What do you think?
Rate this book
Simone Kirsch #3
Cherry Pie
Leigh Redhead goes from strength to strength, with The Australian calling Rubdown 'the best Australian crime novel this year'. Cherry Pie continues the exploits and adventures of the irresistible and wholly irrepressible Simone Kirsch - it's all love, sex, cheap cask wine and crime down the dirty end of St Kilda.
411 pages, paperback
First published April 1, 2007
4 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Redhead
11 books34 followersLeigh Redhead, born 18 November 1971, in Adelaide, South Australia is an Australian mystery writer.
She is best known as the creator of the character Simone Kirsch, a stripper who leaves the sex industry to become a private investigator. Redhead drew upon her own experiences as a stripper in creating the character.
She is best known as the creator of the character Simone Kirsch, a stripper who leaves the sex industry to become a private investigator. Redhead drew upon her own experiences as a stripper in creating the character.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 2, 2020
The composition of this novel can be roughly broken down as follows:
2% food
8% clothing
10% Simone talking about what a badass she is
25% Simone definitely not being badass
5% actual detective work
50% sexual activity or tension
My thoughts, in brief:
1. I just do not like Simone at all
2. I think this book actually has the least amount of sex of this series so far?
3. What is even the point of Alex if he's off limits?
4. I am a little confused about how everything actually tied together
5. But I'm very clear on everything Simone wore and ate while she was detecting ... things
6. My god this woman showers a lot
7. How great is Melbourne? I fkn LOVE MELBOURNE
8. Chloe is clearly the low-key MVP
9. Did Simone actually figure anything out at all?! Or did she just do a lot of convenient accidental eavesdropping?
10. Like ... now I think about it ... there should be a % up there for the amount of eavesdropping this girl does
11. All the girls have big boobs and look like strippers and all the boys are totally hot and do-able and Simone has sexually charged tension with basically everyone
12. Actually laughed out loud with the whole, 'take the glasses off and the ponytail out and the girl is miraculously transformed' bit
13. Also what's up with that whole, 'I will seduce you by shoving cherry desserts in your face' thing? Fellas, please let me know your success rate if this is something you have tried. I'm so curious. Has anyone ever fallen for a guy because he literally force-fed you? Hit me up. I MUST KNOW.
14. This book is both feminist and a feminist's nightmare. There's a lot of, 'strippers are people, too!' etc. which is great but then there's also Simone getting saved by boys a lot and also the girls hate on each other pretty hard. Simone judges everyone by their looks and basically hates fat and/or ugly women because she's a hot stripper, and how is life possibly worth living if you don't ooze sex from every pore? *eyeroll*
15. Did I mention I have a strong dislike of our main character, Simone?
The book is actually probably well-written though because it's told in first person so you can see really clearly that how Simone thinks of herself vastly differs from how she actually is. It's also somehow addictive enough that I can smash through a book in a day. But it's also full of coincidences and random convenient occurrences and Simone's inability to stop thinking about sex so it's pretty trashy, too.
Honestly I don't understand why this isn't a 1-star. How is it possible that I fkn enjoyed it. WHAT A MESS WE BOTH ARE.
2% food
8% clothing
10% Simone talking about what a badass she is
25% Simone definitely not being badass
5% actual detective work
50% sexual activity or tension
My thoughts, in brief:
1. I just do not like Simone at all
2. I think this book actually has the least amount of sex of this series so far?
3. What is even the point of Alex if he's off limits?
4. I am a little confused about how everything actually tied together
5. But I'm very clear on everything Simone wore and ate while she was detecting ... things
6. My god this woman showers a lot
7. How great is Melbourne? I fkn LOVE MELBOURNE
8. Chloe is clearly the low-key MVP
9. Did Simone actually figure anything out at all?! Or did she just do a lot of convenient accidental eavesdropping?
10. Like ... now I think about it ... there should be a % up there for the amount of eavesdropping this girl does
11. All the girls have big boobs and look like strippers and all the boys are totally hot and do-able and Simone has sexually charged tension with basically everyone
12. Actually laughed out loud with the whole, 'take the glasses off and the ponytail out and the girl is miraculously transformed' bit
13. Also what's up with that whole, 'I will seduce you by shoving cherry desserts in your face' thing? Fellas, please let me know your success rate if this is something you have tried. I'm so curious. Has anyone ever fallen for a guy because he literally force-fed you? Hit me up. I MUST KNOW.
