The Red Dahlia (Anna Travis Mysteries)

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! "FOR THOSE WHO LOVE MYSTERIES BUT WISH THAT PATRICIA CORNWELL HAD A DIRTIER MIND,"* the author of Above Suspicion and the acclaimed Prime Suspect series returns with a new mystery. When the body of a young girl is found dumped on the banks of the Thames, even the police are shocked by the brutality of her murder: horrifically mutilated, severed in half, and drained of blood, her corpse is an obvious mirror image of the famous Black Dahlia murder in 1940s Los Angeles. Now Detective Inspector Anna Travis must race against time to catch this copycat killer. She turns to her mentor, the brilliant and volatile Detective Chief Inspector James Langton, but the frictions of their romantic relationship are complicating the case. And then a second girl is found...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

"FOR THOSE WHO LOVE MYSTERIES BUT WISH THAT PATRICIA CORNWELL HAD A DIRTIER MIND,"* the author of Above Suspicion and the acclaimed Prime Suspect series returns with a new mystery.

When the body of a young girl is found dumped on the banks of the Thames, even the police are shocked by the brutality of her murder: horrifically mutilated, severed in half, and drained of blood, her corpse is an obvious mirror image of the famous Black Dahlia murder in 1940s Los Angeles.

Now Detective Inspector Anna Travis must race against time to catch this copycat killer. She turns to her mentor, the brilliant and volatile Detective Chief Inspector James Langton, but the frictions of their romantic relationship are complicating the case. And then a second girl is found...

Publishers Weekly

In her second Det. Insp. Anna Travis novel (after 2004's Above Suspicion), British author La Plante, best known for TV's Prime Suspectfeaturing DCI Jane Tennison, transports the unsolved Black Dahlia murder to present-day London with disappointing results. When a young woman is found butchered in a field, Anna unexpectedly ends up sharing the case with her former lover, DCI James Langton. As they learn the full extent of the murderer's depravity, letters begin arriving at the police station and local paper, echoing those from the infamous Black Dahlia killer, active more than 50 years ago in Los Angeles. The self-named Red Dahlia Avenger mocks Anna and Langton as they hit one dead end after another. Anna lacks Tennison's tough vulnerability and floats through the story without much emotional investment. Procedural minutiae bog down this novel, which, despite the lurid subject matter, never manages to shock the reader. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

When a copycat killer commits a murder in the style of the infamous "Black Dahlia" case, Detective Inspector Anna Travis turns for assistance to her alluring mentor James Langton and uncovers a disturbing web of family secrets and deviant sexual practices Anna Travis is back in the superb follow-up to Lynda La Plante's bestselling ABOVE SUSPICION, seeking to solve a brutal murder inspired by a case in Los Angeles in the 1940s whose killer was never brought to justice.