Review of Deadly Pleasures

Deadly Pleasures

Mary Firmin

iUniverse, Inc.

ISBN 9781462042371

   Megan Riley has just cancelled her engagement. Her fiance won't let her alone to get on with her life. He is an alcoholic and she is a recovering alcoholic. He is also into drugs and she just wants to make a fresh start. 

   Her best friends are having cheating husband issues so they all decide to hire a handsome stripper to be their new timeshare boy toy. Oh, the things that money can buy. Little do they know that the sexy stripper is a prime murder suspect. 

   One of the wealthy men from the yacht club suffers a heart attack while having carnal pleasures with a hooker. Shortly after, the hooker is found dead and mutilated. More women are turning up dead and mutilated and it appears there is a serial killer on the lose. Handsome police detective, Matt Donovan, is on the case. The more he investigates, the more he becomes attracted to Megan. She starts checking out matters for herself and finds herself in bondage parlors and sex clubs. Matt sees her and begins to wonder if Megan is really who she appears to be. The entire investigation becomes a game of cat and mouse and time is running out.

   This is a very good murder mystery. The author keeps you guessing until the end as to who the murderer is. There is a lot going on in this story and it gets just a tiny bit confusing at times. The story drags in the beginning but picks up and you have to keep reading to see what is going to happen next. I was really thrown for a loop when the murderer was finally identified. 

   My favorite character is the detective. He is not only handsome and sexy; but there is a sensitive side to him that just makes you like him. On the other hand, I can't say I liked Megan too much. I am sure there are those who find her strong and somewhat heroic. I personally found her to be rather meddlesome and far from being heroic. She went into places she shouldn't have and ended up putting herself in harms way. I also found her to be just as shallow as her rich friends. She would talk about them or criticize them. Her friends are all rich, so rather then make herself look bad for not having enough money, she would pretend that she had money. 

   All in all this was an excellent read. If you like murder mysteries combined with cheating husbands, sex clubs and bondage, this is the book for you. You will not find hard core sex scenes in this book, so don't look for them. This is a  debut novel for this author and I have to say she has made an excellent start.

   I wish to thank the author for providing me with a copy for reading and reviewing purposes. I was not compensated in any way except for receiving the book in exchange for an honest review.

I give Deadly Pleasures 4 out of 5 stars