14. This book is both feminist and a feminist's nightmare. There's a lot of, 'strippers are people, too!' etc. which is great but then there's also Simone getting saved by boys a lot and also the girls hate on each other pretty hard. Simone judges everyone by their looks and basically hates fat and/or ugly women because she's a hot stripper, and how is life possibly worth living if you don't ooze sex from every pore? *eyeroll*
15. Did I mention I have a strong dislike of our main character, Simone?
The book is actually probably well-written though because it's told in first person so you can see really clearly that how Simone thinks of herself vastly differs from how she actually is. It's also somehow addictive enough that I can smash through a book in a day. But it's also full of coincidences and random convenient occurrences and Simone's inability to stop thinking about sex so it's pretty trashy, too.
Honestly I don't understand why this isn't a 1-star. How is it possible that I fkn enjoyed it. WHAT A MESS WE BOTH ARE.
July 28, 2012
'Cherry Pie' is a smart, deep, and emotionally involved private eye novel that delves into the heart of crime as much as it does the heart of its colourful characters. Distinctly Australian, fully loaded with unique dialect and mannerisms - Leigh Redhead spills blue blood tinted with green and gold throughout this homage to Australian crime fiction.
Protagonist Simone Kirsch, the stripper turned PI is not your run of the mill harboiled private dick, rather a sassy, unrelenting and funny investigator who relies on her wit and smarts over full frontal violence and intimidation. Her sidekick, Chloe is equally humours and entertaining to read yet serious in the pursuit of justice. Watching Simone and Chloe's relationship grow added a human element outside of the core plot.
In terms of the investigation, author Leigh Redhead creates a layered plot crossing past and present, full of twists, turns and shocks as Simone's past is further relieved and her family life placed in jeopardy. Thrust into a case to find missing friend, Andi, a budding journalist who's shadowing as an undercover waitress at a popular Melbourne restaurant owned by celeb chef, Trip, Simone soon learns there's more to her friends disappearance and the enigmatic Trip. Echoes of underworld are paramount as facts come to light and death becomes commonplace.
This is the best novel in the Simone Kirsch series yet. 5 stars - just as good, if not better than the first time I read it.
Protagonist Simone Kirsch, the stripper turned PI is not your run of the mill harboiled private dick, rather a sassy, unrelenting and funny investigator who relies on her wit and smarts over full frontal violence and intimidation. Her sidekick, Chloe is equally humours and entertaining to read yet serious in the pursuit of justice. Watching Simone and Chloe's relationship grow added a human element outside of the core plot.
In terms of the investigation, author Leigh Redhead creates a layered plot crossing past and present, full of twists, turns and shocks as Simone's past is further relieved and her family life placed in jeopardy. Thrust into a case to find missing friend, Andi, a budding journalist who's shadowing as an undercover waitress at a popular Melbourne restaurant owned by celeb chef, Trip, Simone soon learns there's more to her friends disappearance and the enigmatic Trip. Echoes of underworld are paramount as facts come to light and death becomes commonplace.
This is the best novel in the Simone Kirsch series yet. 5 stars - just as good, if not better than the first time I read it.
January 3, 2012
Simone Kirsch was a Private Investigator. She was a very broke PI, so in order to make ends meet, she was a stripper in Melbourne when not doing her day job!
Andi Fowler was a childhood friend whom Simone hadn’t seen in a long while. She was also a student in journalism. She turned up one night at Simone’s strip joint, desperately needing Simone’s help, but she was unable to give her much information, other than the fact that she was onto something big within the hospitality industry.
Simone fobbed Andi off, then when Andi mysteriously disappeared the next afternoon, things started to get hectic. Chloe, who was Simone’s PI sidekick, and also a stripper, was immediately on the case with Simone. But things started to go downhill, with corruption in the restaurant where Andi worked on a casual basis, a celebrity chef who was moody, mental and gorgeous, problems with Alex, the policeman Simone had feelings for, but was engaged to be married, and her Mum up in Sydney with a past that just might be connected to it all.
The plot shifts between Melbourne and Sydney, all the while keeping you guessing, with every twist and sudden surprise making it difficult to put this book down. Will Simone find Andi before it’s too late, or is it already too late?
Andi Fowler was a childhood friend whom Simone hadn’t seen in a long while. She was also a student in journalism. She turned up one night at Simone’s strip joint, desperately needing Simone’s help, but she was unable to give her much information, other than the fact that she was onto something big within the hospitality industry.
Simone fobbed Andi off, then when Andi mysteriously disappeared the next afternoon, things started to get hectic. Chloe, who was Simone’s PI sidekick, and also a stripper, was immediately on the case with Simone. But things started to go downhill, with corruption in the restaurant where Andi worked on a casual basis, a celebrity chef who was moody, mental and gorgeous, problems with Alex, the policeman Simone had feelings for, but was engaged to be married, and her Mum up in Sydney with a past that just might be connected to it all.
