Showing results by author "Lynda La Plante" in All Categories

It is late at night on a notorious council estate in east London. A van - garishly painted with a grinning clown's face on the side - is being driven erratically. When the police pull over the driver to question him, they discover, inside the van, the body of a young woman. A murder suspect...

Duty to the job or personal ambition? Anna Travis must decide where her loyalties lie ... Six months ago, London nightclub owner Josh Reynolds was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head, the gun held in his right hand. His death was quickly determined to be a suicide, the...

Can Jane Tennison uncover a serial killer? The fourth in the Sunday Times best-selling Jane Tennison thrillers, Murder Mile is set in 1979 at the height of the 'Winter of Discontent' when economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain. Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London's toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days. There are no suspects, and the manner of death is different in each case.

Susie and Stella have nothing in common, except for the fact that they're married to the same man - private detective Mike Hazard. When Mike suddenly disappears, the women discover his double life. The two women soon find out that Mike is keeping more secrets than just his infidelity and his actions soon put them in danger with both sides of the law. They must now track down a missing husband while finding a way to stay alive...

Fifteen-year-old Cassie Booth goes missing on her paper round. Then her bloodstained jacket is found in a boathouse belonging to Karl Wilding - but there's little evidence against him. A routine visit by Detective Inspector Pat North to appease persistent complainer Stephen Warrington spirals into something far more sinister. As his behaviour becomes increasingly obsessive, North is caught in a frightening web of deceit and lies that fuels her suspicion that Warrington has been involved in a far more horrific crime.

A life-and-death hostage situation at Barfield High Security prison brings Governor Helen Hewitt back to her old stomping ground. But things have changed at Barfield. A new, highly dangerous prisoner poses a threat to the peace, and when discord boils over, the prisoners join forces in an audacious escape attempt. As violence erupts among the officers and the inmates, Hewitt must once again restore order. Before it's too late.

The memoir covers La Plante's entire life, from her youth growing up in Merseyside to studying at RADA alongside Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt. It explores "the exasperation [La Plante] felt at the limited roles available for female actors" - something that led to her writing "Widows" and "Prime Suspect" for television.

A derelict house is being demolished when workmen discover the remains of a young girl. Detective Superintendent Michael Walker is far from happy at being assigned the 17-year-old murder case. When more skeletons are discovered, however, Walker suddenly finds himself in charge of one of the biggest investigations in years. But when a secret has been buried for 17 years, the path to justice is more tortuous than ever. Can Walker and his team dig up the truth behind one family and their shadowy past? Or is the truth buried too deep?

Against all the odds, Dolly Rawlins and her gangland widows managed the impossible: a heist their husbands had failed to pull off - at the cost of their lives. But though they may be in the money, they're far from easy street. Shocked by her husband's betrayal, Dolly discovers Harry Rawlins isn't dead. He knows where the four women are and he wants them to pay. And he doesn't just mean getting his hands on the money. The women can't keep running. They have to get Harry out of their lives for good. But can they outwit a criminal mastermind who won't hesitate to kill?

Detective Anna Travis is called out to a motorway service station on the M1, where the body of a young girl has been found in a nearby ditch. With no apparent family, friends or connections, this victim is the latest in a string of women who have gone missing in the vicinity, with no one stepping forward to claim them. As the investigation appears to stall, Anna receives an unexpected letter from a man she helped put away. He asks her to visit him in prison immediately, claiming to know who the killer is.

When a body is found in one of London's poorest districts, the coroner's report identifies the victim as young, black and female, but impossibly anonymous. One thing is clear to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison about this victim - that news of her murder will tear apart a city already cracking with racial tensions, hurling Scotland Yard and Tennison herself into a maelstrom of shocking accusations and sudden, wrenching violence.

When a woman is snatched from a wood, Inspector Superintendent Pat North seizes control of her first major enquiry - one that appears to be over before it begins, when a local sex offender quickly confesses. With no body and inconsistent statements, North and her team are not convinced. They investigate a strange family of musical geniuses - each with their own motive. But if the man who confessed isn't the perpetrator - who is? And how far will they go to evade capture?

Newly promoted Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison has elbowed her way into the Area Major Incident Pool, or AMIP, an elite team investigating non-domestic murders. With her new position, she hopes things will change: the rampant sexism, the snide remarks, the undermining. Then she gets her first assignment: a five-year-old cold case of a missing teenager no one else has any interest in investigating, and an assumed suicide Tennison suspects is, in fact, murder. But as Tennison gathers the crucial evidence to secure arrests, her new colleagues watch like vultures circling prey.

When a new lead in a cold case comes to light, Detective Anna Travis faces the biggest challenge of her career. Five years ago, a teenage girl disappeared in broad daylight on a busy street and the mystery has haunted Anna's boss Langton, who led the original investigation, for years. With a confession to this murder and one more besides, Langton believes he finally has his man—but Anna isn't so sure. With a lack of evidence, the confession is critical to the arrest. And when the suspect changes his story, it looks like the case could fall apart.

Sir William Benedict, a working-class man turned entrepreneur, has everything money can buy, including an island paradise in the Caribbean. The only thing he is missing is acceptance from society's elite. When he begins to fund Andrew Maynard MP, a rising political star, he has what he has always wanted within reach. But political scandal soon erupts, and William finds himself an outcast once again. Desperate, he turns to Andrew's ex-lover to plot his retribution. Soon his island goes from paradise to the backdrop for revenge.

Helena Lanark is an elderly woman, living in a luxurious care home. The heiress of an immense family fortune, she keeps the secret to the horror which once occurred within the Lanark family house. Jane Tennison is leading a murder investigation into the recent brutal death of a young girl, her decomposed starved body discovered in an old air raid shelter in the garden of the Lanark's now derelict house. Initially the focus is on identifying the victim, until another body is found, hidden in the walls of the shelter.

In a city as old as London, the discovery is hardly surprising. But when scratch marks are found on the inside of the coffin lid, Detective Jane Tennison believes she has unearthed a mystery far darker than any she's investigated before. However, not everyone agrees. Tennison's superiors dismiss it as a historic cold case and the Church seems desperate to conceal the facts from the investigation. It's clear that someone is hiding the truth and perhaps even the killer. Tennison must pray she can find both - before they are buried forever.

A young girl is found dumped on the banks of the Thames. Horrifically mutilated and drained of blood, her death is an ominous mirror image of an unsolved 1940s case in Los Angeles known as 'The Black Dahlia'. Detective Inspector Anna Travis must race against time to catch this copycat killer, dubbed 'The Red Dahlia' from the flower his victim wore in her hair. But there are no suspects and a media frenzy is spiralling out of control.

Edward, who inherits his father's looks... and his curse. Alex, his brother, whose quest for revenge will fuel an empire built on corruption. Evelyne and Juliana, the fourth generation, are still haunted by the family's past. From the miseries of the war years to the glamorous present, in London, America and South Africa, Lynda La Plante continues the bestselling saga that began with The Legacy. The passionate story of a family's lives and fortunes and the curse that forged their names...

Close to a motorway service station, the body of a young woman is discovered. She appears to have no family, no friends, no one to identify her. DI Anna Travis is brought onto the team of investigators by DCS James Langton, who already suspects that this recent case could be linked to two...