Customer Reviews

Deadly Intent: An Anna Travis Mystery (Anna Travis Mysteries)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Deadly Intent is the fourth Anna Travis book by Lynda La Plante, and well worth the read. Anna has worked two investigations since her breakup with now Chief Superintendent James Langton, and fortunately did not see him on either case.

Now, a former Murder Squad detective has been murdered at a drug den, and the Squad sets up for yet another investigation headed this time by the formidable DCI Carol Cunningham.

Anna was onto Alexander Fitzpatrick from the beginning, but no one would believe her. As the body count rose, and Langton became more involved in the case, Anna's stress level rose accordingly. To add to her woes, she was accused of going off on her own without involving or updating the rest of the team.

La Plante has written an intense follow-up to her other successful Anna Travis mysteries. Her books are well-researched providing an uncanny look into the heart, mind, and soul of the antagonist, providing the reader with a chilling sense of what motivates him.

This book is a gem. Well plotted and fast-paced throughout, the ending is beyond surprising. I never saw it coming.

The book is long and detailed, but manages to move swiftly along. If you want a quick beach read, you better find another book.

But if you want an engaging, provacative police procedural with plenty of action to keep you entertained for hours, than this is the book for you.

Deadly Intent: An Anna Travis Mystery (Anna Travis Mysteries)

Frank Brandon left the murder squad unit to become a chauffeur for a minor drug dealer before marrying wealthy Julia Kendal. He was allegedly happy and had money to waste; so had no reason to be found murdered in a fetid dumpy flat in slummy Warren Estate.

Murder Squad Detective Inspector Anna Travis fears Brandon's homicide means the return from the dead of her former partner Anthony Collingwood, who left her without warning with two kids and a lot of money almost a decade ago. Anthony is better known as Alexander Fitzpatrick, once the nation's leading drug kingpin, but out of sight for years. In spite of other associates of Fitzpatrick being assassinated, Anna's superior DCI Carol Cunningham disagrees as no proof has surfaced that the former criminal mastermind is alive. Unbeknownst to the cops including Anna's worried about her former lover DCS James Langton, Fitzpatrick had major facial surgery in Mexico and has come home to flood the country with the deadly painkiller Fentanyl.

The latest Travis British police procedural (see ABOVE SUSPICION, CLEAN CUT and THE RED DAHLIA) is an excellent investigative tale that hooks the audience with the inquiry as much as the intriguing look back at the heroine's past. The story line is fast-paced even with a vividly detailed investigation as the prime cast makes this a top rate thriller. In a way the relationships between Anna and the two main men in her past, Anthony and James, make for a super triangle that enhances a strong mystery.

Harriet Klausner

The book itself is fine. The author, Lynda LaPlante, is one I read all the time, whenever she writes another book. This one, however, falls short. I thought it would never end. I stuck with it because I know the author to do better and hoped for an ending I could live with. Then I wished for any ending,any ending, as long as the book would finally end and the problem be resolved. It seems the author just dragged the story out to add words, pages and pages of superfluous words. Made me dislike the characters I had previously come to like.

Deadly Intent is the fourth book in the police-heavy mystery-thriller Anna Travis series by British author Lynda LaPlante. Much like previous novels in the series, Deadly Intent is well-researched, carefully crafted, and explores the fascinating psyche of (and complex) title character.

This time around, Travis is confronted with another relationship from her past: Anthony Collingwood, most commonly known as Alexander Fitzpatrick, one of the most wanted drug lords in the Western hemisphere, who left Travis without warning nearly a decade ago. Travis believes Fitzpatrick to be dead, until former colleague Frank Brandon is found murdered.

While this book is an entertaining, hard-pounding mystery, it just isn't as good as the previous books in the Anna Travis series. LaPlante's skill as a writer is still apparent here -- the case is woven together in a very clever way; the connections between people and evidence slowly come together to explain the case -- but it takes far too long to bring these connections together, which severely brings the pace down. While LaPlante's descriptions are phenomenally specific and help move the reader between plot points and through the mystery, this detail becomes too much several times throughout the novel and seems to distract from the plot more than add to it.

Another pacing issue lies with Travis's constant personal drama and soul-searching -- having broken up with Chief Superintendent James Langton after a fairly melodramatic affair -- and her constant stress to still be able to deal with him every day as her superior. While this fits in with the pair's dramatic relational issues in previous novels, the tone is completely different and nearly every time that Travis really gets going on the case, she gets caught up in drama with Langton.

While there are issues with this novel, it's still a decent addition to the Anna Travis series for fans of police procedural mystery/thrillers. There is a good crime novel in Deadly Intent, but the book has too much filler, too much soul-searching drama, too much detail, and too many loose ends. If you're looking for an easy-to-read, frothy beach read, than look elsewhere.

For non-fans of the series, this will be a difficult one to get into -- it's probably best to start with one of the three previous novels (Above Suspicion, Clean Cut, and The Red Dahlia).

I picked this book up at a moment when everything I read annoyed me. And this didn't.

It has its issues, for sure. The prose is workable, not spectacular. But it entertained and distracted me and I liked Anna Travis as a main character. For that moment in time, it was exactly what I needed. So thanks, Ms. La Plante, for that.

I agree with M.Roy
This book, although well written and good plot, went on and on and, did I say, on ?
They kept rehashing how far they (police) were with the investigation over and over, and over, again... I knew it back to front and sideways.
I was determined to finish it though - and was a bit disappointed; also, maybe I am not too smart, but I didn't really get the exciting beginning (plastic surgery) as having much of an impact to the story overall. I fell the story could have been the same without the plastic surgery ??
Oh well, might give another one of her books a try.....

This is the first Lydia LaPlante novel I've read, and having heard good things about the Prime Suspect series, I was expecting an enjoyable read. I was very disappointed. About all you can say in favor of Deadly Intent is that it has an excellent plot, complicated and well thought-out, yet easy to follow if you pay attention. Because of LaPlante's writing style, however,this intriguing plot is transformed into a stupendously boring and turgid novel. I kept going to the end only because I wanted to know how things turned out, certainly not because LaPlante made me care about her characters or enjoy struggling through her clumsily written sentences. Hasn't anyone ever suggested to LaPlante that rather than telling us what her characters think and feel, she should show us? Hasn't anyone ever told her that readers have a certain amount of intuition and don't need to be told every little inconsequential detail of every scene? Doesn't she have an editor who might help her develop a more natural and readable writing style? A particular irritation is her insistence on using the word "prior" when "earlier" or "before" would be both more appropriate in the context and closer to the kind of English people actually speak. I doubt that I will read anything she has written unless I am faced with a long plane trip and the only alternative available is something by Dan Brown.