Our narrator Lily introduces us to her friend and client Jamie Gee. She's a comedian, a Llenny Bruce in a dress'. I'm never sure who Lenny Bruce is, but if Jamie is anything to go by he's very funny, has a great rapport with his audiences and a fabulous attitude.
Jamie's certainly got bags of talent and with Lily's efforts is making a name for herself on the club circuit. This is all very well but for one thing. Jamie has a fatal flaw. It's not that she has bad taste in men. A difficult childhood and abusive upbringing leaves her doubting her ailities, looks and worthiness, leaving her easy prey to sriously nasty and manipulative men. Protected by Lily and Mojo the beautiful Asian transvestite, with whom they share a home, Jamie has her hurts tended. Until Sean Powers. He is a vicious psychopath, who plays on Jamie's deep seated insecurities. But it is not just Jamie he sets out to control and destroy. Unfolding against the background of a series of brutal murders of women, Stone Baby is an engagingly written novel. It is set in Bradford and written in the distinctive northern voice. You can see whay Joolz Denby won the first CWA new writers award for the book's opening. A little long in places, it is nevertheless a well written and compelling novel which builds up to a tense and unnerving climax.
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Linda Gaskell.
October 2000