For all those readers who loved last year's The Rosie Project our literal-thinking science hero is back! Yes, Don Tillman and his gorgeous new wife Rosie have moved to New York and are busy mixing with and terrifying the locals. THE ROSIE EFFECT starts with Don typically quantifying the benefits of his Standardised Meal System which he used in Australia, but which Rosie has replaced for the sake of variety.

Of somewhat greater import is the fact that their friend and philanderer Gene has been caught out once too often by his wife, and she has dumped him. Gene asks what are the odds that a woman he met at a conference in Iceland should arrive in Melbourne and join the same book club as his wife, and Don promptly starts calculating the odds. Business as usual. Then - just after Don has arranged for Gene to take a sabbatical in his and Rosie's new college - Rosie drops a bombshell. Poor Don can't cope with the flood of unexpected information and human emotion, and he has to rush out of the apartment before he does something stupid. He's never told Rosie that sometimes he experiences meltdowns. Is their life together about to end?

Don continues to go about solving domestic problems in his unique way although THE ROSIE EFFECT does make him more concerned about other people. And their unresolved issues, which he would formerly not have noticed. Sweetly, however, Don spends an hour talking with a bright kid who is being bullied at school, sharing experiences and helping her to cope. I like him more for such actions than when he is being evasive due to not wanting to cause trouble. I believe Don would be a very trying guy to live with, and since he was lucky enough to find a medical student, bartender and PhD candidate to take him on, he had better do anything and everything required to keep her confidence.

In The Rosie Project, we were stepping into the unknown with both main characters. If you enjoyed the first award- winning book by Graeme Simison, this follow-up has all the same ingredients, a cocktail of misunderstandings and mirth. I got so involved in the tense second half that I forgot to eat lunch. THE ROSIE EFFECT will make a lot of friends.