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Psychic For Hire #1
Copycat Killer
Killers haunt her dreams, and there’s not a darn thing she can do about it.
After messing up a case badly, Diana Bellona’s days of working as a psychic for the special Agency that hunts killers of the monstrous variety are over. These days she’s a lowly waitress struggling to pay for her next meal. And she’s still dreaming of death.
This time it’s the brutal double-homicide of a celebrity succubus and her lover. The press say that the monster who murdered Diana’s mother, the notorious Devil Claw Killer, is on the hunt again — but Diana’s dreams insist the suspect is a copycat. Chasing him brings her face-to-face with her former boss, Special Agent Constantine Storm, who warns her to stay out of his way. The trouble is that Storm’s chasing the wrong guy, and Diana was never one to stay out of Storm’s way.
If she catches this killer she’ll fix her track record and prove Storm wrong. Hell, she might even make her rent. But in a world of magic and power, wizards and otherkind, are her dreams and her wits going to be enough?
If you like Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, K.F. Breene, Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Darynda Jones, Michael Anderle, Domino Finn, Rick Gualtieri, Shayne Silvers, Amanda Lee, Brad Magnarella, or Kim Harrison...you'll be will absolutely love the Psychic For Hire series.
Urban Fantasy mystery COPYCAT KILLER is the first book in the Psychic For Hire Series:
Prequel - Angel Of Death
Book 1 – Psychic For Hire
Book 2 – Killer Moon
Book 3 – Killer’s Gambit – Out in March 2019
After messing up a case badly, Diana Bellona’s days of working as a psychic for the special Agency that hunts killers of the monstrous variety are over. These days she’s a lowly waitress struggling to pay for her next meal. And she’s still dreaming of death.
This time it’s the brutal double-homicide of a celebrity succubus and her lover. The press say that the monster who murdered Diana’s mother, the notorious Devil Claw Killer, is on the hunt again — but Diana’s dreams insist the suspect is a copycat. Chasing him brings her face-to-face with her former boss, Special Agent Constantine Storm, who warns her to stay out of his way. The trouble is that Storm’s chasing the wrong guy, and Diana was never one to stay out of Storm’s way.
If she catches this killer she’ll fix her track record and prove Storm wrong. Hell, she might even make her rent. But in a world of magic and power, wizards and otherkind, are her dreams and her wits going to be enough?
If you like Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, K.F. Breene, Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Darynda Jones, Michael Anderle, Domino Finn, Rick Gualtieri, Shayne Silvers, Amanda Lee, Brad Magnarella, or Kim Harrison...you'll be will absolutely love the Psychic For Hire series.
Urban Fantasy mystery COPYCAT KILLER is the first book in the Psychic For Hire Series:
Prequel - Angel Of Death
Book 1 – Psychic For Hire
Book 2 – Killer Moon
Book 3 – Killer’s Gambit – Out in March 2019
240 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2019
25 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Hermione Stark
10 books16 followersHermione Stark has a passion for paranormal, urban fantasy and fantasy novels. She loves penning stories about things that go bump in the night and the heroes determined to stop them, and is constantly making up new worlds (or new spins on our world) in her head for her characters to have adventures in.
She lives in England with her fabulous moody fluff ball of a kitty, he who must not be named. Currently she is looking forward to getting her hands on the next ASOIAF novel (Game of Thrones to you show watchers) but doesn't mind waiting for George to perfect it. In the meantime she'll be busy crafting her next fantasy adventure...
Join her mailing list to stay up to date with her latest news. Sign up here ➜ http://www.hermionestark.com/
She lives in England with her fabulous moody fluff ball of a kitty, he who must not be named. Currently she is looking forward to getting her hands on the next ASOIAF novel (Game of Thrones to you show watchers) but doesn't mind waiting for George to perfect it. In the meantime she'll be busy crafting her next fantasy adventure...
Join her mailing list to stay up to date with her latest news. Sign up here ➜ http://www.hermionestark.com/
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 10, 2019
Thank you Hidden Gem Books for this arc.
This was a good concept, but a miss for me. The characters were just too flat for my tastes, in particular Diana. Clueless but in it for the paycheck. The pacing of the story was somewhat erratic, start, stop, start, stop. Some editing of extraneous details would have helped tighten it up.
This was a good concept, but a miss for me. The characters were just too flat for my tastes, in particular Diana. Clueless but in it for the paycheck. The pacing of the story was somewhat erratic, start, stop, start, stop. Some editing of extraneous details would have helped tighten it up.
October 17, 2019
I gave this 3 stars because although my review is mostly negative this story has tons of potential and the core idea is a good one, but it really needs a good editor and proofreader. The pacing is extremely inconsistant and there are numerous plot holes. I did not connect with the main character and I was left with many questions at the end. I had a hard time finishing the story and the numerous typos and grammatical errors were extremely distracting for me.
