Marjorie M. Liu

Contemporary/Paranormal/"Dirk & Steele" series

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I'm none too hepped about the way Asian chicks are depicted in entertainment media, though I'll confess I never thought much about it until we adopted our daughter from China a few years back.

A lot of movies and TV -- even light opera, for God's sake -- depict Asian women either as petite and eager-to-please little Yum Yums or man-gobbling she-dragons consummately versed in carnality and the execution of digitally-altered martial arts sequences.

Yet, as they do with many women's issues, romance writers again lead the way toward change. One in particular is helping carve a path for Asian heroines who embody the strength of character long accepted by Asian women as intrinsic to their femininity, but which remains mysterious to much of the West.

Ancient Chinese secret, hmmm?

Not so much.

You see, Marjorie M. Liu simply decided to create a centered, beautiful, and assertive heroine who happens to be Chinese-American. Then, she let Mirabelle Lee live her story on the pages of "The Red Heart of Jade," the ultra-cool Sino-pop romance just released from Dorchester.

Ex-cop and clairvoyant Dean Campbell is in Taipei to investigate gruesome murders when he starts feeling the pain of the victims, all of whom have been burned alive. Then he learns who's next in line for the killer's fireworks -- Miri Lee, Dean's first love and childhood friend -- a woman he's mourned as dead for 20 years.

Miri's shocked to see Dean, because she, in quintessential romance-plot style, thought him dead, too. Yet the dedicated academic archeologist begins to believe his reappearance in her life -- and their subsequent launch headlong into a freakish nightmare of fantastic proportions -- has something to do with a small piece of heart-shaped stone that's been entrusted to her safekeeping.

"The Red Heart of Jade" is remarkable, an example of what happens when a writer's sweated her chops and works to keep them fresh.

That's why Liu rocks. She creates and conveys delightfully graphic outré visuals and mythos that appeal to the dorky sci-fi fan in many of us, while braiding backstory and emotional tension that speak to the sappy romantic we've become.

Even though "Dirk" and "Steele" sound like the names of a pair of 70s adult film stars, you're going to want to read all four of Liu's "Dirk & Steele" novels. I'm pretty sure she won't mind if you giggle about the series title in the bookstore aisle when you --

Buy the book.

MarjorieMLiu.com

Next Week's Review and Exclusive ExtraView Interview: "Simply Love," by Mary Balogh