Prime Suspect, the enormously successful two-time Emmy
Award-winning television series, established its writer and
creator, Lynda La Plante, as one of the preeminent
originators of realistic crime drama. Turning her talent
from the screen to the page,
La Plante has crafted
an intelligent, hard-hitting thriller featuring a female
lead every bit as compelling and complex as her Prime
Suspect heroine played by Helen Mirren. Lorraine is a
three-time loser: an ex-LAPD cop, ex-hooker, ex-wife, even
an ex-mom, since she has lost custody of her kids. She is
recovering from the alcoholism that nearly destroyed her
life and, through tremendous force of will, has managed to
pull herself back together and set up her own private
detective agency in Los Angeles, but she finds that there is
scant demand for her services.
Finally she lands the
high-profile case that could activate her new career. The
eighteen-year-old daughter of a fading movie starlet has
disappeared during Mardi Gras, and her parents offer
Lorraine $1 million if she finds the girl, dead or alive. As
the search for the missing girl becomes a deadly murder hunt
involving Hollywood rich kids and New Orleans lowlife,
Lorraine is caught in a web of deceit and violence that
threatens to drag her back into the murky world she has
fought so hard to escape. When she finds herself strongly
attracted to Robert Caley, the girl's father-- who, in turn,
is sexually drawn to her--she knows she faces a new kind of
danger. She begins to spin out of control and turns to her
old friend booze for solace.The game gets more dangerous as
Lorraine fights demons within and without, but the
million-dollar bonus is a powerful incentive not to back off
a case that would give her the professional respect she
craves but could also kill her. Cold Blood reverberates with
realism; its plot is multilayered, its characters vibrantly
alive--just what one would expect from Lynda La Plante, a
consummate chronicler of the criminal world.