October 26, 2019
This is the first book in the Psychic for Hire series and has a main character Diana, the psychic of the title, who made a big mess of her first ever case for the Special Investigation Unit for hunting down dangerous supernatural beings. There seems to have been a whole story before this book takes place and I presume this may take place in a prequel. After the events that blew up in her face, she was sacked from the unit and ends up having to do multiple jobs, just to make ends meet. She was told to get training as a psychic to gain a foothold back to the unit, but has no means or time to get this training!
One of her jobs is with what you would call a good boss in a local Italian restaurant near her bedsit, but her other one has a horrible, sexist boss who favours another female worker, who messes with her shifts and her ability to even eat properly or pay her rent. She has never known her parents and only recently learnt of the death of her birth mother and her actual funeral at the last moment. Trying to get time off from her horrible boss, leaves her more than upset, but the funeral at least gives her a glimpse of the man she has a crush on, Constantine Storm, and who she wants the chance to work with again.
Her mother’s death was by murder, from a killer named the Devil Claw Killer (DCK), due to the way they rip apart their victims and leave an obvious calling card. She wants to solve her mother’s death and feels guilty for not being there to save her. Her psychic visions are not often clear and she has no training as an Oracle, so has to contend with numerous nightmares and headaches from her visions and the actions she observes. Another murder has been linked to the Devil Claw Killer and she wants to find a way back into the unit, with her recent repetitive vision of a murder about to happen.
Our main character was in a car accident at sixteen and has complete amnesia of her previous life, thus not knowing who her parents were. She was apparently given up shortly after her birth, by her mother, to try and hide what she was. The world is full of humans and those classed as Otherkinds, those with supernatural powers. She is one of these others, with a special navel stone which she keeps hidden from sight, having been told others may hunt her down if they knew what she was. Only problem with that is that she doesn’t know what she is herself! Most of tis information isn’t really explained and must be in a separate story, which would have been useful to read before this one, which is noted as book one!
The voice inside of her, which seems to have the name ‘Nemesis’, seems to be taking over and ends up leaving her in some embarrassing situations. Kind of like an alter ego, letting you give free rein to all those emotions you normally keep hidden. To be something you would never be, or ever dare to be, if you were conscious of what you were doing. A new murder that seems to be by the DCK killer leads the Special Agency Unit to start a new investigation. Another vision haunts Diana and this time she wants to warn the people she saw in her vision and stop the murder from happening. What she finds is that she has left it too long and finds what she calls a copycat killer pretending to be the DCK killer.
The Unit’s head gives her the chance to follow the investigation, but with no powers or direct role in the case. Hampering her chances of finding anything out, but she needs to work on her visions and try her own methods to investigate. She isn’t supposed to break the law, but works her way around matters in her own manner and even has a way in, to where a main suspect is thought to be hiding. Her alter ego, or is it something else, takes over her body and mind, leading to some strange, yet daring behaviour.
A great read for any who love a bit of a supernatural storyline, with some interesting characters and lots of different beings, such as deaths of a number of succubus’, an incubus, a werewolf, a psychic and many more. A psychic who has to work minimum wage jobs as a waitress, wanting to get back to work with the Agency’s Unit and the handsome and enigmatic Storm. Far too much is left unexplained regarding past events that seem to have a huge part in where Diana finds herself in the current day and really should have been written into a prequel, to read first! The story is interesting and I would like to find out more about this Agency, Diana’s story and her relationship with Storm.
I received an ARC copy of this book from Hidden Gems and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
One of her jobs is with what you would call a good boss in a local Italian restaurant near her bedsit, but her other one has a horrible, sexist boss who favours another female worker, who messes with her shifts and her ability to even eat properly or pay her rent. She has never known her parents and only recently learnt of the death of her birth mother and her actual funeral at the last moment. Trying to get time off from her horrible boss, leaves her more than upset, but the funeral at least gives her a glimpse of the man she has a crush on, Constantine Storm, and who she wants the chance to work with again.
Her mother’s death was by murder, from a killer named the Devil Claw Killer (DCK), due to the way they rip apart their victims and leave an obvious calling card. She wants to solve her mother’s death and feels guilty for not being there to save her. Her psychic visions are not often clear and she has no training as an Oracle, so has to contend with numerous nightmares and headaches from her visions and the actions she observes. Another murder has been linked to the Devil Claw Killer and she wants to find a way back into the unit, with her recent repetitive vision of a murder about to happen.
Our main character was in a car accident at sixteen and has complete amnesia of her previous life, thus not knowing who her parents were. She was apparently given up shortly after her birth, by her mother, to try and hide what she was. The world is full of humans and those classed as Otherkinds, those with supernatural powers. She is one of these others, with a special navel stone which she keeps hidden from sight, having been told others may hunt her down if they knew what she was. Only problem with that is that she doesn’t know what she is herself! Most of tis information isn’t really explained and must be in a separate story, which would have been useful to read before this one, which is noted as book one!
The voice inside of her, which seems to have the name ‘Nemesis’, seems to be taking over and ends up leaving her in some embarrassing situations. Kind of like an alter ego, letting you give free rein to all those emotions you normally keep hidden. To be something you would never be, or ever dare to be, if you were conscious of what you were doing. A new murder that seems to be by the DCK killer leads the Special Agency Unit to start a new investigation. Another vision haunts Diana and this time she wants to warn the people she saw in her vision and stop the murder from happening. What she finds is that she has left it too long and finds what she calls a copycat killer pretending to be the DCK killer.