The plot shifts between Melbourne and Sydney, all the while keeping you guessing, with every twist and sudden surprise making it difficult to put this book down. Will Simone find Andi before it’s too late, or is it already too late?
February 17, 2022
Maybe this isn't a series I should read one after the other in a month's time because Simone Kirsch got really annoying. Or maybe it's the not-so-love-triangle that really got its claws into me because with that ending, I think I'm done with this series.
Loved the setting and colourful secondary characters but I cannot handle anymore Simone.
Loved the setting and colourful secondary characters but I cannot handle anymore Simone.
July 23, 2016
CHERRY PIE is the third book in the Simone Kirsch series, which takes a slightly darker, more edgy direction than the first two.
Working to raise the cash for the gadgetry needed to start her own Private Investigator business, Simone is sidetracked by a desperate phone message from a childhood friend who subsequently disappears. Andi has only recently moved to Melbourne as well, she works as a restaurant as a waitress, and is studying journalism. Andi's already been in touch with Simone asking for her help with a major story that she thinks she's unearthed, but Simone unfortunately wasn't sure she had time - now she doesn't have much choice but to try to find Andi and that means trying to find out what this major story was.
Deep in the world of the celebrity chef, there are some hysterical scenes in super-trendy restaurant Jouissance where Andi worked, with Simone and Chloe her ever "helpful" sidekick with the large boobs and the outrageous mouth, whilst Simone tries to work out what it is that Andi was on the trail of. Simone is driven to Sydney eventually, firstly in hiding after some serious threats and after getting well in the road of an ongoing police investigation, but she then finds herself in an increasingly intense series of contacts with a big note developer and money man behind the restaurant.
There's still a strong sense of fun and hilarity - especially in Simone's trusty sidekick and stripping entrepreneur friend Chloe. But there's something a bit more in CHERRY PIE than just the sex industry, the charging around, the scraping through by the skin of her teeth and the ongoing romantic tensions. Simone's starting to strongly question what she's doing. She's starting to question why she puts so many of the people that she loves in jeopardy and she's starting to stretch some friendships. She's trying to stay faithful to the absent Sean - her lover from Rubdown, she's showing a level of "grown up" that's really very endearing.
Ultimately there's a bit of a twitch in the tail of CHERRY PIE - we're definitely moving from totally light, funny and riotous into something slightly edgier and harder. Both Peepshow and Rubdown were great books, CHERRY PIE is hinting at an even more interesting future.
Working to raise the cash for the gadgetry needed to start her own Private Investigator business, Simone is sidetracked by a desperate phone message from a childhood friend who subsequently disappears. Andi has only recently moved to Melbourne as well, she works as a restaurant as a waitress, and is studying journalism. Andi's already been in touch with Simone asking for her help with a major story that she thinks she's unearthed, but Simone unfortunately wasn't sure she had time - now she doesn't have much choice but to try to find Andi and that means trying to find out what this major story was.
Deep in the world of the celebrity chef, there are some hysterical scenes in super-trendy restaurant Jouissance where Andi worked, with Simone and Chloe her ever "helpful" sidekick with the large boobs and the outrageous mouth, whilst Simone tries to work out what it is that Andi was on the trail of. Simone is driven to Sydney eventually, firstly in hiding after some serious threats and after getting well in the road of an ongoing police investigation, but she then finds herself in an increasingly intense series of contacts with a big note developer and money man behind the restaurant.
There's still a strong sense of fun and hilarity - especially in Simone's trusty sidekick and stripping entrepreneur friend Chloe. But there's something a bit more in CHERRY PIE than just the sex industry, the charging around, the scraping through by the skin of her teeth and the ongoing romantic tensions. Simone's starting to strongly question what she's doing. She's starting to question why she puts so many of the people that she loves in jeopardy and she's starting to stretch some friendships. She's trying to stay faithful to the absent Sean - her lover from Rubdown, she's showing a level of "grown up" that's really very endearing.
Ultimately there's a bit of a twitch in the tail of CHERRY PIE - we're definitely moving from totally light, funny and riotous into something slightly edgier and harder. Both Peepshow and Rubdown were great books, CHERRY PIE is hinting at an even more interesting future.
August 25, 2016
‘It was dark and cold when she opened her eyes and her right leg throbbed with pain.’
