Cold Heart Book

LaPlante's television scripts--Widows and Prime Suspect--satisfactorily combine thriller plots with some intelligent brooding on the problems of women in middle age; her private eye trilogy is to that extent pretty much what one would expect from her. In the third installment, Los Angeles detective Lorraine Page has entirely recovered from the alcoholism that forced her out of the police department, and even finds love. She is hired to investigate the death of porn mogul Harry for his third wife, the most likely suspect, and finds a trail of blackmail and art fraud. Following the money will only get her so far--Lorraine has also to understand the emotional maelstrom which Harry created around him; there are less rational motives than money. LaPlante sets herself a difficult problem of balance--Lorraine's struggle with her demons and with chickens that persist in coming home to roost, is only tangentially relevant to her work. Indeed, as Lorraine becomes less driven, she gradually loses interest in detection altogether--which may be sane, but is not what we want to hear. LaPlante's stretching of the thriller form may not be always successful--the digressions meander too far-- but it is always interesting. --Roz KaveneyRead More