The Unit’s head gives her the chance to follow the investigation, but with no powers or direct role in the case. Hampering her chances of finding anything out, but she needs to work on her visions and try her own methods to investigate. She isn’t supposed to break the law, but works her way around matters in her own manner and even has a way in, to where a main suspect is thought to be hiding. Her alter ego, or is it something else, takes over her body and mind, leading to some strange, yet daring behaviour.
A great read for any who love a bit of a supernatural storyline, with some interesting characters and lots of different beings, such as deaths of a number of succubus’, an incubus, a werewolf, a psychic and many more. A psychic who has to work minimum wage jobs as a waitress, wanting to get back to work with the Agency’s Unit and the handsome and enigmatic Storm. Far too much is left unexplained regarding past events that seem to have a huge part in where Diana finds herself in the current day and really should have been written into a prequel, to read first! The story is interesting and I would like to find out more about this Agency, Diana’s story and her relationship with Storm.
I received an ARC copy of this book from Hidden Gems and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
October 11, 2019
Our heroine dreams of murder, not in the sense that she wants to commit it, far from it. Stopping the killer, however, is not an easy thing.
This it book one in this paranormal mystery series, so it is a great place to start. There is a prequel book available which might give a bit of background, but I have not read it, so I can't really say.
This story is almost more a detective story with a dose of paranormal than the other way around. By that I mean that finding (and stopping) the killer is the primary focus. It just so happens to involve lots of paranormal characters hidden in the real world. I found the blend to be quite compelling, right up my alley as one of my favorite genres.
The story itself was well written and the characters were fascinating, with plenty of detail (and mystery) to make the interesting and to keep me wanting more. The story line also had plenty of twists and turns to keep my flipping pages up to the end. Overall, a very enjoyable weekend read and I am looking forward to the next book.
Highly recommended.
This it book one in this paranormal mystery series, so it is a great place to start. There is a prequel book available which might give a bit of background, but I have not read it, so I can't really say.
This story is almost more a detective story with a dose of paranormal than the other way around. By that I mean that finding (and stopping) the killer is the primary focus. It just so happens to involve lots of paranormal characters hidden in the real world. I found the blend to be quite compelling, right up my alley as one of my favorite genres.
The story itself was well written and the characters were fascinating, with plenty of detail (and mystery) to make the interesting and to keep me wanting more. The story line also had plenty of twists and turns to keep my flipping pages up to the end. Overall, a very enjoyable weekend read and I am looking forward to the next book.
Highly recommended.
June 22, 2019
Copycat Killer by Hermione Stark is the first book in the Psychic For Hire series. This book is about a psychic named Diana Bellona and her need to be an active agent working for a policing agency that works on cases involving paranormals that is called the Agency of Otherkind Investigations. The main character Diana is definitely an interesting character and her personality is quirky. This book is very involved with many twists, turns, and it is full of adventures that Diana continually finds without trying. This story was a great read that kept my attention from the first page to the lasr. Copycat Killer is a compelling paranormal mystery.
June 22, 2019
This author has written a unique story with the Copycat Killer. Diana has to follow what her dreams tell her no matter what anyone else has to say about it. I really enjoyed the characters in this story. The descriptions are wonderfully crafted and bring you into Diana's world with her. I will definitely be reading more in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
February 19, 2019
Dreams
The introduction is interesting, and I like Diana’s naivety. She comes across as a real person, and is likeable.
There are a few basic errors (incorrect words, timeline is a little confusing at first) and the writing is still a little raw, however the story is good and I’m looking forward to seeing the author’s skill develop as more books are written. Very promising.
The introduction is interesting, and I like Diana’s naivety. She comes across as a real person, and is likeable.
There are a few basic errors (incorrect words, timeline is a little confusing at first) and the writing is still a little raw, however the story is good and I’m looking forward to seeing the author’s skill develop as more books are written. Very promising.
February 28, 2019
I have read a lot of these types of books lately and honestly found this one to be refreshingly different.
Her writing draws you in and keeps you involved throughout the whole story, I found myself in love with not only the characters but also the world she created.
Her descriptions of the characters abilities are so involved, you can truly picture it in your mind.
Her writing draws you in and keeps you involved throughout the whole story, I found myself in love with not only the characters but also the world she created.
Her descriptions of the characters abilities are so involved, you can truly picture it in your mind.
June 23, 2019
Even though this book reads great as it is, now that I know there is a prequel, I feel like I am missing much of the story! I do say this book is great as is and I loved it. I love the writing style of this author and plan to finish the series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
March 20, 2019
I am freely leaving my review of this book "Copycat Killer" Hermione Stark has written a fantastic mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. I am looking forward to the second book just to see if the little voice comes out and is kept under control.
February 24, 2019
this book had me at the edge of my seat wanting to know what would happen nex tcant wait for the next book
its a must read
its a must read
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews