From Publishers Weekly
Admirers of La Plante's Edgar Award- winning TV miniseries, Prime Suspect, and of her earlier crime-thriller fiction (Bella Mafia), will want to give this novel anything but the cold shoulder. After acute alcoholism ruins her career and marriage, former Pasadena, Calif., police lieutenant Lorraine Page winds up as a skid-row prostitute. One day, Lorraine, newly sober, is solicited by a man who then tries to kill her with a hammer; she escapes by biting him on the neck. After she learns that her attacker is probably responsible for a series of hammer murders of back-street hookers, Lorraine determines to bring the serial-killer to justice. As she tracks her quarry, she begins to take strength from her recovery from addiction. Meanwhile, her astute police instincts lead her through L.A.'s netherworld of transsexual prostitution and kiddie porn, propelling her toward the dark secrets of a powerful family. Finely tuned characters, a well-wrought plot and plenty of suspense made this novel a success in England; its appeal should cross the Atlantic with ease.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The author of the Emmy Award-winning TV series Prime Suspect now pens her first thriller. Lorraine Page, a down-on-her-luck ex-cop, finds herself in recovery the hard way, when she winds up on the trail of a serial killer. Film rights sold to Michelle Pfeiffer/Twentieth Century Fox. Film version will star Michelle Pfeiffer as Lorraine Page.
This is an old, old classic, perhaps one of the books that started the genre, and any reader of women's thrillers and mystery should read this book as a foundation.
The main character Lorraine is based on a real-life story of a LAPD officer. This well written realistic novel at times becomes depressing as we follow Lorraine's life through her down fall into alcoholism, prostitution and theft. It becomes more hopeful when she gets involved in solving a crime and attempts to better her life. The ending is a bit convoluted but I found this to be a worthwhile page-turner and a good story of survival.
The author also wrote the PRIME SUSPECT series.
