The Red Dahlia (Anna Travis Mysteries)

Laura LaPlante puts you in her story. A little gory at times but excellent story, characters and settings. Can't say enough good things about her books!!!!

My mother-in-law gave me this book after she'd read it and I could not put it down. It is the first book I've read in 5 years due to working full time and having two young kids. I finished it in 4 days, squeezing in a few pages during lunch breaks at work, etc. The book hooks you in the first page and keeps a fast pace throughout. I never heard of this author but I'm going to the bookstore today to buy another one of her books.

The Red Dahlia Anna Travis is a smoother character after her promotion to DI. An Oxford graduate, she claims respect in this second outing. She's a more than worthy successor to LaPlante's Jane Tennison [Prime Suspect]. There is already a third volume released, Clean Cut. I won't be able to stand it, though, if she disposes of Travis as she did courageous LAPD/PI Lorraine Page after the same number of books [Cold Shoulder, etc.]

Lynda La Plante is a great writer, probably best know for the Prime Suspect stories. Red Dahlia is a good murder mystery and will be liked by all fans of British mysteries. The police are kind of low key but dogged in their pursuit of a copy cat killer, fashioned after the "Black Dahlia" killer of the 1950s in the USA. The female lead is intersting but she is not a Jane Tennyson. Overall the book is suspenseful and a little gory in places but the action does slow down at times especially concerning the romantic interests. Overall, a good read.

For years I've hesitated to read Lynda La Plante, fearing that I'd never like anything as much as Prime Suspect. Prime Suspect Silly me. With Anna Travis the author gives us as a detective as determined as the great Jane and arguably smarter. The whole serial killer song and dance - so over-done in books and on television - still manages to horrify here, but La Plante has to raise the stakes to revolting levels. So, warning: Don't plan to read this while you are eating lunch. Indeed, we get a double dip of perverted because the killer patterns himself after the un-caught Black Dahlia Killer, to the horror and exasperation of the Brits. (Such an American crime?) The surfaces of secondary characters are vividly drawn for all that they flit across the pages - reporter, profiler, horse-loving deb, housekeeper. (OK, the housekeeper needs some work.) But their motivation is often more mysterious than the main plot. And the inner working of Anna's love life is, perhaps, not sufficiently explained, for - although we admire her control at some points - the object(s) of her desire behave so badly that it's hard to understand why such a sensible woman longs for their embraces. Ah, and there's a tiny fillip of homophobia, just a trace around the margins. But perhaps we have sufficiently progressed to the point were gay characters can be unapologetically presented as jerks? Or maybe not. Travis, however uneven her comrades and opponents may be (and Serial Killer is way way way over the top), is a terrific character, neither too good nor too bad to be true. And there's another book coming out in the UK next month!