Simone Kirsch is working hard to raise the money she needs to set up her own Private Investigator business. Simone needs lots of gadgets to be an effective Private Investigator, and everything costs money. Stripping is one way to get that money. One night, Andi Fowler, a childhood friend of Simone’s turns up, asking Simone for help. Andi’s sure that she’s on the trail of something big in the hospitality industry. Simone is busy, so she brushes Andi off. But, when Andi disappears the next day after leaving a desperate ‘phone message, Simone becomes involved.
Simone, and her helpful friend Chloe, start investigating. Andi was working at the trendy restaurant Jouissance: a good starting point for Simone to start investigating. But things start to go wrong, and some serious threats result in Simone heading from Melbourne to Sydney where her Mum is. There just may be a connection there, deep in the past, that will help Simone find Andi.
It just wouldn’t be a Simone Kirsch story if it wasn’t complicated. While Simone is starting to think about more about what she is doing, and possible consequences, she’s starting to stretch a few friendships. She’s trying to stay faithful to Sean, is still attracted to Alex, and manages to get in the way of the police. Can Simone find Andi? Can Simone work her way through the disasters that seem to follow her?
‘Cherry Pie’ is the third book in the Simone Kirsch series. It’s a little darker than the first two books, which makes me wonder what book four has in store for Simone and her friends.
I’ve enjoyed these novels so far. While I’ve learned more about stripping than I’ll ever need to know, I’ve enjoyed learning more about Simone as she tries to make a new life for herself as a Private Investigator.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Simone Kirsch is working hard to raise the money she needs to set up her own Private Investigator business. Simone needs lots of gadgets to be an effective Private Investigator, and everything costs money. Stripping is one way to get that money. One night, Andi Fowler, a childhood friend of Simone’s turns up, asking Simone for help. Andi’s sure that she’s on the trail of something big in the hospitality industry. Simone is busy, so she brushes Andi off. But, when Andi disappears the next day after leaving a desperate ‘phone message, Simone becomes involved.
Simone, and her helpful friend Chloe, start investigating. Andi was working at the trendy restaurant Jouissance: a good starting point for Simone to start investigating. But things start to go wrong, and some serious threats result in Simone heading from Melbourne to Sydney where her Mum is. There just may be a connection there, deep in the past, that will help Simone find Andi.
It just wouldn’t be a Simone Kirsch story if it wasn’t complicated. While Simone is starting to think about more about what she is doing, and possible consequences, she’s starting to stretch a few friendships. She’s trying to stay faithful to Sean, is still attracted to Alex, and manages to get in the way of the police. Can Simone find Andi? Can Simone work her way through the disasters that seem to follow her?
‘Cherry Pie’ is the third book in the Simone Kirsch series. It’s a little darker than the first two books, which makes me wonder what book four has in store for Simone and her friends.
I’ve enjoyed these novels so far. While I’ve learned more about stripping than I’ll ever need to know, I’ve enjoyed learning more about Simone as she tries to make a new life for herself as a Private Investigator.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
January 1, 2016
I loved the third installment of Leigh Redhead's fantastic series. Simone is a tough, no-nonsense, champagne swilling, chain-smoking, possibly sex addicted stripper turned PI, who takes on the tough cases and wins - usually. This book had a darker tone then the previous two and was slightly over-extended. A lot of content, particularly the possum head scene could have been removed. I still don't know how that got in her mail box.
Simone's new love interest Sean, who I fell in love with in the previous book and who Simone's actually been faithful too (amazing) wasn't in this story but will hopefully return in the fourth installment, which judging by the closing paragraph, should be interesting. I hope she chooses him and not Alex who I am sick of.
Simone's new love interest Sean, who I fell in love with in the previous book and who Simone's actually been faithful too (amazing) wasn't in this story but will hopefully return in the fourth installment, which judging by the closing paragraph, should be interesting. I hope she chooses him and not Alex who I am sick of.
March 15, 2008
Not bad, but the plot isn't as good as her earlier ones.
August 31, 2009
The third in the Simone Kirsch series. Its as good as the first two. I can't wait for the next one.
December 10, 2011
A bit thin-plotted and a cast of thousands. Entertaining enough, but the story seemed to get bogged down in parts.
December 7, 2012
I can't believe it ended right there!!! Another mad capped adventure with Simone Kirsch - very enjoyable. Not as explicit as her previous novels.
August 1, 2018
I loved this read. This is definitely the best book in the series. I enjoyed the plots mystery more than the previous books and the characters were a hoot! The ending was interesting...
January 26, 2013
Not bad at all. Better than many of similar genre.
October 18, 2016
3.75 AAAAHHH they're gonna kill me!!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews