THE LAST TWILIGHT

Author: Marjorie M. Liu ISBN: 9780843957679 2/2008 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

A Woman in Jeopardy Doctor Rikki Kinn is one of the world's best virus hunters. It's for that reason she's in the Congo, working for the CDC. But when mercenaries attempt to take her life to prevent her from investigating a new and deadly plague, her boss calls in a favor from an old friend—the only one who can help. Africa—a land of lush velvets and roaring falls, untamed splendor and primal fury: Amiri's home, where he was raised to race as a cheetah, to wake with the sun. It is also a land of lingering nightmare, where he was kidnapped and experimented upon by the evil group named the Consortium. Now, against his better judgment, Amiri has been asked to return to his homeland by his colleagues in Dirk & Steele—men who are friends and brothers, who like himself are more than human. He must protect a woman who is the target of murderers, who has unwittingly involved herself in a conflict that threatens not only the lives of millions, but Amiri's own soul... and his heart.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

While pushing the envelope quite a bit further than most of her Dirk and Steele romances, Liu's THE LAST TWILIGHT packs a powerful punch. It's action packed, brainy, touching, and downright frightening. The ending is clearly open ended and yields more questions than answers. It's a regular X-Files that way.

I suppose the best way I have to describe THE LAST TWILIGHT is to compare it to one of my now defunct favorite shows. But, instead of Mulder and Scully running from some secret agent villains that try to discourage their search for the truth, there is a white woman doctor and her unlikely hero, who changes from a black man into a cheetah. They, too, are running from agent villains, but it is to protect their secrets instead of expose them.

While at times I admit to wishing they would just get on with the story, instead of running through the jungle every other minute (yes, that Creedence Clearwater song played in my head when reading some of the passages), I enjoyed the stilted conversations, worry and anxiety the couple shares, too much to be negative about it. They still do not know what is going to happen to them and the others, and things only get more complicated as each book unfolds.

Honestly, when it comes down to it, THE LAST TWILIGHT proves that Dirk and Steele may be out of places to run.

Shannon Johnson