In the last few years, I have read a few books that mix the supernatural with a private detective. Most do an okay job of it. However, Hostile Takeover crafts the world-building to make one of the best supernatural detective tales I have read.

Sometimes I take a chance with a book that looks and whose blurb sounds completely random. Of those sometimes, I have fun with very few. I had fun reading this. A few pages into it, I felt like I was reading a contemporary version of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, which I read quite recently. I kept thinking that until the sudden appearance of immortals into the narrative. ( I did not read the blurb before I started reading it, only when I had first placed it in my TBR).
The snappy writing and the constant action can be tiring but is anything but boring. Our lead protagonist is Bellamy Vale. He has made a deal with powers beyond the mortal plane. This gives him access and requires him to carry out actions to protect ordinary citizen from getting caught in problems of the other 'worlds'. Gods from some western mythologies are present in the narrative, and prior knowledge of them might help keep plot points in order. I knew just the basics and understood most of what was happening, Vale does help by providing us with context when required. It is a relatively short book, and I would not recommend it to anyone who is not a fan of action sequences and magical creatures being the core of a narrative based in our current reality.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Feels like a more aggressive version of the Dresden Files, which isn't a bad thing. Enjoyable to read, I'm interested in where this series leads.

Do you like mystery? Do you like mythology? Then you might just enjoy Hostile Takeover by Cristelle Comby. This novel blends the two genres, along with a healthy dose of supernatural, into a detective story.
I did find it slow-going initially but found that the pace picked up further into the plot. This is the first novel of a series, and there is some backstory that is mentioned by never quite elaborated on for the protagonist Bellamy Vale that lends him an air of mystery on how he got caught up doing what he is doing. The plot is concluded nicely, not leaving any frustrating cliff-hangers, but also allows a follow-on string for possible future novels. It was an enjoyable read and I recommend it to those who like detective novels that take on a fantasy twist.

This novel was given free to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Cold City we have a hero, Bellamy Vale, who seems to get into at least one too many fights.
The story starts with him rescuing a young girl kidnapped for ransom. He is a Private Investigator with a penchant for getting into trouble – and a very strange relationship with a femme fatale demon – she saved his life and got various favours from him in return. He calls her Lady McDeath. And thus we add in some supernatural to the storyline.
Written in the light style of modern PI stories where we expect to find our PI amenable, lovable, and to feel for him. He is not cold and is often misguided and has to fight the nasties that other citizens may not even know about.

this was a really unique read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed this book as the plot was super fun and interesting.

Hostile Takeover by Cristelle Comby, a good read. Vale is a P.I. who has links to the supernatural and sometimes those links and contacts are not what they seem...

Bellamy Vale, known as Bell to his friends, is a sympathetic protagonist, with a nice line in humour which goes over well in the middle of his various adventures. He is an agent for Lady McDeath, who issues him with tasks and gives him suitable magical protections to carry them out.

It was an enjoyable read – Cold City is an interesting place with plenty of corruption going on behind the scenes. There are a number of scary antagonists, while Bell has his own set of friends to help – my favourite characters were computer geek Zian, who also happens to be Greek god Hermes’ son. And Hermes is very protective of him, to the extent that Bell is left in no doubt that he’ll die an agonising death, should anything nasty happen to Zian. Given that Bell is given highly dangerous jobs by his immortal patron, this is an ongoing problem for him.

The plot was well constructed. I didn’t see the solution – and to be honest, for me this one was all about the journey, anyway. While the trope and setup is very familiar, the story is peopled with a host of memorable, quirky characters brimming with personality so that I turned the pages to find out who would pitch up next.

The book ended with an interesting development about to happen and fortunately, Himself, who is a gem – had already got hold of the second book in this series, so I don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. Recommended for fans of enjoyable urban fantasy. While I obtained an arc of Hostile Takeover from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

A Book about a PI who solves bis cases with the help of a bit magic. He and his friends have to fight against an underworld creature. I liked reading this suspensful novel.

Very entertaining and action packed. I enjoyed the mix of urban fantasy w/detective noir. The supernatural world building was interesting too.

I have a little penchant for urban fantasy, and if you throw in noir-style action, mythology, and sarcastic charm well… how could I resist???
And I am really glad to have given in to the temptation! Even if to be honest, there is not so much sarcasm as I was hoping, I was not disappointed by this reading. Not disappointed at all!

The world that the author creates for us is interesting. Her “other world” is fascinating, and I loved that she includes in it all the mythology, not only one. And so we have so many interesting Underworlds, and similar, and the Gods are all there, somewhere at least. I really hope to see more of it, but so far I am glad about what she gave us here.

And with an interesting world, we get some interesting characters. Vale is our MC, and he is quite a pleasant guy to be around. He wasn’t as sarcastic or as witty, or as fun, as I was hoping, that’s true, but I didn’t miss it while reading. I enjoyed being with him, and I enjoyed him quite a lot. And with him, we have some good sidekicks, too! I think I love Zian, he is just this cute nerdy guy, but well… this is not all there he is! And his father is just… oh my! I enjoyed him, too (the father I mean). And Kennedy. I was not a big fan of her, especially at the beginning, but in the end, I warmed up to her, too.
On the one hand, they are not amazing or memorable, and I know that this seems a bad thing, but it is not. Yes, maybe I am not so invested in them, and I won’t take them with me, that’s true, but I enjoyed being there with them all, I enjoyed their adventures and their relationships. And hence, I enjoyed their company.

And we have a solid story here. It is intriguing and captivating, and I had some difficulties to just put down the book. Once you are in, you wouldn’t get out easily, that’s for sure. And we visit a lot of interesting places, too. I’d love to visit the Tomb, for example. So, to try and summarize it all, I had a great time with this book, and I want more. I really hope to get to read the sequels, because Bellamy Vale was an interesting character, and a good PI, too!

