Title – Bird Of Prey
Series – Sémya Slotin Mystery #1
Author – Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba
Genre – Mystery Romance
Publication Date – November 25th
2013
Publisher – Ever After Edition
Cover Artist – Danielle-Claude
Ngontang Mba
Book Blurb/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 seeing 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!
Teaser Excerpt
Camera left…camera right…camera left…camera right… Sémya had been staring at her board for the
past three hours. Maybe she should take a break and go work at the store
today. Or maybe she should give up all
together and book their Cuban holiday. London was so cold right now they should
just go soak up some sun.
She shifted her attention to her phone. She
was still waiting on Gary Finch’s aliases from Sergey. She had been reading
Emma’s emails over and over again. Nothing about another flat popped out. What
she found instead was the number of the moving company she was going to use for
her move but–
“Wait a minute!” She finished her glass of 2005 Wolf Blass Black Label Shiraz Cabernet
Sauvignon. “Where is that file?”
Emma had a file called expenses on her laptop. Maybe just maybe, some of these expenses were
taxi fares to this mysterious place. Johanna couldn’t always be two steps ahead
of them. The woman had been dead for more than two weeks! She should also check
Oyster card records for tube stations or buses. Expenses…she would need to
speak to Eileen and Julian. But first let’s see what she could find on her own.
Emma’s passwords were always the same or just
a variation. The name Peter was
always coming up. Then again Sémya had access to her email account she could
always reset it if she couldn’t find it.
“p-e-t-e-r-t-f-l-1,” she mumbled and typed.
The access had been granted. Yeah!
Emma lived in the small flat near Hammersmith station. She printed out her
journey history of the last three months. Hammersmith to Oxford Circus kept
showing up which made sense. It was her regular journey to work. East Putney
Station was also showing every three weeks and not on the weekend which could
mean that it was an errand she was running for Johanna. Sémya highlighted it.
The last trip was…the day she died. “What’s in Putney Emma?”
She checked if there were any other suspicious
travels. A bus route came up a few times. She was either going to Chiswick or
to Chalk Farm.
“So…which one is it?” Josh whispered in her
ear and made her shriek. “Sorry, I thought you heard me,” he said sliding on
the sofa next to her, only wearing a towel. He picked up the bottle of wine off
the floor. “Already?”
“It’s two o’clock in the afternoon…in Paris,”
she told him. She had one glass with her
sandwich. “Is that the kind of shit I have to expect now that you’re my boyfriend?”
“Nagging you about your drinking? That’s not
new,” he shrugged. He smoothed his damped hair back. He smelled like aftershave
and peppermint. Josh seductively nibbled her shoulder, “Good afternoon,” he
groaned and took her in his arms.
“We promised Polli, no more hanky panky on her
sofa.” She gently pushed him away. “Go put some pants on!”
He reluctantly got up and entered her bedroom,
“Where is she anyway?” He came back out with a tank top and flannel pants on.
“With the mysterious John, she didn’t come
home last night so I’m guessing he is back,” Sémya told him. As soon as this
case was resolved she would have a serious conversation with Polliannah about
John Smith. She might even create a
small board…
“So what do we have here?” Josh said with a
coffee in his hand. He looked at her board and whistled. “And I thought your
board in Honolulu was crazy!”
“Oh…did you now?” she giggled. “There are two
murders on that board.” She got up and added the information from Emma
journey’s history.
“Do I have
a board?” he asked her.
“No!” she shouted back without turning around.
I made a board for everyone…so yes Josh
Heinz you do have a board…
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said
tilting his head toward the board.
“Which is it?”
“I’m not sure.” She pointed at the map. “Emma
lived in Hammersmith, it’s a four lines station but still the only time she
took the bus was for the same trip.”
“I haven’t taken the bus in London in years
but the way I see it I would only use it
if it would take me as much time or less time than the tube,” he said and
yawned.
“Good point… for commoners like me, we use the bus for twenty minutes or less trip.”
She circled the twenty minutes travel zone around Emma’s flat. “Okay…” she
mumbled walking back. “So…I’m thinking that she was going east.”
“Do you have her bank statements?” he asked.
“Yes, and before you say anything…it may not
be very legal–”
“There’s a charge on the seventeenth for Bramwell Eatery, isn’t that in Notting
Hill?” he asked her.
