Chained!

Publishers Weekly

Sadistic violence jars in what is otherwise another good-natured romp, Henderson's (Strawberry Tattoo, etc.) fourth to feature New York art chick and sometime sleuth, Sam Jones. In the prologue, Sam, the victim of two of the most inept kidnappers in mystery lore, comes to, chained and handcuffed in a dank, roach-infested cellar. Flashback: Sam is working on a BBC show with a group of what used to be called "bright young things" whose talk is as trendy as it is interminable. (It's no surprise to find the author in her acknowledgments thanking the crew of a BBC TV shoot one suspects she had such a good time she preferred to write about that rather than tell her story.) Sam is a stand-in for a difficult young actress named Sarah, who has a knack for ticking people off. Sarah's latest enemies are a group of animal rights activists (read terrorists), who start sending her threats in the form of dead animals. Sam, apparently mistaken for Sarah, gets kidnapped. After escaping her captors, Sam returns to the bright young things for many more pages of chat. Eventually, she and her friends decide they ought to do something about those pesky kidnappers. The action speeds up to a clever twist ending, but the dearth of detection will disappoint anyone expecting a more traditional mystery. On the other hand, established Henderson fans, as well as the young and the hip, will find Sam's adventures a hoot. (Jan. 15) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Sexy sculptor/sleuth Samantha Jones (Freeze My Margarita) loves her new job as a stunt double for a BBC miniseries until someone kidnaps her on the set. After escaping, a very irked Sam vows to correct this case of mistaken identity especially after someone kills a friend's boyfriend. Irreverent, upbeat, and action-packed. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Handcuffs may be among sculptor Samantha Jones's favorite toys, but not when they're shackling her to the ceiling in some nasty cellar God knows where. That's how the animal rights fanatics have squirreled her away, though, after mistaking her for Sarah Fossett, the meat-eating, fur-wearing actress who's got the role portraying Sam (Strawberry Tattoo, 2000, etc.) in the six-part BBC gangster miniseries Driven. Sam is badly beaten but eventually escapes; she's luckier than Sarah's current boyfriend, Country Vet star Paul Hinks, who turns up in Sarah's apartment disemboweled. The two crimes freak out the usually mellow Driven cast, but not so completely that they can't descend on convalescent Sam's loft en masse to party and complain about how filthy she keeps her loo. Actors Tony and Keith gorge themselves on cake; wardrobe mistress Siobhan and her stagehand boyfriend Sanjay get high; production coordinator Karen polishes off an entire box of Mr. Kipling's Fondant Fancies. Even Sarah's dodgy new boyfriend Vince (who's actually her dodgy old boyfriend from before Paul) is generous enough to bring a few bottles of bubbly. But it's Sam's old friends-her lover Hugo, the lead actor on Driven who first brought her into the project; Tom, her best friend from college; Devo, hunt saboteur turned corporate; and Lurch, guardian of her sculptor's tools-who do the heavy lifting when it comes to unmasking a murderer. Life imitates art imitating life in Henderson's edgy tale of manipulation and deception.