Rough Diamond (Kathryn Ledson, Michael Joseph)

We first meet the hero of Rough Diamond on a dark and wet Melbourne evening. Erica Jewell literally falls over Jack Jones as he lies dying from gunshot wounds in her front yard. Somehow he convinces her not to call the authorities and instead she enlists the help of her sceptical friend Lucy (who happens to be a nurse) to extract the bullets lodged inside him. What follows is a rollicking tale of adventure including high-profile thefts, abductions and secret anti-terrorist vigilante groups. What sets this tale apart is the fact that it is set in everyday Melbourne. This is not the downmarket Melbourne often depicted in detective stories but one perfectly recognisable to most locals and thus, in the experience of this reader, all the more enjoyable and exciting to read. I ended up reading this story in one sitting. It is fun, fast-paced and has all the elements I look for in mass-market romantic fiction—which is essentially what this book is. The publicity for Rough Diamond positions Erica as Australia’s own Stephanie Plum, which is a bit of a stretch, but I have no doubt there will be further books to come in what I suspect will be a very successful series.

Rachel Wilson is a Melbourne-based media academic and former bookseller

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Category: Reviews