{{Short description|2005 crime novel by Australian author Leigh Redhead}} {{Use Australian English|date=December 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox book| | name = Rubdown | title_orig = | translator = | image = Rubdown (Book Cover).jpeg | caption = | author = Leigh Redhead | cover_artist = | country = Australia | language = English | series = Simone Kirsch | genre = Crime novel | publisher = Allen & Unwin | release_date = 2005 | media_type = Print | pages = 302 | isbn = 1741145538 | preceded_by = Peepshow | followed_by = Cherry Pie | awards = 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists; 2006 Davitt Award, Readers Choice, winner }}
'''''Rubdown''''' is a 2005 crime novel by Australian author Leigh Redhead.<ref name=NLA>{{cite web |title=''Rubdown'' by Leigh Redhead (A&U 2005) |publisher=National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3423339 |access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
It is the second novel in the author's Simone Kirsch series of crime novels, following the author's 2004 novel ''Peepshow''.<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Simone Kirsch series'' by Leigh Redhead|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C527173 |access-date= 24 December 2025}}</ref>
It was the winner of the Readers Choice Davitt Award in 2006,<ref name=Davitt>{{cite web|title="Davitt Award Winners 2001-2025" |publisher= Sisters in Crime|url=https://sistersincrime.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Davitt-Winners_cumulative-table_2025.pdf|access-date= 24 December 2025}}</ref> and the author was named as one of The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists in 2006.<ref name=SMH>{{cite news|last1=Wyndham|first1=Susan|title=The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists Award turns 20|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-sydney-morning-herald-best-young-australian-novelists-awards-turn-20-20160506-goojvx.html|accessdate=24 December 2025|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=9 May 2016}}</ref>
==Synopsis==
Simone Kirsch is engaged to check out Tamara Wade, the daughter of a prominent Melbourne family who has been involved with drugs and has worked in a massage parlor. Then Wade is found dead and Kirsch sets out to investigate.
==Critical reception==
Reviewing the novel in ''Australian Book Review'' Tony Smith noted: "Simone is a parody of male PIs and a metaphor for all women facing the 'have it all', post-feminist dilemma, and thus ''Rubdown'' is serious satire."<ref>{{cite web|title="Disparate crimes by Tony Smith" |publisher= Australian Book Review, September 2005|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2005/september-2005-no-274/267-september-2005-no-274/12491-tony-smith-reviews-the-visitor-by-jane-r-goodall-rubdown-by-leigh-redhead-and-the-broken-shore-by-peter-temple|access-date= 24 December 2025}}</ref>
In her report about her time as a judge of the Davitt Award for Sisters in Crime, Sue Turnbull cal this novel "a witty, raunchy and frequently violent read about a stripper turned private eye."<ref>{{cite web|title="Turning Pages" |publisher= The Sunday Age, 29 October 2006|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/367315970|access-date= 24 December 2025|id= {{ProQuest|367315970}}}}</ref>
== Publication history == After the novel's initial publication in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2005<ref name=NLA /> it was reprinted by the same publisher in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Rubdown'' by Leigh Redhead (A&U 2007) |publisher=National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3797073 |access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
It was also translated into German in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Rubdown'' by Leigh Redhead (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag) |publisher=National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4734456|access-date=24 December 2025}}</ref>
== Awards ==
* 2006 Davitt Award for Readers Choice, winner<ref name=Davitt /> * 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists<ref name=SMH /> * 2006 Ned Kelly Award, Best Novel, shortlisted<ref>{{cite web|title="Ned Kelly Awards 2006" |publisher= Stop You're Killing Me |url=https://www.stopyourekillingme.com/Awards/NedKelly_Awards.html#2006 |access-date= 24 December 2025}}</ref> ==Notes== *
==See also== * 2005 in Australian literature
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Davitt Award – Readers Choice}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubdown}} Category:Australian crime novels Category:2005 Australian novels Category:2005 English-language novels Category:Davitt Award–winning works