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A review by mrsbooknerd
The Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante
2.0
I have read a number of Anna Travis novels now, though entirely out of order, but I don't really enjoy them. The issues that I had with this novel I remember having with the other novels as well. I think 'The Red Dahlia' has convinced me not to try another.
My biggest problem is that I do not like Anna. Anna is as dull as dishwater - probably less so because sometimes dishwater has little floating bits that keep it a bit exciting. She has no spark or personality. She lives to work and has no other interests or hobbies etc to give her depth. She seems to exist just for the sake of these books, I never feel like the book I am reading just happens to occur amidst Anna's life. I'm not sure if that makes sense.
She never 'gets' anyone's jokes, she finds things inappropriate, she gets offended... she just seems like a right stick in the mud and I don't enjoy reading about her.
I also really dislike this - and I am going to heavily emphasise the use of sarcastic quote marks here - 'romance' with Langton. Langton isn't the most likeable of characters either, he seems a bit pushy and arrogant and non-committal and he is evidently an alcoholic. I think if it was written better then the addition of a proper 'romance' would give such a series a real interest point, but I didn't come away from the novel thinking that Anna and Langton were end game.
I actually enjoyed the initial plot with the really gruesome murders and the shadowing of an older crime. However, it very quickly became repetitive and the pacing dwindled away.
There was too much of the police having no progress and Anna typing up reports. Every day that passed Anna typed up her report. Good Girl, Anna. Doing your homework.
There was too much interviewing, going away, reinterviewing, going away, interview again... it was boring. I'm not saying that everyone should have just outright told the police everything that they knew, but the format could at least have changed a bit. The people being interviewed could have changed.
Once we had a prime suspect the book just became a farce. There was very little progression and quite a lot of guess work and fishing. It seemed that the two victims were forgotten and instead pages and pages were given to trying to make the suspect seem utterly deviant. Descriptions of sexual depravity that were repeated several times as if to reinforce the fact that the bad guy was a bad guy. Was it bad enough that the suspect had killed two women in a very gruesome manner? Yes. But La Plante didn't seem to think so, she she threw in familial abuse, abortions, incest, rape, group sex, suicide ... your basic tick list of things that can be used to make a bad guy, but this one had all of them.
It was all just too much.
This book was a good 150+ pages too long. The pacing massively dwindled once we had a suspect and Anna is a wet blanket. I'm not sure that I am going to read another in this series.
My biggest problem is that I do not like Anna. Anna is as dull as dishwater - probably less so because sometimes dishwater has little floating bits that keep it a bit exciting. She has no spark or personality. She lives to work and has no other interests or hobbies etc to give her depth. She seems to exist just for the sake of these books, I never feel like the book I am reading just happens to occur amidst Anna's life. I'm not sure if that makes sense.
She never 'gets' anyone's jokes, she finds things inappropriate, she gets offended... she just seems like a right stick in the mud and I don't enjoy reading about her.
I also really dislike this - and I am going to heavily emphasise the use of sarcastic quote marks here - 'romance' with Langton. Langton isn't the most likeable of characters either, he seems a bit pushy and arrogant and non-committal and he is evidently an alcoholic. I think if it was written better then the addition of a proper 'romance' would give such a series a real interest point, but I didn't come away from the novel thinking that Anna and Langton were end game.
I actually enjoyed the initial plot with the really gruesome murders and the shadowing of an older crime. However, it very quickly became repetitive and the pacing dwindled away.
There was too much of the police having no progress and Anna typing up reports. Every day that passed Anna typed up her report. Good Girl, Anna. Doing your homework.
There was too much interviewing, going away, reinterviewing, going away, interview again... it was boring. I'm not saying that everyone should have just outright told the police everything that they knew, but the format could at least have changed a bit. The people being interviewed could have changed.
Once we had a prime suspect the book just became a farce. There was very little progression and quite a lot of guess work and fishing. It seemed that the two victims were forgotten and instead pages and pages were given to trying to make the suspect seem utterly deviant. Descriptions of sexual depravity that were repeated several times as if to reinforce the fact that the bad guy was a bad guy. Was it bad enough that the suspect had killed two women in a very gruesome manner? Yes. But La Plante didn't seem to think so, she she threw in familial abuse, abortions, incest, rape, group sex, suicide ... your basic tick list of things that can be used to make a bad guy, but this one had all of them.
It was all just too much.
This book was a good 150+ pages too long. The pacing massively dwindled once we had a suspect and Anna is a wet blanket. I'm not sure that I am going to read another in this series.