Dead White Female

This debut of the Sam Jones series is pretty good, setting up Sam as a hard-living artist capable of drinking, snorting and dancing her way through the fringes of London and still smart enough to figure out the circumstances of the death of a mentor. She shows all the stubbornness and curiosity of the best amateur detectives, along with a fierce sexuality and persistent recklessness. I was more impressed with the third installment, which I came across first, but this would have been a great start by itself.

Best I can tell, this has not been published in the U.S. yet. I ordered it over the web from the UK. I ordered it because of one sentence on the back of the book (my friend, Jeanie Gamble told me about it) - "Sexy, funny and sharp enough to cut herself..." I had to read this. And I am so glad I went to the trouble! Sam Jones leads a hard, fun life. Her life is her friends and hard drinking and hard partying. At one such party her one time mentor, Lee, 'accidentally dies when she apparently stumbles and falls and hits her head. Sam crawls over Lee's former life in a dark, funny, very different mystery story.

I read "Too Many Blondes" first and it was a better read, this is good, just not as good.

One of Sam's ex-teachers and friends turns up dead, she knows almost everyone at the party and although the cops call it accidental death she's not sure. Once she starts to pull the strings several things start to unravel.