Some detectives work at it, and others just fall into the habit ... Lauren Henderson's Sam Jones goes about her career as a sculptor and wild woman about town with very little intention of getting perpetually into various sorts of trouble, but wherever she is, trouble finds her. The New York gallery that has included her in its promotion of young British artists is badly vandalised in the middle of the night--red paint everywhere--and then a young curator is found strangled in Strawberry Fields, the area of Central Park dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. The New York police do not encourage amateur sleuths, let alone gifted amateurs, and Sam has a variety of secrets of her own that would not especially bear examination. All she wants to do is get her mobiles set up, rebuild her friendship with an old friend who left London to live with her expatriate father years before and keep a drunken snog with one of her fellow exhibitees from getting too embarrassing. Lauren Henderson's entertaining evocation of the London art scene has charmed us for four books; when Sam Jones hits New York, we can expect further delights and thrills. --This review refers to the hardcover edition of this title. --Roz Kaveney