with a thick wallet and a request ‘Evil Embers’ #UrbanFantasy @cristelle @GoddessFish

Hey folks! Today I’m happy to introduce you to Cristelle Comby and her story Evil Embers (Vale Investigation, book 2)!

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Cristelle Comby was born and raised in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, on the shores of Lake 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.

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Website ## Amazon Author Page ## Twitter ## Goodreads

~ * ~ ABOUT THE AUTHOR and BOOK ~ * ~

Can you describe your dream home?
My day-job is in interior design, so I could go on for hours about the little details and brands I’d like to use. But to keep it short: white walls, lots of floor-to-ceiling windows for a maximum of light. Light brown floorboards. A big open kitchen with lots of storage space. Modern-looking bathrooms. A laundry room with enough space to hang clothes. Enough room that I could turn one into a gym. Oh, and a swimming pool.

If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?
If you show up unannounced, probably not much. But if I know you’re coming, you’re in for a treat. I don’t really spend the time when it’s just me, but when I have guest I go all in! So yeah, you’d be getting a completely home-made three course meal. Including an amazing desert (my specialty).

Tell us about the absolute BEST fan letter you have received.
The sweetest was from a man in Australia. He told me his sister liked my books and he wondered how he could buy a signed copy to gift to her for her birthday. I mailed him one, all the way away from Switzerland, and he wrote back a few weeks later to tell me the parcel got there just in time.

Say your publisher has offered to fly you anywhere in the world to do research on an upcoming book, where would you most likely want to go?
I love studying mythologies; it’s a hobby of mine and I read a lot about the subject. So I’d probably bundle up Greece and Egypt, and go see things for myself. I’d visit museums and historical sites like the Parthenon and the Pyramids.

Who designed the book cover for the book you are touring?
Miguel Ereza, a Spanish artist. I found him on 99Designs.com when I was looking for a cover for the first book in the Vale Investigation series. I fell in love with his style, so I went back to him for the cover of the second book. Here’s his page: https://99designs.com/profiles/2792967

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After narrowly preventing the destruction of Cold City, PI Bellamy Vale needs a rest. Or rather, he needs a plain and simple vanilla case—no monsters or otherworldly creatures involved!

When foreign businessman Eli Smith shows up at his doorstep with a thick wallet and a request to find his missing sister, Vale doesn’t think twice before agreeing.

If he’d known body-hopping demons and smoke monsters came attached to this job, however, he might have.

~ * ~ EXCERPT ~ * ~

So what if it was mid-February? The way I was feeling that morning, I planned to sleep until New Year came around again. Hells, as far as I was concerned, I earned it ten times over. I put an end to a string of gruesome killings, prevented the apocalypse our former mayor intended for us, and I’d stuck around long enough to clean up the mess she and her minions left behind. All that thinking took out the last bit of energy I had. I closed my eyes, found a way to lie down that didn’t hurt too much, and let sleep throw its soothing blanket over me.

And then someone knocked at the door.

I groaned at the wrong timing but kept my eyes shut. There was no way in Tartarus that I was getting back up again so soon. Whoever it was could get lost.

The knocking came again.

It was more insistent this time. I could hear a sense of urgency to the motion. I forced one eye open and frowned. The sunlight streaming in from the window was too bright for it to be morning and the angle it bounced off the floorboards was all wrong. I opened my second eye and glanced at the clock on the bedside table…Three in the afternoon.

“The hells?” I muttered, wondering where the day went while I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs.

The knock came a third time and I got up, grumbling all the way to the door. I didn’t bother to put clothes on or to tidy myself up before opening it. I was clad only in an old pair of sweatpants with a variety of cuts, bruises, and bandages on full display throughout my upper body. I hadn’t shaved in a week, and I was sure my hair was a sweaty mess of brown locks and dried blood.

Who knows, I thought, maybe the sight of me will convince my uninvited guest to let me get back to my coma.

If the man in the hallway took notice of my state, he didn’t let it show. He was tall and sickly thin under his rumbled three-piece suit. His pale skin provided some severe contrast with the purple bags under his brown eyes. He was somewhere between forty and forty-five. His angular face wasn’t familiar, and my frown deepened.

He looked like a potential client, the I-want-to-know-who-my-wife-is-banging type, but they rarely showed up to my private address unannounced. I made a lot of enemies in my professional career, not all of them on this side of the border, so my business card only listed my cell number.

The suit he wore appeared brand new, but I frowned more as I realized something didn’t add up. I was no fashion expert, but the matching of colors between the vest and shirt was off, brownish orange shirt covered by a purple jacket. Oh, and he wore a tie that matched his jacket…ugh. The light brown shoes were also at odds with the indigo blue pants. And there was the smell on the guy. It wasn’t a garbage smell—I’d been around enough of that over the last month to know it at first whiff—but there was a smoky quality about it that stood out.

I filed the information away for later and looked the man squarely in the eye. “What?” I croaked, my tongue feeling too thick and my mouth too dry.

“Bellamy Vale?” he asked, with an accent that wasn’t from around here…Middle Eastern, maybe?

I jerked my thumb at the bell next to the door. It had my name on it.

The man peered down at it perplexed, then pressed the round button. A shrill ringing shot out of the tiny plastic box above the door, and the sound sent sharp needles dancing through my brain. I winced in pain.

“Yeah—yeah, that’s me.” I rushed the words out, eager to make the noise stop. Damn, but my head was killing me. My odd gentleman caller took his finger off the button to look at me again.

“I need your help,” he said, “to find my sister.”

I needed help too, preferably in the form of another round of painkillers. But that was going to have to wait. I waved my potential new client inside.

~ * ~ BUY ~ * ~

Amazon: US

~ * ~ GIVEAWAY ~ * ~

From Cristelle Comby: One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. CLICK HERE to enter to win! Readers, follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates and places can be found here: Tour Schedule

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Cristelle Comby, thank you for stopping by today!

Love & blessings to all! ❤
Jacey