“Yes...let me check the journey history.” She
jumped up, “Yes, she used that route on that day!” She sat back next to him and grabbed her
laptop. “I need to check the expense file…I copied her hard drive,” she
explained.
“Yeah…that’s not illegal at all,” he joked.
“She wasn’t dead then…at least we didn’t know
she was!” She opened the March spreadsheet. “Can you check the March statement
for the same expense?”
He wrestled through all her papers. “Got it!
And I even had the Oyster journey.”
“The twenty-second?” she asked, looking at the
expense for Dinners.
“Yeah, it could just be Emma’s favourite
restaurant,” he said.
“No baby, it’s not.” She got up and went back
to her board. “Charges are too high for it to be hers, it’s for Johanna.” She
put her hand on the Emma side of the board, “Emma was a hard core vegetarian.
She would have never gone to this place for herself.” She pointed at the map,
“The bus records indicate less than thirty minutes between both trips…they
don’t deliver,” she said with a wicked smile on.
“She called her assistant to pick up and
deliver her food order.” He looked disgusted.
“Bigger picture, baby…her second flat is in
Notting Hill and walking distance from Bramwell
Eatery,” she shrieked. Where was a
chilled glass of wine to celebrate when you needed one? “I need to do the
same thing with East Putney?” she said and joyfully straddled Josh.
“Did you just call me baby?” he asked,
caressing her flat stomach. He kissed her neck and brought her face closer.
“Now I deserve a reward…”
“I tell you what, if you help me crack that
case, I’ll take you to Cuba with Polli,” she mumbled. He was weakening her
defences and she needed to stay focused. “Better yet, you’ll take us. You seem
to have strange deep pockets,” she giggled.
He got up still holding her by her thighs.
“Deal!”
“Heinz, put me down. I have calls to make,”
she moaned. They were heading to her bedroom. “I’m very busy…big case.”
“I have a big case for you right here,” he
grunted and laid her on the bed.
“Seriously? I have to tell Ally about Notting
Hill. She could contact the restaurant and maybe trace the number used to place
the order…It could be Gary Finch’s,” she said trying to justify herself.
Josh was just nodding back; he was very busy
removing her knickers. “Do what you’ve got to do and I’ll do the same,” he
whispered so close against her ear it made her whole body shivered and moaned.
“Baby…”
“You devil man, you,” Sémya moaned back.
Amazon Kindle Link (author
profile) – http://amzn.com/e/B00BZQHM72
Amazon Paperback Link
(author profile) – http://amzn.com/e/B00BZQHM72
Goodreads Link – http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18224451-bird-of-prey
Sémya
Slotin Mystery Sountrack Vol.1 : <iframe
src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:user:1187291858:playlist:6QL998V3jLGcEIe4X8FcbU"
width="300" height="380" frameborder="0"
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AUTHOR BIO:
I
was born in Quebec City, Canada from Gabonese parents but grew up in
Paris and Libreville the Gabonese capital until the age of 18. Are you yawning
yet? I am...
French
is my first language and my next novel Bird Of Prey will be released in both
languages...wish me luck!
I
moved back to Canada in 1999 after high school in Libreville to study
Cinematography and Digital movie production in Laval University in Quebec then
The International Academy of Design and Technology in Toronto. After
graduating in 2003, I decided to sell my soul to the corporate world
and worked in the Benefit Outsourcing Industry for seven in Toronto before
reconnecting with her first passion writing.
I
finally went back to school to study creative writing at Georges Brown
College in 2010 and 2011. I started to write The Coulda
Woulda Shoulda Series as an assignment and finished Book One in late 2011 before moving
to London.
And
the rest as they say is history... Almost two years later, I'm in London and
wrote three novels. One has already been released This Could Have Been Our
Song! A coulda woulda shoulda ballad... (Book one) the other two will be released
by March 2014.
STALKER LINKS:
Amazon Author Page – http://amzn.com/e/B00BZQHM72
Twitter – https://twitter.com/weissdaughter
GIVEAWAY
(August 5th – September 5th)
Prizes:
2 - $5 Amazon Giftcard
5 – Arc eBook (mobi) of
Bird of Prey (Ready Late September)
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