Cristelle Comby - Danse Macabre - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Private investigators Alexandra Neve and Ashford Egan are hired to succeed where the police have failed, to safely return home a missing ballerina. With no lead to pursue and no idea who could be behind the young woman’s kidnapping, they soon find themselves at a loss as to what to do.

To make matters worse, the heart of England seems to be caught in the middle of a little Ice Age. With snow endlessly falling and Tube lines either too cramped up to use or out of service, it is a pain to do any legwork in the huge metropolis.

Oh, and because trouble never comes alone, there may also be a serial killer on the loose in the streets of East London...

My Review

What makes Alexandra Neve and Ashford Egan a good private investigating team is what makes Cristelle Comby a good writer. They notice things—the things most people overlook, the little details that add up to form the big picture. Picking up a mystery novel is meant to be an interactive experience. The author drops clues throughout the narrative and the reader puts them together one by one, but what makes the journey satisfying is when the main characters reveal what makes them tick at the same time. When it comes to Neve and Egan, Comby does this brilliantly.

Neve is a born investigator, putting herself in someone else's shoes comes easily to her. She's a pro at finding common ground when it comes to getting to know a victim. In DANSE MACABRE, the killer is targeting young women in their twenties who are exceptionally talented in the creative arts. Neve is twenty-four. She, too, lives in East London, and is a former student of literature. The parallels are uncanny, bordering on unsettling. Neve can see traces of herself in the victims from the way their bedrooms are arranged to their singleminded focus when it comes to their careers.

Egan, on the flip side, has a hard time relating to people at all, and shields himself from getting emotionally involved in a case. It's not until he learns that the killer sews open the eyes of his victims post mortem that he lowers his guard and allows himself to identify with their plight—because Egan, himself, is blind. His fierce independent streak is a means of coping with his condition. He holds everyone at arm's length, but it only leads to a profound sense of guilt when one of the victims turns out to be a student of his and he doesn't even remember her. When he realizes that he's relegated others to nothing more than background noise, he knows that he can't keep shutting people out. He needs to change.

But it's how Neve and Egan interact with each other that makes their partnership zing. There's something going on between them that remains tantalizing unexplored. Comby doesn't come right out and say it, she just hints at their deepening relationship and what it could mean. The subtle way they dance around each other says more than if they declared their true feelings for each other. Theirs is an unconventional love story because it's not rooted in fantasy, it's grounded in real life. Their bond developed so naturally that it's quite possible they're not even aware of how close they've grown by working together.

They're able to aid those in dire need of their help because they care about each other. Their expertise is enhanced by combining forces. It's highly unlikely that they'd be as good at what they do, working alone. They each compliment each other to such a degree, that when Neve offers Egan her arm to cross a snow-covered street, it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. They're two very special characters that mystery fans will have no problem figuring out are tailor made for each other, even if they haven't figured it out for themselves yet.

***

Danse Macabre can be purchased at:
Amazon

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $11.99 paperback
Pages: 254
Genre: New Adult, Detective Mystery
Release: October 2014
Publisher: self-published
ISBN: 9781502723772
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, in Greater Geneva, where she still resides.

Thanks to her insatiable thirst for American and British action films and television dramas, her English is fluent.

She attributes to her origins her ever-peaceful nature and her undying love for chocolate. She has a passion for art, which also includes an interest in drawing and acting.

Danse Macabre is her third new-adult novel, and she’s hard at work on the next titles in the Neve & Egan series.

Links to connect with Cristelle:
Web Site
Twitter
Goodreads
Instagram
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway