Book Review - Blind Fury by Lynda La Plante

Blind Fury is the latest bestseller from queen of the thriller Lynda La Plante. La Plante is probably most famous for her various books that have been adapted into highly successful television series, including Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution. Blind Fury is the next instalment in the series featuring Anna Travis, a police detective who is to English thriller writing, what James Patterson’s Alex Cross is to American thriller writing.

This time Anna Travis is enlisted to uncover the mystery of a young woman who is found brutally murdered and dumped at the perimeter of a motorway service station. In trying to discover the identity of the woman, they hit a series of brick walls that leads to high tension, frustration and, most disturbingly, more bodies. Just when the case looks like it might be becoming cold, Anna gets a message from a former nemesis; Cameron Welsh. Anna helped put Welsh behind bars, but now he insists that he can help and he will only speak to her. Much as she wants nothing to do with Welsh, Anna must put her feelings to one side in order to solve a murder, but it soon emerges that Welsh’s help comes at a high price.

Book Review - Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante

I am more than a little fond of reading thriller books, so it comes as a surprise that I have never read anything by Lynda La Plante who, according to one critic, ‘practically invented the thriller’. I have seen a number of the TV programmes that have been based on her books including the hugely popular Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution series’ and have thoroughly enjoyed them, but I have never quite got round to reading her work. So it was with a little excitement that I gratefully received her newest offering Silent Scream, from publishers Simon and Schuster.

Silent Scream is the latest in the series of books that follows Detective Anna Travis as she works on various murder cases. In this one, an up and coming young movie star, Amanda Delaney, is brutally murdered in her own home. During the investigation, it becomes clear that Amanda has lead a terribly troubled life which included childhood abuse, eating disorders and a string of sordid affairs. Detective Anna Travis soon discovers that Amanda was planning to publish her no holds barred memoirs, which meant that there was a long list of people who would have a motive to murder.