The author had my attention starting out the chapter by calling it “Wile E. Coyote”, since I’m a huge Bugs Bunny fan, it made me chuckle and settle in for a bit of a wild ride. I was enjoying Bellamy Vales/Bell snark and his penchant for winding up at the wrong end of someone’s fists. However after a bit things started feeling a bit repetitive and the story did start dragging a bit for me.

I know that you have to establish and let us in on who’s who and what not, it just felt like a bit of an information dump for a bit. Thankfully once we got past about a quarter of the way through things started picking up and the crumbs that the author was laying out started to come together and form a meaty lunch.

The seamless way the author wove characters we know from mythology into the present day and how much they still controlled in our would unbeknownst to us. The secondary characters had enough spunk and dimension and they played nicely off of Bell. They were his family by association and by a strange sense of caring that Bell had and he protected his own. My only thought is it going to be like a lot of other supernatural books, movies where there is a police officer involved that knows the main character and is kept in the dark for most of the stories or will his ex be brought up to speed as to what he is?

There are a few twists, and a lot of gunplay considering there is magic involved there wasn’t enough use of magic for me at least in this book. For a first book it has enough to make me want to know what’s next for Bell and finding out a bit more about him.

I received an ARC of this story and I am leaving a voluntary review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Everytime I review an Urban Fantasy book I write the same thing: why don’t I read this genre more often? It is one of my favourites and one that rarely fails to entertain me. One of these days I will go back to Harry Dresden if he still wants anything to do with me. In the meantime, I will keep enjoying incursions into cities full of supernatural activity like this one. Let’s dust off our classical mythology and see what crazy adventures we can find in Cold City!

This is our first adventure with Bellamy Vale, a private investigator in the fictional place called Cold City. Even though this is the premiere for us, the poor guy has been around a while. He is the errand boy of no other than Lady Death. Bell must investigate and resolve every supernatural crime that happens in his zone and he can’t complain about it. A new series of strange murders soon become more than he can chew and the endurance of his life will be tested thoroughly. Thankfully, he can count with the help of two loyal allies: Zian, the hacker, and Kennedy, the intrepid reporter. Will the merry band be enough to stop the conspiracy brewing in Cold City?

One of the reasons this genre always delivers is that, by its own nature, it must be rich on action. A dull moment is not something you are likely to find during the readong of an Urban Fantasy novel. The first installment of Vale Investigation is no exception. It starts with our poor inspector fighting for his life and it ends the same way. And yes, I love it; but it is not perfect. This book lacks a bit of variety in that aspect. Almost all the fights are gun based, and that results a bit bland in a world with magic and supernatural creatures. Actually, that would be my main complaint of this story: too many gunslingers and too few spellslingers.

This story is not only fast, it also delivers a pretty well developed mystery. At first it looked like too many pieces without connection, but little by little the author puts everything together to unveil the conspiracy. Or at least part of it… I think more about it will be discovered in future books by the way things have ended in this one. During a point in the story, I was afraid of having to deal with too many side quests and get lost in the process; but it fluids easily and it is not as hard to follow as I was expecting. I would have prefered less secondary characters, but I guess every detail is important to reach the ending we get.

For a book told completely from the point of view of Bellamy Vale, I have the feeling we don’t really get to know much about him. He is a nice guy, friendly, loyal; but his past is shrouded in shadows and we barely get any hint about it. It looks promising, so I hope for more details in future books. He is obviosluy a guy with a healthy sense of humor; one that, sadly, he doesn’t use as often as I would have liked. I guess he was too busy taking punchs to make some wisecracks… The other two main characters haven’t really rocked my world. Zian is an interesting fellow, but so far he hasn’t got a lot of development time. Bell’s big brother realtionship with the hacker is one of the main strengths of this story, so I hope he gets better built in future books. On the other hand, Kennedy annoys me a little bit with her trigger happy attitude and rather cold demeanour. For someone who wasn’t in the know, she takes it all waaaay to easily.

There is not a lot of time invested on world buiilding, but the little there is has caught my interest pretty quickly. I love the idea of having a supernatural world where all the mythologies are gathered and ruled by a central government called the Conclave. That brings some fun mixes to Cold City, where we get to meet gods from several pantheons. At least it’s fun for us. Poor Vale would disagree with me.

HOSTILE TAKEOVER by Cristelle Comby is the first book in the Vale Investigation urban fantasy series. The setting is a fictional city in the USA called Cold City. Private Investigator Bellamy Vale is nearly immortal, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be hurt. He works cases for both mortals and supernaturals. When a series of otherworldly attacks occur, Vale and his associates investigate. But with crime bosses, murder, otherworldly beasts, a jealous ex-girlfriend who happens to be a police detective, a young journalist, and his friends and associates, what else can go wrong?

The characters felt three-dimensional, with distinct flaws and virtues. Their goals were clear and proactive with believable motivations and appropriate emotions. The world-building was well-done and transported me to Cold City. This book was action-packed with high stakes and several plot twists. It also incorporates mythology and the occasional bit of sarcasm. The plot was suspenseful, clever, intriguing, engrossing, and fast-paced.

Overall, this was unique, fresh, dark, gritty, and entertaining. One minor quibble is that I would have liked a little more background in a first book in a series for how Bell became what he is today. However, if you enjoy action-packed urban fantasies, then this a series to be considered. I am looking forward to reading more books in this series as well as the other’s other series.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and Cristelle Comby for a complimentary ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

An excellent fantasy, action packed and fast paced. It was an entertaining and engrossing read.
I appreciated the world building, the cast of characters and the plot that flows.
I look forward to reading other books in this series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.