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Publication Date –
November 25th 2013
Title – Bird Of
Prey
Series – Sémya Slotin Mystery #1
Author – Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba
Genre – Mystery Romance
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!
Add to
Excerpt:
(from the ARC version - subject to change with final edits)
Chapter 14
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.
Sémya
Slotin Mystery Soundtrack Vol.1
Meet The Author
"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."
GIVEAWAY!
(Aug 5th – Sept 5th)
Prizes:
2 - $5 Amazon Giftcard
5 – Arc eBook (mobi) of Bird of Prey
(Ready
Late September)
Absolutely love your blog - thank you so much for participating in the cover reveal
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