Customer Reviews

Eye of Heaven (Dirk & Steele, Book 5)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

None from this series has been as good for me as the first, but they all sure can make you stay up late at night reading. The characters are fun and well rounded and Liu is adept at taking you around the world in her adventure stories. In this case the story begins in Indonesia. Yet, strangely enough, this one stays mostly in America. Mainly, Las Vegas.

Iris works with wild cats (lions, tigers, but not bears)in a circus. Blue works for the Dirk and Steele detective agency and is threatened into finding his (never knew he existed before) half brother for his evil father. This leads him to the circus and right into the arms of the amazing shape-shifter, aka Iris. Of course, there's always more going on in a Liu book. While he's there observing his half-brother (escape artist) they are attacked by the some of the same men working for a very bad man Blue was tracking in Indonesia. Same sick man is interest in Iris and Blue's brother. Some how his crazy dad is envolved and Iris's missing mom. I know--it sound's crazy, doesn't it? But somehow Liu pulls all the strings together in the end and makes for a very entertaining read. Looking forward to more.

I knew, when I first heard that Majorie M. Liu was writing Blue Perrineau's story, of Ms Lui's paranormal romantic suspense universe, Dirk and Steele, that this was going to be a GREAT story, and one of my very favorite's. Maybe I had a little of that "extra sensory" stuff myself, or it could be because, since reading her very first (Tiger Eye, 2005) book about a group of paranormal, mutant, gifted (which ever adjective you would most like to use) detective's, I've been hooked on her universe of agents trying save humanity from evil.

In Eye Of Heaven, Blue is after an organ peddler, a flesh and blood broker, who is not just powerful and rich, but who's family actually owns the bank. But Blue is seriously injured, and in his delirium, with his power, he also injures one of his best friends wives.

As he tries to recuperate, he gets the news that his estranged father has died.

Only things aren't what they seem. Not only is Blue's father not dead, but he finds out he has a brother. With his father blackmailing him, and guilt for the injury he caused his friends, Blue goes to Las Vegas, following a lead to find his brother. Not only does Blue find him, but he finds the love of his life. Iris McGillis.

Iris McGillis, circus performer, shapeshifter, orphan. After Iris mother disappears, she tries to make the best of her life that she can. But with men attacking her, causing problems with the big cats that she has care of, causing problems with the Las Vegas hotel that has hired the small circus to perform for them, Iris is more emotionally confused then ever. Then a handsome, sexy man saves her, and her confusion only intensify. But again, things aren't as them seem.

Not only must Blue reconcile the fact that he has a brother, but he must save Iris from the very people that he has been chasing, and people who he thought was family. Iris and Blue both, must face the lies, heartbreak and betrayal, of those they trusted and come to terms with who they are and what they want out of life for themselves.

This latest entry into the Dirk and Steele series continues the high standard set with the first book. Liu is a wonderful writer who can really flesh out what should be unrealistic characters. She makes them believeable with all the problems (and more) of ordinary people. They have their good and bad characteristics.

I think it would be difficult to start the series with this book. Readers actually have to be familiar with the world Liu has formed. Blue appears in the other books in a supporting role, but assumes the primary one here. All the characters in her first book seem to be getting their own. Each finds their significant other and all are not normal. The books hold interest well, although this one got a little drawn out at the end.

One problem that I am finding with the series, is that the overall plot is very complex. Since the books are not published very close to one another it is difficult to keep all the characters and plot points straight. This book seemed to complicate things even more. It would probably be best to wait until most of the series is published, then read them all in a row. However, I wait for each eagerly as do most of her fans for the next. I hope there are many more.

Ms. Liu's latest Dirk & Steele fantasy romantic adventure, Eye of Heaven, is in my opinion, her best yet. This book has it all, a strong hero, Blue, and heroine, Iris, and a supportive cast of additional heroes and nasty baddies. The characters, with all their supernatural powers, seem like comic book creations but Liu gives them enough emotional angst to flesh them out and make you care about them. From the first page, this book takes off and the reader is in for one exciting, emotional thrill ride. This series keeps getting better and better and I eagerly look forward to the next novel. Bravo, Ms. Liu!

Excellant book. I have all of the Dirk & Steele books. Reminds me of Christine Feehan.

Blue Perrineau has spent a lifetime escaping the shadow of his ruthless father. As an employee for the Dirk and Steele Detective Agency, Blue has sought to disrupt the flesh peddling by Santoso Rahardjo. A devastating injury and news of his father's death sends him in a different direction, one that lands him at Reilly's Circus. He's in search of his brother, Daniel, but also finds Iris McGillis, a shape shifter. Unfortunately, Blue knows the truth about his father's death and the ramifications of Blue finding Daniel and Iris may be catastrophic.

Marjorie M. Liu weaves a complex tapestry with EYE OF HEAVEN. The details of this intricate tale cleverly unveil themselves as the story progresses. Each book of the Dirk and Steele series is a stand alone but there are some ongoing threads throughout the series. EYE OF HEAVEN is starting to bring some of those threads, along with characters from previous books, together. Marjorie M. Liu provides enough details that new readers will be able to follow along but I would highly recommend reading the other books in the series in order to get a better picture of the machinations of the Consortium.

EYE OF HEAVEN is an excellent blend of fantasy, the paranormal, action, and romance! Marjorie M. Liu carefully builds up the tension to the grand finale, leaving the reader breathless with anticipation as each page is turned. While I have enjoyed each installment of the Dirk and Steele series, EYE OF HEAVEN returns to the style I fell in love with in TIGER EYE. EYE OF HEAVEN is easily recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

After a bomb in Indonesia almost leaves him dead, Blue Perrineau returns to the States to recover. When he gets the news that his father, the renouned Felix Perrineau is dead, Blue has mixed emotions. After receiving a mysterious call from his mother, Blue soon learns that his dead father is not really dead. Blackmailed by the father that has always hated him, Blue is forced to find the brother he never knew he had, Daniel. Blue finds himself in Las Vegas, at a circus of all places, where Daniel is a performer. There he meets Iris McGuillis, whom he knows is more than she seems.

Iris McGuills has spent her whole life staying under the radar. From the time she could talk, her mother taught her how to protect the secret that could ruin her life if it came out. All she really has are her four cats, which are like family to her. When Blue arrives at the circus, Iris is intrigued. While she mostly can't stand the touch of another person, she finds herself seeking Blue out. As she's learned in the past, there is more going on than meets the eye.

In her usual way, Marjorie M. Liu brings the characters to life in EYE OF HEAVEN. With a long-lost brother, a long-lost mother, and an organ smuggler that is more that he seems, this book is action packed from cover to cover. Since she was 16 and showed her other form to her childhood sweetheart, Iris has never trusted herself enough to fully shift. When she finds out that people know her secret, she is horrified that anyone knows as well as delighted that there are more people like her. Soon, Blue and Iris are racing against time to save the people they love and bring down a madman. Throw in a few surprises and you have a great read that you won't want to put down.