La Plante, Lynda

(British, 1946– )

La Plante trained as an actress and worked in cabaret, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in films, before turning to writing. She has written a number of award-winning television drama serials. The novels of these are a good read; Prime Suspect (1991), Prime Suspect 2 (1992), and The Governor (1995) are strongly plotted, with powerful heroines who have to fight their battles in a man's world. (In Prime Suspect, the police force; in The Governor, rather less convincingly, as a prison governor.) La Plante's other thrillers include Cold Shoulder (1994) about an American policewoman who shoots an innocent boy whilst drunk; and Entwined (1992), a murder story featuring a pair of identical twins who were victims of experimentation in a Nazi concentration camp.

Sara Paretsky  JR