Review: Deadly Pleasures by Mary Firmin

I am not by nature a romance reader; my tastes go to much edgier material.  Deadly Pleasures, by Mary Firmin has enough thriller and romance to engage any reader from start to finish. It is Sex in the City meets Stephanie Plum, who Janet Evanovich described as incredibly average but heroic, if necessary, a phrase that echoes in Megan Riley, the man character in Ms. Firmin’s novel.  I love and write female protagonists who are capable of saving themselves.  Megan sometimes gets herself into wrong situations, but always for the right reasons.  This saves some scenes from testing the reader’s credibility.  The best part of her is that she does this while confronting her own failings.

Megan Riley has bigger things to worry about than the fact that her neighbor has just been found dead. 
Her engagement has just ended and her real estate career is floundering with the California market.  Tired of emotional ties, ready for a new adventure and battling her own demons, Megan and her three best friends make a fateful decision. They hire hunky stripper Michael Harrington as their timeshare boy-toy—unaware he is a suspect in a series of gruesome murders.  Other suspects include Megan’s ex-fiancé, and the husbands and exes of her wealthy friends. The complicated murder investigation is led by a handsome widower detective whose focus on finding the twisted serial killer before he strikes again is distracted by his attraction to Megan, the first since his wife’s death .

But who will be the next to die? Following her own investigation, Megan takes a wild ride through L.A.’s bondage parlors, hidden sex clubs, and the extravagant lifestyles of the rich and famous; soon she discovers that her quest for adventure has abruptly transformed into a dangerous game of life and death.

My only suggestion would be that if these characters reappear in future books that the other ladies need more page time and more depth. Each seems to be there to represent a “type” instead of a person.  They deserve fleshing out.

I really liked Deadly Pleasures, would recommend it and read more of Ms. Firmin’s work.  She is a credit to the indie market, publishing through iUniverse. We need to promote and support those writers of quality who, like their characters, choose their own path, as steep and rocky as it may be at times.

As of the day I am writing this, Deadly Pleasures is available on Amazon for $0.99.

I give it 4.5  triskeles

    

Mary Firmin was born in England, raised in Canada then moved to the USA. She lived in Santa Monica California, for many years and raised three children. After selling real estate on the fashionable West Side of Los Angeles she became Vice President of a large firm. She and her husband Bill owned a boat and belonged to a Southern California yacht club and spent lots of weekends visiting Catalina Island and traveling up and down the Coastline. She now lives in Rancho Mirage, where she has written a Society Column and plays golf. Mary is an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Palm Springs Writers Guild and Women in Film. 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MaryFirmin

Twitter: http://twitter.com/firminmary

Blog: http://maryfirmin.blogspot.com/

Website: http://maryfirmin.com

To find a list of other reviews that are part of the INDIEpendence Day Blog Fest click Here