Book Review and Soundtrack: Bird of Prey by DC Ngontang Mba

Bird of Prey by DC Ngontang Mba.

Published: October 7, 2013
Publisher: Ever After Edition.
Rating:

Synopsis:
This was supposed to be an easy case…

Sémya Slotin had spent the last three years living in London with her best friend Polliannah Koch staying away from solving cases. After Hawaii, she was taking a break from puzzles, cases and mysteries that could potentially get her killed. Instead, she had been doing her second and third favorite things, drinking and selling expensive vintage wines and having earthshattering sex with the mysterious, sexy, beautiful but ever so secretive Josh Heinz. Life in London was good….until her funds ran out. Too much wine drinking, not enough wine selling!

When fashion designer and adoptive mother, Annika Slotin, summoned her back to Paris to hire her for what Sémya considered being the easiest case of her amateur sleuth career, all she could think of and see was money signs and a well-deserved Cuban holiday once it was solved.

What Sémya didn’t see was her stumbling on the fresh corpse of supermodel Johanna Cartier. She didn’t think that male model turned fashion designer Julian Marais-Caldwin, who also happened to be Sémya’s ex, would be suspected of brutally murdering her. Johanna was his girlfriend, his muse and he loved her. Sémya didn’t see the dead bodies piling up or the conspiracy theories.

Sémya was a little rusty. But then again, it was supposed to be an easy case and she was going to solve it. One vintage wine at a time… Sémya Slotin was officially back in business!

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book as part of the book tour for review. I am not compensated for this review.

The Review:
Bird of Prey is a great fast paced, slick murder mystery story. The characters, though there are a lot of them, are well thought out and believable. I like the play between Sémya and Polliannah, and especially loved the scenes between Sémya and Julian. There is a lot going on in this book. Everything has layers, and nothing is exactly what it seems. At times it felt a little clustered a little too much information all at once, but it works itself out nicely in the end.

I enjoyed this book, it did take me a little while to read, as it’s very dense. There’s a lot of things going on, and lots of things to keep track of. There’s plenty of action, suspense and romance (of course), and Sémya is a strong, confident female lead. It is the first book in a series, and I felt that it didn’t have a case of ‘first book-itis’ there were a few things that weren’t explained, that I think would have had more impact if they were gone into with more detail. I really want to know more about Josh and his motives. There’s a lot hinted at, but there’s not a lot of information given about Josh.

Overall, if you’re looking for a good murder mystery with tons of action and a great female lead? Pick this up and give it a read.

Purchase Bird of Prey:

Smashwords | iBookstore | Diesel Bookstore

Check under the cut tag to see the soundtrack that goes along with this book!