Leigh Redhead

Simone Kirsh (aka Vivien Leigh) has an interesting job history - ex prawn trawler hand and working as a stripper for starters. Simone is determined to change things though, so even as she's still working in peepshows and as a stripper she's finished her Private Investigator's Course; has her ID and she's working to get her best friend and fellow stripper Chloe out of a big lot of trouble. Francesco Parisi's been brutally killed and Simone find herself undercover at his table top dancing venue, The Red Room. She has to find out why the police think her friend Chloe killed Parisi and why his brother seems to be convinced that even if she didn't, Simone will work out who did because he is holding Chloe hostage. Now Simone can look after herself and despite having to deal with some seriously weird fellow strippers; corrupt cops and her own rather frantic attraction to rockabilly guitarists, she finds herself in some very sticky situations. Fans of series like Lauren Henderson's Sam Jones and even to some extent Liz Evan's Grace Smith books will find some similarities here. The story is a a big romp through the world of strippers, drugs and the Melbourne sex industry. There are some moments of high camp humour and some very steamy sex scenes. More sexually explicit than the comparison books and with frequent and detailed depictions of the drug scene, this was a good witty book which was very enjoyable.