who has lived and worked throughout Asia. She hails from both coasts, but currently resides in the Midwest, where she writes full-time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievably mesmerizing and hard to put down, November 25, 2006

By 

Neilisa (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

The main plot to Eye of Heaven starts out as several subplots that are neatly woven as one by the time you get to the middle of the story. Blue, a member of the Dirk & Steele agency is on the hunt for an evil and powerful man. Santoso is the most powerful figure in the Indonesian underworld. He peddles young girls and boys to his powerful and influential friends and has his hand in just about every illegal activity going on in that part of the world. Before Blue can get close to him, however, an assassin is sent to kill him and nearly succeeds in her mission. The agency quickly moves in and wisks Blue out of Jakarta so he can recover.

While he is recuperating, Blue gets word that his father has died and that he's summoned home. The news was false but his father is dying and demands that Blue try to locate his brother. With access to gifted friends, Blue finds his brother working as part of a circus crew, and this is where he meets Iris.

Iris is a shape shifter and all alone in the world. The one person whom Iris loved and trusted has disappeared and all she has left are her cats. Blue and Iris' attraction to each other is explosive. Despite their reservations, they are drawn to each other. Unfortunately, so is Blue's brother. But Blue soon has bigger problems to solve: There is a mysterious man who is stalking Iris and he is relentless in his pursuit. There are also hired thugs who are trying to capture Blue and his brother.

Blue must win his brother's trust and gain his cooperation if he is to successfully protect Iris and also solve the mystery behind their attempted kidnapping, but even then it's not enough. The shadowy enemy Blue is fighting against are powerful, influential figures who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

I really enjoyed this book. So far, I think it's the best in the series. It had me guessing until almost the end. I was thoroughly entertained.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much like a X-men comic book, December 6, 2006

By 

Fathom "Fathom" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you like X-men, you'll like the Dirk & Steele series. The first book, "Tiger Eye" had a great combination of paranormal, romance, and action. Unfortunately I've been loosing some of my enthusiam for the series as each subsequent book in the series gets published. The premise of a secret agency that is publically just a detective agency using their secret powers to help justice and people is great. However, after the first book, all these other unnamed agencies and people w/ super powers are popping up everywhere. Now it's superpower against superpower hero, you're not quite sure whether the other agents in these shadow agencies have agendas that are good are bad. I had hoped that after the "Dark Dreamers" anthology that the agency would go back to helping regular people and be more romance centered. The anthology story was a great story.

However, this full length novel is continuing the previous books on X-men like action and a couple of love scenes thrown in at the end to qualify it for a romance. Liu is a wonderful writer and able to display all the action and the emotion to the reader but the romance in the books have suffered. The resemblance in the books to X-men is too difficult to ignore and it getting a tad ridiculous because every person that the Dirk & Steele agency is tripping over has powers.

Back to the story of this book, Blue has been blackmailed by his father. Blue is the illegitimate first son of millionaire Felix. Felix wants Blue to find and bring his legitimate son--a son that Blue never knew about--back home for some nefarious reason. If Blue doesn't obey then Felix has threatened Blue of Dirk & Steele's exposure in the public, and other consequences to his mother. Blue is able to track down his brother, Daniel, at a travelling circus. The sparks fly when he runs into lion tamer, Iris, who has her own secrets. Blue is temporarily on hiatus from his job because he has just come out of a coma, decides to join the circus too. The reasons are both to be near Iris, and to find out what is so important about Daniel. At the same time, danger stalks Iris and the terrorists that Blue had been hunting when he got bombed may be involved, and other agents from other unknown shadow agencies begin to pop up out of the woodwork--are they good or bad?

Good action sequences, but low on the romance. I will continue to buy this series but I would classify it more as comic book like.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch this author fly, December 18, 2006

By 

Elaine C McTyer "avid reader" (Dawson, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a phenomenal author, everything she writes is unbelieveably good.

The first chapter of the book sort of turned me off and I started to wait to read it but I perservered and was rewarded with a fully engrossing, intense, thrilling journey, I loved the book and I understand now why the first chapter was necessary.

Blue Perrineau is the son of a powerful man, very wealthy and harsh, they are estranged and Blue avoids his father as much as possible. Blue is a part of Dirk and Steele, an agency of psychic and para normal men and women who work quietly to preserve the peace and justice in our world. Now his father is supposedly dying and he has summoned his son. With threats and coersion he tells Blue he has a brother and the father is determined to control this one. Blue has managed to escape his influence because he is illigetimate. His brother is legitemate, because the father married his mother.

So with the health and even life of his mother at stake he agrees to find the missing brother. Blue has no idea of the sordid world he must traverse to find his brother and finally save the woman he meets and desires along the way.

Iris is a show performer. She is a lion tamer with several tigers and lions and jaguars, that she takes care of and performs with. She is also a shape-shifter. Her whole life has been concealed and secreted in the circus where she lives. Now they are in Las Vegas, she is performing at a major hotel and with her telepathic bond to the animals and the mass of people generating more mental static than she can handle, she is near a meltdown.

Blue knows immedately that she is a shifter because some of his friends at Dirk and Steele are shifters too. Knowing her secrets he realizes how tightly she must be holding her shields. He finds her fasinating and trys to help her, he also finds his brother. Neither brother acts like they know each other but they do, although they have never met.

Protecting Iris and his brother becomes harder when they are caught up into the dark underside of the sordid business that his father runs. Neither brother has ever had any tenderness from their father. Iris finds herself falling for Blue but she has many admirers and one of them is determined to have her, body and soul.

Finally it will take the two brothers and all of Dirk and Steele to save Iris and overcome the dark path set before the men by their own flesh and blood.

I loved this book and will wait anxiously for the next. Do not miss it.