Dead White Female [Paperback]

Lauren Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 1996

A detective story and portrait of life in the capital for a streetwise 20 something in the 1990s.

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: New English Library (June 20, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340649151
• ISBN-13: 978-0340649152
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,721,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get into Henderson's Sam Jones!, September 22, 2000

By 

Kylie L Malligan (Perth, Western Australia, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead White Female (Paperback)

If you're interested in the fatal-femme crime genre (a la _One For The Money_, etc.) then you really should hook up with the writings of Lauren Henderson. This is her first book in the series about Sam Jones, a sculptress in metal works who has a sharp-witted mind, a series of adventurous and sexual escapades with a tongue as fiery as her blowtorch! In this introduction to the series, Sam's former beloved art lecturer is found dead after a wild (and rather hippy!) party. Sam won't let this mystery go unsolved and ends up pursuing the matter through the world of London's art society, often risking herself in the memory of the "dead white female". You can't really get better than this for a series - I personally think that it's faster and spicier than the Evanovich series and for an Australian reader who relates more to Brit culture than American suburbia it really is an enthralling experience. Since it's out of print (shows how popular it is!) you'd most likely find the "Freeze My Margarita" book first to get a glimpse of Sam's wild life and Henderson's pacy writing. If you're into this style or genre, check out tartcity.com for similar writers and get into Henderson as soon as you can!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Punchy, kick-butt kinda gal., September 12, 2002

By 

curvynovelsdotinfo "[e-mail]" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead White Female (Paperback)

Heroine:   solid

Independent, avant-garde metal sculptress and amateur detective Samantha Jones has an uncanny knack for accidentally turning up wherever very bad "stuff" is going down.

Savvier than the police and tougher than the bad guys, sexy Sam serves up equal measures of justice, booze, and humor in between her art sessions and sexcapades.

   What worked for me:

This first-person narrative of a feminista Sam Spade-type flung out so many similes and metaphors it was hard not to feel like the author was poking fun at the gumshoe genre even as she embraced it.    

What didn't work for me:

Despite years of watching imported British comedies, much of the slang went right over my head. I guess I have been watching all the wrong shows?

I am definitely too vanilla to read this entire series back-to-back, but one book here and there makes for an interesting way to break out of a reading rut.

Overall:

Edgy, darkly funny, and very British (not in a tea-and-scones sort of way) this thriller series is the antithesis of the Agatha Christie cozy mysteries. Anyone searching for a hip heroine who refuses to play by society's rules need look no further.

Warning: Very coarse language, graphic violence, casual drug use, and spicy sexual references are the trademark of these books. Not for the politically-correct or the faint-of-heart.

If you liked the Sam Jones series, you might also like: the Stephanie Plum series, or the Women's Murder Club series.