Synopsis (from
the publisher):
Dedicated, intuitive, and utterly obsessive, DCI James Langton is
ruthless in his pursuit of a gang of illegal immigrants, the murderers
of a young prostitute. When one of them nearly kills him, Anna Travis
nurses his wounds and bears the brunt of his frustrations, putting her
own life and career on hold.
But then one of Anna's own cases -- the seemingly motiveless murder of
a quiet, studious woman -- turns out to be linked with Langton's, and
Anna becomes the gang's next target. Personal and professional demands
collide as Anna and Langton embark on a terrifying journey, threatening
violent consequences for both of them.
— ◊ —
— ◊ —
Clean Cut
An Anna
Travis Mystery
Lynda
La Plante
Touchstone (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-8666-0 (1416586660)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-8666-1 (9781416586661)
Publication Date: September 2008
List Price: $15.00
— ◊ —
Review: Heavily
laden with the social issues of present-day England, Clean Cut, Lynda LaPlante’s
third novel in the well-received Anna Travis series, follows Detective
Inspector Travis and her lover DCI James Langton as they track
suspects, quibble over clues and wrangle over their roles as co-workers
and paramours. A crackling good read, the novel provides an insight
into the pressures of policing in a multicultural society and the toll
it takes -- or not -- on those involved as Langton determines at all
costs to find the immigrant assailant who almost killed him with a
machete slash, even if it means shattering the law he’s supposed
to uphold and abandoning his lover in the wake.
Although Langton is the officer in command in Clean Cut, Travis is clearly the
chief protagonist, and the more likeable of the two, with the story
lines swirling around her as she nurses her ill-tempered boss and lover
back to health after his injury, helps him with a case of his own, and
investigates a separate incident that eventually links to
Langton’s. A noir police procedural, the novel has a bleak
realism to it, especially with the references to the murder of a mother
and child and the forensic discovery of their remains in a farmyard
piggery and the attendant implications. The action is fast paced and
the suspense tightens as Langton closes in on his attacker and Travis
begins to suspect the purity of his motivations in the chase, leaving
her with a moral dilemma of her own to resolve, especially after their
amorous relationship has disintegrated into dust and a criminal has
been mysteriously poisoned. The between-the-lines and overt power
struggles between the two both as co-workers and as lovers are well
depicted and add too to the good vs evil conflict in the book. And for
good measure there’s a chilling dose of voodoo “on the dark
side” tossed in for yet more spice. And what could be more
intriguing than the ending of the story when Travis reflects about
Langton that, “He was a formidable man, and she had no desire to
get on the wrong side of him. She now knew she held a secret -- a very
dangerous one.” Obviously one she will carry forward into the
next novel.
Besides being a much better-than-average crime novel, LaPlante’s
book contains various revelations about issues of immigration, racism
and enforced political correctness in England’s law enforcement
agencies. It also contains a "Reading Group Guide” with a series
of questions and the transcript of a conversation with LaPlante in
which she discusses her source for the story, the research she did for
it and her views about the effects of government policies on police
work, a useful addendum for an accurate understanding of the
author’s intent.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Clean Cut and to Simon & Schuster for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Clean Cut? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Above
Suspicion
Simon & Schuster (Hardcover), December 2005
ISBN-10: 0-74328480-1 (0743284801)
ISBN-13: 978-0-74328480-6 (9780743284806)
The
Red Dahlia
Simon & Schuster (Hardcover), July 2007
ISBN-10: 1-41654283-3 (1416542833)
ISBN-13: 978-1-41654283-4 (9781416542834)
Clean
Cut
Touchstone (Trade Paperback), September 2008
ISBN-10: 1-4165-8666-0 (1416586660)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-8666-1 (9781416586661)
Deadly
Intent
Touchstone (Hardcover), July 2009
ISBN-10: 1-41658832-9 (1416588329)
ISBN-13: 978-1-41658832-0 (9781416588320)
Silent
Scream
Touchstone (Hardcover), July 2010
ISBN-10: 1-4391-3929-6 (1439139296)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-3929-5 (9781439139295)
Omnimystery keywords for Clean Cut ...
Location(s) referenced: London, England.
