Cold Blood by Lynda LaPlante

The Chicago Tribune is quoted on the back of the paperback Cold Blood as saying, "Complex plotting and a merciless eye toward human nature." I'll concede the first point, but have a little trouble with the second.

First, the setup: Lorraine Page is a struggling private detective. And she struggles on many levels – she's an ex-cop who lost her job, an ex-wife who lost her family, and an ex-alcoholic who's trying not to lose her battle with the bottle. Okay, that could make for an interesting character. Now bring in her roommate and partner, Rosie, who is also on the wagon. Add two coarse male characters – one for each woman – who drink with alarming regularity and complete disregard for their dry companions. Introduce a missing girl, her trés riche former-actress-now-junkie mother and philandering real-estate baron father. Throw in a matched set of voodoo queens, move the action from the safety of LA to a very weird and lawless New Orleans, and ... well, you get the idea.

La Plante brought us the Prime Suspect series in '93 and '94, delivering a great sympathetic female character in Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. You might know the name from the television miniseries Prime Suspect, which won the Emmy Award for Best Series twice. She also picked up the Edgar Allan Poe Writers Award in 1993. So we're talking about an accomplished writer here, someone who knows the rules about keeping the action moving, the characters interesting, and the plot intriguing.

Cold Blood is the continuation of Cold Shoulder, in which Lorraine is still a cop. I haven't read it and probably won't because this character was such a pain in the butt. Sure, if she was a real person, I'd sincerely feel bad for her. But I sure don't want to dedicate the time it takes to read a 460-page book to a character that has so many hang ups that I don't want to like her. She binges, alternates between being a tramp and being principled, and is dishonest with her friends and herself. While human nature may include all of the above, I wouldn't say it's perfectly natural.

The setting was intriguing, and probably supposed to be mysterious and eerie, but I didn't find it very convincing. Suppose it was moved to Haiti, then it might work, but despite rampant corruption and a visit to the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum, it still didn't feel like an authentic American city. Perhaps it's LaPlante's British interpretation.

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