Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing sequel
Review: "Cold Shoulder", the first novel in this series, was successful largely because of its rich characterizations. In this sequel, the characters have already been developed and not much happens to them, outside the relatively pedestrian mystery plot. Lorraine Page has another brush with the bottle, but this turns out to be nothing more than a red herring designed to artifically add to the suspense. The book also suffers from a weak false ending. Readable and generally enjoyable, but hardly up to the standard of the original.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing sequel
Review: "Cold Shoulder", the first novel in this series, was successful largely because of its rich characterizations. In this sequel, the characters have already been developed and not much happens to them, outside the relatively pedestrian mystery plot. Lorraine Page has another brush with the bottle, but this turns out to be nothing more than a red herring designed to artifically add to the suspense. The book also suffers from a weak false ending. Readable and generally enjoyable, but hardly up to the standard of the original.
Rating:
Summary: Who on earth did the editing? They weren't from the South!
Review: I could hardly wait to dive into La Plante's latest Lorraine Page saga. I adored her first story, "Cold Shoulder," and wrote a glowing review for our newspaper. I don't remember questioning the editing once during "Shoulder." However, in "Blood," I had questions staring with page 46 when the butler brought glasses of water, "fizzy and still," for refreshments. "Fizzy and still" water????? The only explanation I can figure is that since La Plante's from England, they must have those types of water there. Then, just a few pages later, Lorraine Page is asking questions about the girl she's been hired to find. She's talking to one of the girl's friends and tennis parnters. She asks the girl if she and the missing girl "got on." Pluuueeeezzz! No Private Eye from LA would ever deliver a question in so formal a manner. Again, La Plante's editor dropped the ball. However, the most glaring error of La Plante and her editor is calling Mardi Gras CARNIVAL. What a joke! I'm from the south and have been to Mardi Gras more times that I care to admit and have never ONCE heard it called Carnival. Rio de Janiero has Carnival...New Orleans has Mardi Gras. It makes you wonder if La Plante even bothered to visit New Orleans while writing the book. She mentions several places I know, but she also makes up a lot of locales. It also seemed to me that La Plante never really got the feel for New Orleans' darker side. Yes, voodoo and mojo exist there among the moonlight and magnolias. However, La Plante never really soils her pretty hands digging into this darkness like, say, Zora Neale Hurston did. My advice is to avoid this book if you're even vaguely familiar with LA cop-turned-detective language or with New Orelans and the mojo side of her personality. La Plante and her publisher completely missed to boat on this one. Greed and the rush to get another book out have ruined yeat another fine author. What a shame!
Rating: 
Summary: Chillingly erotic
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: I must apologize!
Review: An open letter to Lynda La Plante: I must apologize for my rush to chastise your editors and research staff. After doing some research myself, I have found that Mardi Gras is sometimes referred to as Carnival. Imagine my surprise! I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. From now on, I'll tell my friends I'm going to Carnival. . . they'll be so impressed....they'll think I'm going to Rio! I still didn't like the book - - it didn't grip me and keep me turning pages like her first Lorraine Page novel, "Cold Shoulder." And I still don't think she ever really got the feel from New Orleans. I can't imagine having a story set in New Orleans with NO mention of Bourbon Street, Preservation Hall, The Court of Three Sisters, Jackson Square, the Jax Brewery Complex, Pat O'Brien's, Brennan's, Cafe DuMonde, or the Riverwalk. She missed the opportunity to inform her readers about wonderful, lovely, complex, beguiling and enticing New Orleans. Oh, well, I'm not writing the book....but I can tell you this, I won't be reading any more La Plante.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: Great book - a fast and enjoyable read. I am going to go buy her other books, as the reviews of them are so glowing.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a change from "Cold Shoulder".
Review: I really enjoyed the characters, plotting, and writing in "Cold Shoulder". "Cold Blood" is as different as night from day. Why wasn't it edited down to half the length? The writing wasn't remarkable, either. I'm not acquainted with New Orleans, so I can't comment on the locale.And Lorraine's battle with the bottle was tiresome to read about.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of money and more importantly time!
Review: I thought this book to be contrived. The characters were extrememly unpleasant, especially Little Miss Detective. Why anyone would talk to her is beyond me. And, what happened at the end? I still don't know. A long journey to no where.
Rating:
Summary: LaPlante pulls out all the stops in her great new thriller.
Review: Lorraine Page is back, this time with a her own private detective agency. But sadly buisness has been going stale, in fact Lorraine is contemplating shutting the place down till she fortuantly nets a high profile case. Anna Louise Calley, an 18 year old beauty and daughter of former film star Elizabeth Calley has gone missing for eleven months! And it's Lorraine's job, aided by her two assistants, the ever optimistic Rosie, and grumbling Bill Rooney to find the missing girl dead or alive in a space of two weeks! If not their contracts are terminated and they wouldn't recieve their one million dollar bonus. This is Lorraine first big case, and she is fiercly determined to solve it for her own piece of mind and to get herself some professional respect. From the high class of LA's richest and finest to the dark, murky alleys of New Orlean's notorious French Quarter, LaPlante fashion's a gripping story which consists of hauntingly brilliant and realistic characters and a macabre plot filled with violence,voodo,and self redemption . With Lorraine Page, LaPlante has created one of the grittiest, strongest and realistic characters ever put on the crime novel. Divorced, with out custody of any of her three kids, former chronic alcoholic and hooker Lorraine Page isn't no angel. But we feel her pain,tears, and joy as she tries to find her place in the world. And it is maybe in this sense that this book and probably this series may slightly falter, for it maybe a little bit to melodramatic for some readers. But if you are looking for a gritty crime novel with strong vibrant characters and powerful plots go no further than Linda LaPlante COLD SERIES. Written by one of the most prolific and successful in the buisness.
Rating:
Summary: Jostled, Impassioned and Spontaneous
Review: Lynda La Plante gave us Lorraine Page, a strong, talented detective, who exuded hope as she picked herself up from skid road in "Cold Shoulder." A fast-paced writer, La Plante's strength is in creating and describing such characters through action. "Cold Blood," illustrates that sharp edge on which Lorraine walks. She is drinking again, creating a "denial" that she could control alcohol. Lorraine alienates Rosie and Rooney, associates and helpmates. She lets the "pot at the end of the rainbow" blind her. Her actions seemed to be out of a "blind love" or a "blind rage" or a "blind fear." Although the readers get to the bottom of the mystery, Lorraine doesn't. She lands on feet, but there is little if any personal redemption. This is exactly what I admire about this series. La Plante isn't afraid to give us a tough heroine that we can dislike and distrust yet admire as she struggles for professional success against many major personal weaknesses. In "Cold Shoulder," we were exposed to a full development of Lorraine's past. I hope "Cold Blood" indicates that La Plante will take us slowly through Lorraine's future, one that is jostled, impassioned and spontaneous.
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