Henderson, Lauren. Black Rubber Dress, A Sam Jones Novel.

Samantha Jones is a sculptress and she has created Thing III, a huge hanging sculpture for this very proper London Bank. While attending the unveiling of her latest creation in her very skimpy, black rubber dress, a bank guard is murdered and Sam begins to stick her nose into what she suspects is a crime that no one else will admit happened. Along the way there is another murder, a great deal of intrigue, and a steamy romance with one of the handsome bankers.

Sam is an intriguing cross between Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Helen Fielding's very English Bridget Jones. She is funny, frank, and furtive when she has to be. She is very much a creature of the swinging culture of her artistic coven and is not adverse to casual sex and casual drug use. Her friends are an interesting mix of bohemian and snob, artiste and poseur, as well as loyal and complex. Be well advised--this is not a sweet British cozy.

The mystery was complicated and well perceived. Among the many suspects, Henderson weaves her clues and doubts so that I unraveled the pattern just about the same time as Sam does. Sam's internal monologue is an effervescent string of amusing asides and intricate calculations. Her criticisms of friend and foe alike is entertaining and perceptive. She does not cut herself a great deal of slack either.

The author hints at a past that has a friend's murder and the beginning of her love/hate relationship with Hawkins, a London police detective. The next two books may enlighten us more about Sam's past and bring us to the brink of suspense with her future. I'm planning to devour Freeze My Margarita and Strawberry Tattoo in the very near future in order to find out more about this delicious character.

Leane M. Ellis, September 13, 2001.