Straight Chatting from the Library: Cristelle Comby

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READ THE INTERVIEW

What is your reading comfort zone?

My favorite things are detective stories and science-fiction pieces with spaceship. Love it when the two are combined.

How often do you read out of your comfort zone?

I don’t mind reading something else for a change. I’m very open-minded.

Can you read in the car?

No, I never could. I feel like throwing up almost right away—never figured out why, though.

What makes you love a book?

Fully formed, interesting characters who grow/mature as the story progresses.

What will inspire you to recommend a book?

Something truly original that I have sparsely seen before. Or a writer with a very unique and original voice.

Favorite reading snack?

Cereals and milk if it’s breakfast-time. Otherwise, I just keep a bottle of water within reach.

If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?

I’m bilingual so I often read in French too, although I prefer English because it’s faster. French language is more cumbersome. For school, I’ve had to read in German a couple of times, but I haven’t had the opportunity to do it again in years.

Favorite film adaptation of a novel?

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They really did a good job, and stayed true to the story and the characters.

Most disappointing film adaptation?

Probably the 2017 version of Stephen King’s IT. They cut and re-arranged so much… I couldn’t get into it. It didn’t have the same spirit as the books.

However, I really enjoyed the 1990 version. I was a teen when I first saw it, but I caught a re-run a few years back and it was still enjoyable.

READ THE BLURB

P.I. Bellamy Vale isn’t your everyday investigator. Moonlighting as Death’s earth-bound envoy, he specializes in the weird, wacky, and slightly unhinged.

When a mysterious beast savagely mauls random residents of Cold City, the police assume that these are the killings of a rogue wolf. But experienced private investigator, Bellamy Vale, is unconvinced.

Ordered by Death herself to investigate, Vale has no choice but to obey, for his boss is not someone to disappoint—if he wants to keep breathing, that is.

With friend and computer hacker Zian, nosy journalist Candice Kennedy, and homicide sergeant Melanie Ramirez by his side, Vale has no choice but to end the killings or face the wrath of the demon who holds his life in her hands.

READ AN EXCERPT

I ripped the yellow tape away and entered the arcade. My nose was assaulted by a mixture of bleach and cleaning products. The cleaning team must have worked through the night. It wouldn’t do for the neighbors to wake up to someone lying dead on their sidewalk. No amount of bleach was going to get rid of those bloodstains, though. And it was going to take a lot more than soap to repair the cuts in the carpet and the claw marks on the concrete walls.

My stomach churned at the sight. Either that or it was protesting against all the painkillers I’d popped down. I heaved a sigh, knowing the next step was going to make that feel like a paper cut in comparison. Closing my eyes, I forced my breathing to slow down and emptied my mind of everything superficial. I counted down from five to one, opened my eyes, and looked at the scene in front of me again.

The world had narrowed down, dimmed to a tunnel of sharp, laser-like focus, allowing me to make out the individual fibers of carpet even. The smells had multiplied into a rich palette of chemical compounds that I could separate and identify. Knowing I couldn’t keep my concentration up like this for too long, I hastened to get to work, taking in all the tiniest details of the crime scene.

From the intensity of the claw marks and the pattern left by the blood splatter, I could map out the attack to the point of being able to discern the moves of the victim from those of the beast. Whatever it was that had made the attack, it had a cruel streak that would have done credit to Jack the Ripper. It had trapped the victim in a corner, pushed him further and further inside as it kept moving forward, claws digging into the carpet like some low-rent Hellraiser knock-off, ready to strike when the fear hit fever pitch.

Sweat and fear permeated the air around the place where the old man had stood, trembling and facing a voracious, tall monster. In one giant leap, the beast was on him, claws fully extended and shredding flesh into beef strips.

I recoiled at the thought then shook myself out of it. Despite the cold air, I’d broken into an even colder sweat. The world was spinning around me. I walked back to the street, desperate to get fresh air that didn’t reek of death. I was shaking as I fought to suppress the dry heaving of my stomach. There would be no need to revisit the scene. Everything I’d seen of that massacre was deeply etched into my mind.

MEET THE AUTHOR

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

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.

She is the author of the Neve & Egan Cases series, which features an unlikely duo of private detectives in London: Ashford Egan, a blind History professor, and Alexandra Neve, one of his students.

Currently, she is hard at work on her Urban Fantasy series Vale Investigation which chronicles the exploits of Death’s only envoy on Earth, PI Bellamy Vale, in the fictitious town of Cold City, USA.

Official Website: http://www.cristelle-comby.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Cristelle
Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Cristelle-Comby/e/B00EAWEODS/

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