Review: Stalking Sapphire by Mia Thompson

Title: Stalking Sapphire
Author: Mia Thompson
Published: April 2013 by Diversion Books
Genre: New Adult
Source: Received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary from Goodreads: Despite the illusion Sapphire Dubois presents to the rest of the world, she is not just your stereotypical 22-year old Beverly Hills heiress; she hunts serial killers. While her fellow heirs spend their nights with trending celebs and drugs at the hottest club, Sapphire secretly spends hers luring, capturing, and anonymously handing over So-Cal’s most wanted killers to the police — just your average Tuesday night.

What Sapphire doesn’t know is that one of her adversaries is watching her every move, aware of both her true identity and her unconventional hobby. Needless to say, he doesn’t approve. Used to being the one who redefines the definition of predator and prey, Sapphire’s world abruptly shatters when a gruesome ‘gift’ arrives for her at the Beverly Hills Country Club. With her involuntary crush, handsome Detective Aston Ridder, close on her tail, Sapphire now has to rethink her routine strategy and figure out how to capture a killer who already knows she’s coming.

--

Stalking Sapphire is a New Adult mystery/thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night. I've never read anything quite like Stalking Sapphire, a mix of thriller, mystery, and Beverly Hills drama. The main character, Sapphire, is part of the reason the story is so unique. A socialite who spends her free time catching serial killers anonymously? Talk about badass.

Sapphire, a Beverly Hills socialite, has an interesting hobby: catching serial killers. She just can't make herself care about the same things a normal Beverly Hills heiress does, and finds catching killers to be much more fulfilling than sipping mimosas with her best friend Chrissy at their country club. Then Sapphire receives a severed finger in the mail and the stakes are higher than ever. Now it isn't just Sapphire putting herself in danger-the life of another young woman is in her hands.

Though I had some issues with Stalking Sapphire, which I will get to later, I really enjoyed the novel as a whole. I don't often read mysteries, and Stalking Sapphire has me wondering why that is. It was so much fun to question whodunit and to feel like I couldn't stop reading until I knew. I'll admit, I thought I had it figured out pretty early on, but Thompson threw me a curveball. Maybe a more experienced mystery reader would have had the read culprit figured out before I did, but it sure was a surprise to me.

I loved Sapphire as a character. She has a lot of spunk, and tells it like it is. She puts on a show for everyone around her, but it's obvious to the reader that she doesn't fit into her high class world. She could be really funny, and also had a lot of heart. Aston, the love interest, is just an ass. Seriously, I honestly couldn't stand him for most of the book. He wasn't putting up a front to disguise his inner softy. He was really, truly, a judgmental misogynistic ass. It was hard for me to get behind him as the love interest, yet at the end I found myself softening toward him a bit.

Stalking Sapphire is told from multiple points of view: Sapphire, Aston, Sapphire's stalker, and the girl her stalker is keeping captive. The alternating POVs went smoothly, for the most part. I wasn't crazy about the POV of the culprit. Those sections felt really repetitive but I've never The secondary characters, meaning those who didn't get a POV, were a little bit lacking for me. Sometimes they said things that felt out of character. Other times they just didn't have much of a personality at all.

Stalking Sapphire was a fun, enjoyable read with a spunky main character who is unlike any I've read before. I had a few problems with the characterization, but I think I will be continuing with this series. Honestly, who can turn down a serial-killer-hunting Beverly Hills socialite? Not this girl!