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Cons: Finding a good murder plot because people it has been done. I watched Dead man’s Folly it was very close Taken By The Flood and The Third Girl. Even Agatha Christie got stuck…
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Pro: Research your kills… you get to learn how to kill people and get away with it (beware future hubby)
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Cons: Being realistic. You’re not writing a sixty minutes episode of CSI. You need to get your facts straight, do your research. As a reader I will call you on it.
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Pro: Your book will be shorter…. You can’t drag the mystery forever. Your readers will be bored. Take a page from Agatha Christie (I love her)
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Cons: A convincing villain… No Professor Moriarty please, unless you can pull it off. With great villains come great responsibilities.
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Pro: The setting. How fun it is to have a mystery that takes you around the word? Not all the genres give you that type of flexibility.
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Cons: Avoid Possible Controversy. Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, should I say more?
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Pro: The followers. You have this great character, people are hooked they want to know what he/she will do next. What’s the next case will be?
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Cons: the clichés. So easy to use in mystery but should be avoided or kept a minimum.
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Pro: The fun you have doing it, bad guys, good guys, hot guys… just let loose!
TITLE– Bird Of Prey – Sémya Slotin Mystery #1
SERIES – Sémya Slotin Mystery
AUTHOR – Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba
GENRE – Mystery Romance
PUBLICATION DATE – October 7th 2013
PUBLISHER – Ever After Edition
COVER ARTIST – Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba
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!
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Polliannah knew that Sémya would go all Nancy Drew on her tonight. After playing nice with a few guests from the fashion house, she discreetly slipped to the hallway and gestured her to come with her. “I just need to see what’s going on over there?” she whispered as she was removing her shoes.
“Is this not a felony?” she asked Sémya. And she wasn’t going to remove her shoes! Sémya frowned back. How could it be a felony, they are not breaking and entering. They are already inside the house. Every step she was taking was making a sound. “Sorry,” she whispered when Sémya hushed her for the fourth time.
“This house is a maze,” she said opening the third room. It was yet another bedroom, another empty bedroom. She looked around, and apart from the furniture, the place was empty.
“What are you searching for?” She whispered.
“Something…anything. I’ll know when I see it,” Sémya muttered back. “Hide here,” she said when they heard footsteps. She left the door slightly opened so they could see. Johanna was at the edge of the corridor with the gorgeous man they saw at the beginning of the party.
“She’s cheating on Julian?”
“Hush Polli, I want to hear what they’re saying,” she told her.
“Because you have dog hearing?” Polliannah said. The man smoothly passed his hand around Johanna’s waist but she removed it. “Okay maybe he’s just a grabby guest?”
“No, he’s completely invading her personal space. She’s just being careful,” Sémya said. “Peter! Not here, not now.” Johanna said before moving away.
Peter stayed behind and looked their way. They both held our breath until he walked away. “And now I found it,” she smiled. They quickly sneaked back to the party.
“So are you going to tell Julian?” Polliannah asked her.
“Tell him what? That she was talking to some bloke?” She said as she put her shoes back on. “This is Eileen Clarke,” Sémya told Polliannah when the bubbly blond woman joined them. “You’re late but you look lovely tonight.”
“Nice to finally put a face to the name, Polliannah I presume.” Eileen blushed and turned her attention the younger woman who was next to her. “And this is Emma Blum, Johanna’s assistant. She organized this entire shindig for Miss Cartier. I just got here but everything looks great!”
Emma looked a little shaken. “Are you alright Emma?” Sémya said.
She looked away for a bit but smiled. “I’m fine. Who’s up for a tour?”
Polliannah looked at Sémya, they just had their own private tour. Eileen looked very excited about the idea. They all nodded back. “Shall we?” Emma said.
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BOOK SOUNDTRACK
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CHARACTER BIOS & DREAMCAST
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The Author, The Blogger, The Cheeky Reviewer
“My life journey is like my playlist, amazingly unique but full of contradictions with surprising joys with every song…”
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… 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.
“A teacher told me in high school that people didn’t read anymore so I decided that I would make movies instead…so that didn’t stick…”
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 Song 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: This Could Have Been Our Song! A coulda woulda shoulda ballad… (Book one) currently available on amazon and soon in iTunes, Kobo, Barnes and Nobles and Smashwords. The sequel This Would Have Been Our Song! Catchy tune and dancers tales will be release in January 2014. Bird Of Prey, my first mystery novel will be release in October 7th, 2013 on paperback before its wide release in November 25th, 2013. It will be followed by The Plot Thickens (a novella) in January 2014 and Polliannah Got Married! in April 2014 or earlier.
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