Black Rubber Dress: A Sam Jones Novel

Over drinks at the most recent Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, a fellow mystery writer with whom I had made several Los Angeles appearances, elbowed me and inquired about the identity of the stunning brunette holding court down the bar. I explained that the exuberant woman was Lauren Henderson, the creator of Sam Jones. My friend was not familiar with Ms. Henderson's work so I went on to give him a brief explanation of Lauren Henderson, Sam Jones, and Tart Noir.BLACK RUBBER DRESS marks the literary debut of Sam Jones--Ms. Henderson's sassy and sexy artist/sleuth. It also marks quite an updating of your traditional British cozy. Actually, it invents a new sub-genre that has become known as Tart Noir. Sam Jones is Miss Marple for our time. She engages in casual sexual and drug use while she winnows a large field of suspects down to the actual killer. This book is a magnificently fun read.As with all Sam Jones novels, style matters as much as substance. Sam is a true original in mystery fiction. She is a strong, hip, and witty protagonist. Tart Noir is one of the freshest breezes to hit crime fiction in decades, and BLACK RUBBER DRESS is one of the best examples of this sub-genre.

Ignore the reviews from those dullards in Illinois and Connecticut! Lauren Henderson's mysteries are clever, witty and a whole lot of fun. There are not many books that have me chuckling aloud as I read, but Black Rubber Dress and Freeze My Margarita certainly did. I loved those books so much, I went to Bibliofind and hunted down the rest of the Sam Jones series. If you're looking for a fun read and aren't too strait-laced, you'll really enjoy Sam Jones.

I am a fan of the Sam Jones series. All I have to say in response to the reader from Harvard, Illinois who found the book "pointless and boring" is that the same could be said of the reader's town. Lauren Henderson's writing is fresh, energetic and full of witty insights about contemporary metropolitan life. Give it a try.

I was so baffled by the last two reviews I just had to respond. You'd have to be really ignorant to call Sam, the heroine, a cockney, and she certainly isn't wooly or dishevelled - this is a girl who wears black rubber dresses and hot-pink miniskirts! it seemed to me that the last two people had hardly bothered to read the book at all - maybe they just don't like strong heroines. Well, that's sad for them. I thought Sam was absolutely fabulous and immediately ordered all the other books from the UK. Witty, hilarious, and very tightly-plotted. couldn't recommend it more highly!

I simply couldn't put this down. The plot is very clever and Lauren Henderson really knows London well. Her characters are vivid and really well-observed, they stayed in my mind long after I put the book down. The dialogue is brilliant, very witty and streetwise, and Sam Jones is an amazing creation, like Philip Marlowe's sexy, naughty younger sister. Jet-propelled and firing on all cylinders. I'm just about to order Henderson's other Sam Jones books and I can't wait to read them. She is a major talent - girl power to the max. Do yourself a favour, buy this book now and you can say you read her before she became world-famous. Which she will.