Neuri Shape-Shifter (Stone Quest Book 3)

The third book of the Stone Quest Series finds Luke Stone and Beth Rutledge's marriage teetering on the edge of dissolution as their daughter Bridget Grace at thirteen, the spitting image of her father, struggles to break free of parental restraint, especially her father's attempts to guide and constrain her "second sight," the same psychic abilities he has, but which in her are ,if anything, even more pronounced. Now, adding to the tumult, is the case of three missing girls, all vanished from the Lower East Side of New York City -- the area where Luke in his teens lived as the disciple of the black magician and now his nemesis Armand Jacobi. As Luke is drawn more deeply into the girls' case, his investigation takes him back to Alphabet City and the raging Vampire Club scene. Ominous signs develop pointing irrefutably to Jacobi's involvement. But as Luke immerses himself in the case, staying longer and longer away from home, the relationship between Beth and Bridget Grace simmers more and more toxic. Unknown to either of her parents, BG has developed a secret, powerful relationship with a mysterious young man whom she first met in an online chat room. One day, as Luke is on his way to NYC , and after yet another blow up with her mother -- BG, like the three other missing girls-- vanishes, leaving behind a cryptic note. As Luke's investigation into BG's disappearance gets underway with the help of retired NY detective Stan Banor, Luke's world is further shattered by the sudden appearance of a beautiful older woman, a woman's whose face he knows but whom he cannot quite place. The woman is Danuta Dabrowitz, his mother, and she brings with her many memories and painful secrets. Though her cause, so she tells him, is but one: to join her powers with his in order to find Bridget Grace and bring her home, Luke cannot fully trust the woman who had so betrayed him as a child by leaving him alone in the hands of his abusive alcoholic father. With each passing day, the investigation grows more gruesome, and more deadly--even turning up the skeletal remains of a victim murdered twenty-five years ago, Matthew, whose murder has haunted Luke all his life. Working closely with Stan and his men, and with retired Sheriff Esther Rinaldi, Luke grows certain the girls' case is no longer a missing persons but a homicide. Then Danuta tells him of their heritage to an ancient people, the Neuri, who possess enormous powers, including the power of shape-shifting-- a power that Armand Jacobi himself may share. Once again, Luke Stone finds himself pitted against Armand Jacobi.. Surrounded with warriors he is not sure he can trust-- the most pre-eminent of whom is Luke himself.-- Luke must race against the greatest enemy of all -- time-- in this battle against his adversary to save his daughter's life.

From the Inside Flap

Josh T. Amazon***** Neuri Shape-Shifter is the Third Book - and quite possibly the best so far - in Leigh Podgorski's Magical Realism Stone Quest series. The tension starts immediately as we are dropped into the disintegration of Luke and Beth's marriage from the beginning. Daughter Bridget Grace is thirteen and as psychic--if not even more so - than her Dad. Characters from Luke's past spring into his present; Gregorian chants hum in the forest; Catholic Saints animate and fairy lanterns glow. At the height of battle, the book takes the characters--and the reader--to an even deeper level of magic realism than either Desert Chimera or Gallows Ascending ventured....

From the Back Cover

He turned to face her. Her arms swept up, encircling his neck, pulling him down. Tears glistened in the twin jade jewels, spilling down her face. She murmured his name over and over, pulling him into her, clasping him tightly, running her fingers across his face, and through his sandy hair. Only then did he realize how much he needed this; how much he needed her; how close to breaking he had been. He felt his knees crumple. Hanging on to each other, they slid to the floor. Kissing her, he realized how frightened he had been of losing her, how much he had missed her, how severely he had pushed her away so certain he had been of her rejection. Her arms wound about him, her warm supple lips kissed his eyes, his cheeks, his mouth, and were a salve to the still open wounds of his heart, an elixir to the scars slashing his soul. She had the power to renew him. She had the power to drive winter from him. He wanted only to rest here forever in her replenishing embrace. They made love before the pounding sea, the wind whistling and clamoring for admittance, the fire crackling behind them, its heat, for the moment, unnecessary. Afterwards, they sat entwined in front of the fire. She knew what it was like to wonder, to accuse yourself, to affix to yourself the label: Murderer. Just as he had known she could never have committed the ghastly crimes for which she was accused, so did she know the same of him. He had been her champion. Now she would be his. She looked into his steel blue eyes. She knew him. And so he told her. Finally, he told her the whole story about the real Luke Stone. About the true man she had married. Except...except...he didn't tell her about the ecstasy. He didn't tell her about the rapture. He didn't tell her about how he had stolen Matthew's soul through his dying eyes. There are some secrets far too dark, far too cavernous to reveal to anyone, sometimes, even to reveal to oneself.

About the Author

Leigh Podgorski is an award winning playwright and screen-writer whose plays have  been produced regionally and in NYC and Los Angeles. Neuri Shape-Shifter  is the third book in her Magical Realism Mystery Stone Quest Series. Visit her web site VioletHillsProductions for more information about Leigh and her work.

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