Review
Title: Let Us Prey
Author: Jamie Lee Scott
Format: Ebook provided by tour for review
From Goodreads:
Mimi Capurro, owner of Gotcha Detective Agency, has been hired to protect New York Times bestselling author, Lauren Silke, who was recently assaulted in the bathroom at a paranormal conference. Though Mimi is hired to act as bodyguard for Lauren’s upcoming book tour, plans change when Lauren's assistant is murdered and the slaying is a replica of a scene from Lauren’s newest novel. A novel that hit bookstores the same day as the killing.
Now instead of playing bodyguard, Mimi is cracking computer code, and chasing down vampires. These vampires come alive on the streets of Santa Cruz, as part of a live-role-playing game. Mimi must find the connection between the vampires and the author to track down the killer. This would be much easier if Detective Nick Christianson wanted her investigating the case.
Nick, Mimi’s old college fling, is the lead homicide investigator.
Though he wants her off the case, he also wants to pump her for information. Nick may have used her in the past, but this time she’ll use him to try to catch the murderer first.
Now instead of playing bodyguard, Mimi is cracking computer code, and chasing down vampires. These vampires come alive on the streets of Santa Cruz, as part of a live-role-playing game. Mimi must find the connection between the vampires and the author to track down the killer. This would be much easier if Detective Nick Christianson wanted her investigating the case.
Nick, Mimi’s old college fling, is the lead homicide investigator.
Though he wants her off the case, he also wants to pump her for information. Nick may have used her in the past, but this time she’ll use him to try to catch the murderer first.
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This story is about Mimi, the owner of Gotcha Detective
Agency. I think the name of her business perfectly shows you her sense of
humor. Mimi is a funny woman, and I
loved her inner monologue. She has wise
comebacks and just her general tone was humorous. She is also very intelligent - another bonus!
Soon Mimi is hired to protect author Lauren Silke, who writes vampire novels! Apparently someone beat the heck out of her,
and she is worried about her upcoming book signing tour and more violence. What starts as a bodyguard job quickly turns
into a murder investigation though - and the list of suspects is growing.
Enter The Camarilla. If you are into vampires, and role-playing then you would definitely be interested in this. But they too, are suspect in the murder.
Enter The Camarilla. If you are into vampires, and role-playing then you would definitely be interested in this. But they too, are suspect in the murder.
From here the story takes a lot of turns. You can’t figure out who the murderer really
is because everyone seems to have motive or opportunity. I really enjoyed that it was not plain to
see, and frankly, I was a bit surprised when I did find out who it was.
Mimi isn’t investigating alone, she has to work
alongside Nick. Nick is the lead
detective on the case for the police department. Oh, and he is also her ex-boyfriend! This absolutely leads to some funny and interesting
situations, and certainly enhances that whole snarky attitude she has quietly
in her mind. I really liked the two of them interacting, but I tell ya – at times
I just wanted to yell at them to get it on and get it over with already! He's such a....a.....a man!! (haha, men, don't hate me!) For some reason, Nick acts so aloof – barely even
acknowledging Mimi as an investigator – let alone someone he has known
intimately! There were definitely times
I just wanted to smack him, that’s for sure. Nick and Mimi have a lot of sexual tension that is on a slow build.
All in all, I really enjoyed this story. It was fast pace and had an easy, almost
conversational tone to the writing. The
author did a fantastic job of misdirecting the audience when necessary, and
introduced a very interesting cast of characters that weren’t just black and
white. Definitely many shades of grey
for this group! I look forward to seeing
more from Jamie Lee Scott, and luckily this book is first in the “Gotcha
Detective Agency Mysteries” series. Oh, and even more exciting - there is talk of bringing this story to the tv screen. I will definitely set my DVR for that show!
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About Jamie Lee Scott
Jamie was born on the Central Coast of California, where she spent her entire childhood entertaining. She wrote plays and charged admission to her backyard stage so her friends and family could enjoy the performances. She wrote her first novel at the age of 10, for her 5th grade class project. The novel was called Cindy.
Busy with horses and school, Jamie rarely wrote through her teens and twenties, she was living a life most dreamed of (well, she dreamed of anyway), competing at barrel races, hanging out with cowboys, and traveling in rodeo circles with her friends. Money was tight, but life was good. Then Jamie met the man of her dreams. And low and behold he was not a cowboy, but a farm boy. They married and he swept her away to her little piece of heaven in Iowa.
Well, then Iowa didn't turn out to be such heaven, Jamie again turned to fiction. This time she wrote to relieve the stress of living so far from her family, and from running a business with her husband. Funny how she now found it cathartic to kill people, only on paper of course.
Before she finished her first full length novel, Jamie was contracted to write the book, Hiking Iowa for Falcon publishing. In a year, she hiked 75 trails in the state of Iowa and mapped the trails, landmarks and distances. And this was before GPS. It was tough work for the measly advance, but it was a writing credit. So now, Jamie writes the mystery series featuring the Gotcha Detective Agency.
Jamie has written three novels, Let Us Prey, the soon to be released Death of a Sales Rep, and Give a Dog a Bone. She is currently writing screenplays. She is co-founder of Scriptchat on Twitter www.scriptchat.com & TWWriterChat www.tvwriterchat.com, and is the former president of RWA’s screenwriting chapter, Script Scene.
Jamie still lives in Iowa (though she visits California as often as possible) with her husband, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 horses. She writes with a few from her 6 acre farm.
