Customer Reviews

Clean Cut

Once again, Lynda La Plante gives a thoroughly gripping read. The characters jump to life and give the impression that you are part of the scene of investigations, and the police teams investigating the series of events. The storyline has topical issues, and some sinister practices. Overall, an excellent read.

Having read the two previous books was waiting for this book to come out and unlike the previous reviewers I wasn't disappointed and thought the story line good and couldn't put it down!! and hoping their paths cross in a future book!!

The unstoplable team of Langton & Travis returnjs for another thriller with more twists than a country lane. The action startrs with the drive to find the killers of a young prostitute. In the pursuit Langton is brutally attacked abd fights for his life! Travis steps in to nurse him back to health, putting a strain on their relationship. Anna is asigned to another horriffic murder case, but are the 2 linked? What part did the illegal immigrants the Krasniques play in events & who is the shadowy Cammora. Will all the loose ends link to suoly the answers?

Once again a real page turner!

Grabbed me from page one and couldn't put it down.I have yet to find a book by her which I don't like.Do read.

This is my first Lynda La Plant, and from what I read, it may well be my last. It was slow to start and the plot was very very complex and often confusing. the author even had the characters explaining the plot so far every 100 pages or so. However, a good plot with some twist, but to get the best out of it your need to read it in one siting as the twists and turns get confusing if you come back to it at any later stage. I would not say that it was Lynda La plante's finist moment.

I do love a well-written, fast-paced, compelling detective thriller - and this certainly wasn't one of them. Despite La Plante's great reputation, I'd never read any of her books until now, and on the basis of this one, won't be trying any more. Whilst the plot itself could have been interesting, the writing style itself was extraordinarily simplistic and sub-standard - it was almost entirely "tell, not show". There was no sense of character other than that Langton was a bog-standard alpha male with emotional issues type 'Guv', yawn yawn; and that Anna was a bit of a lovelorn doormat. Every other character was entirely one-dimensional and seemed to be present in the book solely to provide stilted and forced dialogue. I also found it interesting that in the latter part of the book, the plot convolutions and the roles each villainous character had played in the various crimes, was summarised for us, at least three separate times. Was this because the writer thought it was too complex a plot or because she realised that anyone reading it might have fallen asleep by now? Overall, I get the sense that this was written specifically to be turned straight into a TV two-parter with lots of running around, not actually to be read.

I have just finished reading this and I did enjoy it. I still think that Langton and Travis are a good read, with unexpected twists and turns with their on off affair. Believe the ending was maybe left a little open to follow on with the next book?? Ok story may be a little far fetched but hey I was reading to escape and to be entertained, so it did not disapppoint.

Unlike Martina Cole, La Plante still writes an enjoyable read!

Having read a number of La Plante's books and enjoyed the strong feminine roles she creates, I found that this book had a weak plot with a racist streak - most of the black characters were evil or stupid. Marina Lewycka's 'Two Caravans' can be contrasted with this, she deals with the difficult issues of immigration and factory farming with a sense of humour and wit.
Illegal immigrants are often desperate but that does not mean that La Plante should not give them rounded characters which she tried to do for the other characters - however this book gave me a view of Lynda's character which was shocking.

I couldn't have been more disappointed in a book ! It was slow and ponderous, the characters were unsympathetic and shallow. As for the ending ? just not believable (I won't give it away).

Really must do better if I am to buy another and I thought the Red Dahlia was fantastic..........

I gave her three tries, the first one was good the second one wasn't but I thought, well she might be having a bad day but no - after reading this - no more La Plante for me.

This was a fairly involved and gripping story and it says a lot for the storytelling skill of the writer that I stuck with it. It was over five hundred pages and quite honestly I think that the story occupied about 300 the rest was padding, repetition, info dumping and ranting about the criminal justice system, the probation service and illegal immigrants. Although much of this may be valid comment I don't think that it is honest to put so much into a work of fiction and push it at the reader.

Apart from all of that the editing was definitely flaky, there were missing words, words that should have been edited out and at one point we jumped from one setting to another without any of the characters moving a muscle - voodoo perhaps!? I would have thought that with the team at her disposal Ms La Plante would have ensured that the editing was spot on.

What a shame.