Cold Blood [Paperback]

Lynda La Plante (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

Former cop and alcoholic Lorraine Page is struggling with her new agency. When a fading movie star's daughter disappears, Lorraine is offered a cool million dollars to find her. The trail of clues stretches from L.A. to New Orleans. But the real danger lies in Lorraine's attraction to the girl's father. With a case this sinister, she can't afford to break her cardinal rule: don't fall for a suspect.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A weakness for the bottle has cost Lorraine Page her job as a lieutenant in the LAPD, her family--everything she once held dear. Down and out, Page finds the will to crawl out of the bottle, pull together the few remaining strands of her life, and open a modest detective agency in Los Angeles. After a slow start, she finally lands a high-profile case that she hopes will get her business off the ground. The daughter of a movie star has disappeared while on a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and the distraught parents offer Page a cool million if she can find the girl.

Page quickly discovers the case is about more than one missing girl, and her investigation leads her into the seamy underworld of New Orleans lowlife and rich, thrill-seeking Hollywood kids, a world where violence and deceit are as commonplace as beignets and café au lait. As the pressure to find the girl mounts, Page finds herself falling off the wagon, turning again to booze for solace in her hour of need. Out of control, she knows she should back off the case, but one million dollars is a powerful incentive to keep going; if she blows this case, she realizes, she will never get the professional respect she so desperately wants. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

One night during the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 18-year-old Anna Louise Caley vanishes. Eleven months later, when all other efforts have failed, the girl's mother (aging film star Elizabeth Caley) hires an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic named Lorraine Page and offers her a $1 million bonus if she finds Anna Louise, dead or alive. The investigation leads Lorraine and her team into a world of drugs, booze, adultery, suicide, voodoo, and murder. These side plots are too loosely connected to the easily solved main mystery, and the transitions are jarring. Also, too much time is spent proving Elizabeth Caley's obvious drug addiction, tempting the reader to agree when the actress reminds Lorraine, "You are supposed to be investigating the disappearance of my daughter, not delving into my private life." Still, a respectable effort. La Plante (Entwined, LJ 5/15/93) and her heroine Lorraine are both talents worth watching. A good purchase for public library collections.?Lori Dunn, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Troy, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Jove (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515124796
• ISBN-13: 978-0515124798
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #866,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Twisted Lady, August 4, 2001

By 

booknblueslady (Woodland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Blood (Paperback)

With Cold Blood, Lynda LaPlante continues her story of ex-cop Lorraine Page which she began in Cold Shoulder. Lorraine Page continues her journey back to the top in Cold Blood after hitting rock bottom, and turning tricks for survival in Cold Shoulder. While this book does not contain the angst of the previous, it is a good, readable detective story.

With an offer of one million dollars on the table, Lorraine joins the hunt for lost heiress Anna Louise Caley. Lorraine uses her street savvy and cop instinct to help her find the clues to the mystery. She interviews, intimidates and uses sex to find the clues to Anna Louise's whereabouts.

Lorraine continues to be one of the more interesting female detectives. She is a person of dubious morals, who has left much of value behind her. She substitutes sex for love and fights alcoholism with varying success. Lorraine is perhaps the toughest female in the genre, not always likable, but always interesting.

If you like hard-boiled mysteries, this is an excellent book. Please read Cold Shoulder first.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars IS THE BLOOD "COLD" ON THIS CASE??, November 1, 2001

By 

Nancy Martin (Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Blood (Hardcover)

When I read Cold Shoulder, the first book in this series, I immediately felt a connection to the main character, Lorraine Page. She's nothing like I am - as a matter of fact, she's quite different but she seems like someone I would like. As she struggles through her daily routine, trying to put her life back in order, she manages to capture the reader's heart in such a way that we will defend her to her dying day. In Cold Shoulder, she was actually given the "cold shoulder" by all those who knew and loved her. When her partner is killed on duty, she begins a downward spiral causing her to lose her job as a policewoman, lose her husband, lose her kids, resort to drugs and alcohol for some relief from her nightmares and basically give up living. It's not until she meets "Rosie", an AA member, that her life will finally get the help it needs to go on.

Cold Blood now finds Lorraine starting her own private investigation agency with Rosie as her partner. Their coupling is so very needed by both of them. Rosie will keep Lorraine on track and Lorraine will provide a much needed source for Rosie to mother. In this episode, Lorraine will travel from LA to New Orleans as she tries to find the missing teenage daughter of a wealthy California couple. She will be joined by Rosie, as well as Bill Rooney, a retired police captain, and Nick Bartello, another old friend of Bill's from the police department. The foursome has a great incentive...a million-dollar bonus if they can find 18-year-old Anna Louise Caley dead or alive.

This book is a fun romp through New Orleans in the midst of Mardi Gras. As usual, Lorraine is overbearingly persistent in tracking down all the clues that will hopefully lead to some closure for the girl's parents. Although the reader hopes and prays that the girl will be found alive, her blood just might be "cold" by the time they find her.

I'm just about ready to pick up the next book in the series - Cold Heart - and am looking forward to following Lorraine around again and making sure she stays away from the bottle.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chillingly erotic, April 2, 2000

By 

Andrea Egger, author of Grave Accusations (Gallup, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Blood (Hardcover)

An awesome twist of detail, accompanied by shocking findings by Lorraine Page, a private investigator who surpasses all the other private investigators who have been hired by the ultra-rich parents of a missing 16-teen-year-old girl. In a last-ditch effort, Page is hired by the mother of the girl. Page has her own black past and desperately needs to find the girl to save her falling-apart private investigation business. That, she does, and with a vengeance. The book is confusing at times, and the amount of characters made me almost put it down several times because I had to keep turning back pages to remember who everybody was -- that's something you're not supposed to have to do in a good book. I'm glad I didn't stop reading, because I discovered Ms. La Plante to be one of the top mystery writers I've seen after finishing this book. A prime mix of sex, blood and glamour.