The Simone Kirsch Quartet by Leigh Redhead

originally posted Tuesday, July 5, 2011 9:16:48 PM

I’ve already expressed by love for Christa Faust’s Money Shot here. After reading that, I tried to recreate that feeling. One of the ways I tried to do that was reading everything I could by Christa Faust, the other way I did that was by trying other similar books. I grabbed some of the other books by Hard Case Crime. I started seeing reviews for other books that mentioned Money Shot – things like if you liked Money Shot you’ll like this. One of the books that came with such a recommendation was Peepshow by Leigh Redhead.
And that’s how I met Simone Kirsch, the stripper turned private eye who operated on the mean streets of Melbourne.

The first book Peepshow, started with the murder of a strip club owner. Simone’s best friend Chloe had rejected his sexual advances and threatened to kill him. So when he turns up dead, his brother blames Chloe and attempts to kill her.
The only way for Simone to save her friend is to investigate and discover the real killer. In order to investigate Simone must go undercover in the strip club.

The second book Rubdown, has Simone again going undercover this time in a massage parlour to follow the wayward daughter of a lawyer Emery Wade. Once the girl turns up dead, Simone must find the killer.

Cherry Pie has Simone searching for a childhood friend who had gone missing after asking Simone for help. The mystery takes her to Kings Cross in Sydney and uncovers a secret from her own past.

Thrill City has Simone hired by a mystery writer for research for his new book. The writer’s ex wife is murdered and Simone is suspected of being an accomplice so she must investigate and find the real killer.
I really enjoyed these four books. It was nice to see a book set in Australia with Aussie slang and products so a character will light up a Winfield Blue. I enjoyed seeing the character of Simone grow and develop. This was paralleled by the growth of Redhead as a writer.
I recommend all four of the books and hope that at some point Redhead will write one called Bad Medicine.

UPDATE:  according to Leigh Redhead's site she is working on the fifth Simone Kirsch novel Repentence Creek. 

Simone also appeared in the short story "Shafted" which appears in The Crime Factory: The First Shift.  Shafted is a prequel to Peepshow and has Simone solving a murder during her stripping career.