SHADOW TOUCH - Marjorie M. Liu
Dirk & Steele Series, Book 3
Avon
ISBN: 978-0-06-201989-9
February 2011
Paranormal Romance

Present Day Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Russia

Elena Baxter is a simple hospital volunteer. She delivers stool samples and plasma, plays with sick children, and delivers flowers to patients. When no one is looking, she uses her gift of healing to cure cancer, mend bones, and correct paralysis. As she sends an eight year girl's brain tumor into remission, a tranquilizer dart is fired into her back.

Elena regains consciousness in a secret research facility. She is stripped to her undergarments and tied to a research chair where a sadistic doctor studies her like a bug under a microscope. Just as she realizes things can't get any worse, she is returned to her room. Her guard, Rictor, is an inhuman telepath. He is the last place that she expects to find humor or mercy in her hellish nightmare.

In another part of the research facility, a man is tortured for his paranormal abilities. Artur Loginov can read any person or object he touches. He was using his gift to hunt down a bloody serial killer with a fondness for women when he was captured. But the serial killer is now his jailer as he battles the research facilities brand of mind control. He can only hope to remain strong and protect the secrets of the Dirk and Steele Detective Agency.

When Artur and Elena meet as co-captives, they form a bond that will give them strength against their nightmarish fate. They find peace and love in the strangest places. Together they explore the secrets of the research facility and the people therein. They discover two shape shifters and join forces to battle their mysterious jailers.

A fast read with dynamic characters, each page will have readers looking for the next secret to be revealed, and the romantic tension will keep them on their toes. SHADOW TOUCH is a great read filled with passion and suspense. It has me wondering if magic and paranormal abilities can really exist in the world around me. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Staff Reviewer