Book giveaway: Blind Fury

Fans of the murder mystery, I have one to give away from British international bestselling author Lynda La Plante.

"Blind Fury: A Novel" (Touchstone Paperback/Simon & Shuster, July 2011, $15, 492 pp.) is the sixth book in a series about detective inspector Anna Travis. This bit of crime fiction will probably be your cup of tea (pun intended!) if you like television crime dramas and thriller novels.

Here's the description from Simon & Shuster UK (and I left in all the British-y bits):

Close to a motorway service station, the body of a young woman is discovered. She appears to have no family, no friends, no one to identify her. Detective Inspector Anna Travis is brought onto the team of investigators by Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton, her former lover, who already suspects that this recent case could be linked to two unsolved murders. As more evidence is discovered the team realise that they are contending with a triple murder investigation - and no suspect. Anna's blood runs cold when she receives a letter from a murderer she helped to arrest. He makes contact from prison insisting that he can track down their killer, but will only talk to Anna herself. Does he really have an insight into another killer's mind, or is he merely intent on getting into hers?

La Plante said she modeled character Anna Travis after a female detective she met in the field years ago. "My inspiration ... came from a visit to a murder site. Whilst there I met a young female detective who had never been on a murder site or seen a cadaver before, and she was feeling very sick. I started to talk to the officer and found her so delightful and honest that I decided it would be really interesting to build a series around and inexperienced young femail and follow her career."

Her inspiration for writing "Blind Fury" came from a "particularly chilling" interview with a prisoner who had been sentenced to life for the murder of two teenagers. "He was very unpleasant, gloating, and very eager to give me his history." The prisoner told La Plante how he had chosen his victims: "He said he patrolled London high streets ... at night and paid close attention to the lit-up windows of cafes. He maintained that seeing a young girl sitting alone was what caught his attention. He could monitor if they were accompanies or alone and follow them when they left the cafe." The killer told her he believed the women were waiting for him, and were "asking" to be picked up.

So, you'll find, the opening chapter of "Blind Fury" depicts a girl sitting in a cafe and an attacker moving in on her.

About the author:

Lynda La Plante, author of 14 novels, wrote the popular 2010 "Prime Suspect" British TV series starring Helen Mirren. La Plante is an honorary member of the British Film Institute. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has awarded her with the Dennis Potter Writers Award. She was presented with the TV Spielfilm Award for her television adaptation of her novel "Above Suspicion" at the International Film and Television Festival Conference in Cologne.

In 2009 Lynda was inducted into the Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. Her novels, including "Deadly Intent" (2009), "The Red Dahlia" (2007), and "Silent Scream" (2010) have all been international bestsellers. She runs a television production company and divides her time between London and Easthampton, N.Y. La Plante is currently working on the 7th Anna Travis novel, as well as finishing filming of "Deadly Intent" and "Silent Scream." Visit her website here.

"I enjoy working on both the screenplays and the novels equally," La Plante said.

Her writing has been described by the L.A. Times as "For those who love mysteries but wish Patricia Cornwell had a dirtier mind."

If you'd like a chance to win a copy of "Blind Fury" (courtesy of Touchstone Paperback) e-mail your mailing address to me at mkaras@pottsmerc.com, leave it in a comment on this blog or DM me on Twitter @mercbiz.