Black Rubber Dress: A Sam Jones Novel [Paperback]

Lauren Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1999

PRAISE FOR LAUREN HENDERSON AND THE SAM JONES SERIES
“Wickedly funny . . .”—New York Times Book Review
“Sharply intelligent. . . . Hipper than hip.”—Denver Rocky Mountain News

Sexy, savvy sculptor-turned-sleuth Sam Jones attracts trouble like she does men. When her sculpture Thing III is unveiled at a swank reception in the atrium of a London bank, a dead body crashes the party. From there, events take a distinctly dangerous turn. Our rubber-clad heroine hardly suspects that in a few days she’ll be embroiled in a hot affair with a BMW-driving, Kensington-dwelling stockbroker—the shame of it!

Forced to hang out with a pair of spoiled, anorexic rich girls and their unsavory entourage of “friends” as she unravels the facts behind the murder, Sam finds herself unwillingly pulled into a twisted world of drugs, blackmail, and trust funds—one that seems to spell disaster for high society’s darlings. By the end of the week even the usually tough-as-nails Sam is running scared. She needs to get to the bottom of it all—before she turns up dead herself.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Samantha "Sam" Jones, a London sculptress, revels in the ironies of life. Her recent sale of a colossal mobile to a merchant bank temporarily places her among a group of spoiled rich folk, including an anorexic, a drug-addicted banker's daughter, a hunky corporate financier, and others. Sam's wonderfully sardonic narrative serves as satiric commentary, especially as she and said hunk have their way with each other. Meanwhile, Sam ponders the suspicious import of a security guard's dying words, then investigates a murder involving her sculpture. A topnotch first novel.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

You may think you've seen the last word in British bitchiness, but that's because you haven't met Samantha Jones, a Holloway sculptor with an imagination two steps below the gutter, a list of lovers out to here, and a world-class attitude. Sam's career seems poised to take flight when David Stronge, chair of Mowbray Steiner's Art Acquisitions Committee, selects her mobile Floating Planet (though Sam still calls it Thing III) for the bank's dauntingly upscale lobby. But the unveiling is marred by the death of a night watchman, and even though Sam takes what comfort she can from the fiascoin this case, the comfortably comprehensive embraces of dishy Mowbray banker Sebastian Shawa subsequent visit to Mowbray Steiner is even less successful, ending as it does when Floating Planet plummets to earth, crushing beneath it bland Charles de Groot and cutting short Charles's engagement to Belinda Fine, daughter of Mowbray chairman Sir Richard Fine. The suspects, from Belinda's self-absorbed twin Suki to Sir Richard's mistress Genevive Planchet to fair-haired financier Simon Grenville, are a bunch of stiffs, but Sam, a determined outsider who describes Sebastian's combination of good conversation and great sex as ``a total environment,'' jolts them and their fashion mistakes alive with all the subtlety of Dr. Frankenstein. Only one complaint about Henderson's bright debut: Should a girl who brags about having been around the block so many times be quite so shocked at the skeletons she finds in the stiffs' closets? -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Crown Publishers (May 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609804383
• ISBN-13: 978-0609804384
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,955,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A definite "guilty pleasure", June 12, 2000

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Rubber Dress: A Sam Jones Novel (Paperback)

The Sam Jones series of suspense novels by Lauren Henderson was recommended to me by an editor at Amazon.com, and I decided to take a chance and purchase the earliest one available (the actual first in the series "Dead White Female", appears to be out of print) as a gift to my 21 year old daughter, who enjoys books with a female protagonist. She liked the book very much, so I read it, and I also enjoyed it. Sam Jones is not the typical female character, but rather an independent, single person who lets nothing stand in her way when she has the scent of a good mystery. The tale is well-told, with a number of interesting characters and minor plots. The mystery is rather straight-forward, but that's all right with me: I'm not engaged in a guessing game with the author, I just like to read the book. Some references to things only known by British readers tends to be puzzling, but I'm sure overseas readers of American books have the same problem. This is well done, and a good diversion for a few hours at any time of year.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An "edgy" and hip mystery which includes sex and drugs., August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Rubber Dress: A Sam Jones Novel (Paperback)

I loved Lauren Henderson's book "Black Rubber Dress" but the reader should be aware that the Samantha (Sam) Jones character does induldge in casual sex and casual cocaine use. If you think Janet Evanovich's series with Stephanie Plum is wild, you won't believe Sam Jones!! But Henderson is a very good writer and the action is funny and fast paced. I wanted to read more but her other books are not in print (at least in the US).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unconventional, sexy London mystery heroine, May 6, 2000

By 

John DiBello (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Rubber Dress: A Sam Jones Novel (Paperback)

Our heroine's name here is *Samantha* Jones, not Bridget...but if Bridget Jones lost her paranoia and self-obsession she might turn into Sam Jones! There's much of the same characterization, concern and compulsion with boyfriends, dating, sex, losing weight, career, etc., transplanted into a hip North London sculptor, and thankfully, it's a lot more entertaining to read. (Brief memo to Helen Fielding: give poor Bridget a *plot* next time!) If you like British mysteries but are turned off by their usual two extremes: the elderly biddy detective solving the murder of the vicar in the tea garden, or the world-weary Birmingham cop battling corruption in his own force...then this is the book, and the character, for you. Sam Jones is a breath of fresh air...a young, confident (mostly), sexy sculptor from Camden Town (no, she's *not* Cockney, as another review here has said!) Definitely an non-traditional mystery series heroine--she sniffs coke, juggles lovers, and takes action to solve a mystery not necessarily out of justice, but rather because it's her sculpture that's crushed a murder victim. The mystery takes a while to get going in the book (the murder doesn't occur until about a third of the way through, and Sam doesn't even really start taking action until two-thirds in)...but I didn't mind because the personalities, scenery, and subplots were so compelling and fun to read about--scandal, blackmail, drugs and murder inside an ultra-exclusive society family and London banking firm rope in Sam, giving her a lover from the privileged side of the tracks. For the Anglophiles there's plenty of London atmosphere from trendy Kensington to hip Camden Town, and this is definitely a character worth watching and checking in on in future Sam Jones mysteries. She reminded me a bit of Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's mysteries...sexy, spunky, sometimes a little out of her depth but always entertaining to watch. Perhaps I'd like to see Lauren Henderson work on having a stronger mystery plot itself in her next book, but if the characters and scene-setting are as entertaining as this one, I'll gladly forgive her that!