Playing With The Bad Boys (A Mia Ferrari Mystery, #1) by Sylvia Massara

Playing With The Bad Boys (A Mia Ferrari Mystery, #1) Reviews

• 
  Darcia Helle

  Mia Ferrari is a fun and adventurous woman in her late forties. In this first book in the series, she leads us through a tangled web as she plods along in her quest for answers.
  
  I really enjoyed Mia's character, as well as her supporting cast. At times this book made me laugh. Other times I'd find myself nodding in understanding. The pace is quick, the mystery a bit of a whodunit that allows readers to figure things out along with Mia.
• 
  Gloria Antypowich

  
  This is a wonderful fast paced, jaunty read. The dialogue was witty and sassy. I enjoyed Mia Ferrari's independent, determined, take no crap from anyone, attitude. She has an inquisitive mind and is a passionate amateur sleuth. She is relentless in her quest for the truth; a thorn in the side of the police who are trying to solve the case.
  
  The mystery is well played out. This story line had many twists and turns along the way to the surprise ending. Just when you thought you knew what was happening, you were thrown off balance by another side step.
  
  Mia Ferrari may be in her late 40's, but she is still hot. Romance simmered in the background of the story but she is too smart to jump quickly into an uncertain romantic arena. She is recovering from the marriage that was her own personal train wreck. The ex gets verbally trounced, along with the bimbo who took up with him while he was still married to Mia.
  
  Mia triumphs; she wins on every count!
  
  I loved "Playing With the Bad Boys" because it was fun. I even read during the day, which is something I never do, but I was caught up in the story and wanted to see how it ended.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read investigative, murder/mysteries with a fun, well developed heroine who is a wise ass, smart talking, never back down character. You'll probably chuckle a few times, find your heart in your throat at others and more than once think "I didn't see that coming."
  
• 
  Carol Wyer

  Watch out Janet Evanovich, there's a new 'girl' on the block! Admittedly, she is older than Stephanie Plum but this is a ballsy lady with credibility and determination.
  48 year old Mia Ferrari (who wouldn't want a great name like that?) holds down the position of duty manager at a top Rourke hotel in Sydney. Once rejected by the police force, thanks to her ex-husband and a policeman called Smythe, Mia is a sleuth at heart.
  A suicide occurs on her watch at the hotel and Mia's gut reaction is that foul play is at work. When arch enemy Smyth decides that it is an open and shut case it is Mia, together with good friend and work colleague Dobbs and the hotel manager's son who set about proving there is more to it all.
  The plot is fast-paced and absorbing. Mia is sassy and very smart. She is the sort of woman you would love to have as a friend and not just because she is a dab hand at cooking Italian food. She is loyal, compassionate and funny. As Dobbs points out she is a 'wise-ass' but Mia is also a remarkable woman. She has only just emerged from a heartbreaking break-up after eighteen years of marriage. Her husband has left her for a floozy several years his junior. Does this get the formidable Mia down? No, she picks herself up and starts all over again with entertaining consequences.
  This is an absolute must-read for those who like thrillers, women's fiction and appreciate film noir. Sylvia Massara delivers a slick novel which entertains and also manages to comment on society's attitude to middle-aged women. This is one woman who stands up for all of us in the 'sisterhood' who are getting older and I for one cannot wait for Mia's next case.
• 
  Kerry Reis

  Mia Ferrari, a duty manager of the Rourke International Hotel in Sydney, Australia, is paged with news that a hotel guest had fallen from the tenth floor within the hotel atrium onto a baby grand piano. Was it a suicide or was something more nefarious behind this woman's death? Mia, who is in the middle of an ugly divorce and still blames the lead police detective in the investigation for her rejection to the police force twenty years earlier, believes the latter and has no problem interjecting her own investigation, regardless of the danger or proper procedure. The mystery is light, but the characterizations are brash, as Mia handles the case and her relationships as if she always has something to prove. A perky little mystery.