ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605060012
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-24 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KINNEY LITTLEFIELD ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ah, the alluringly unlovely ladies of Lynda La Plante. On page and screen La Plante has written them mean and sweaty and selfish and cynical - and decidedly sexy all the same.
Hard-bitten, crime-solving Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) came first, in La Plante's script for Emmy-winning miniseries ``Prime Suspect.'' At 9 p.m. Sunday (on WBRA-Channel 15), Mirren reprises Tennison's dual fight against criminals and sexist male colleagues inside the London police department, in the new telefilm ``Prime Suspect: The Scent of Darkness'' on Mobil Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. Although Tennison remains true to La Plante's hard-case creation, this script was written by Guy Hibbert.
And now La Plante translates Tennison's tough-as-males saga to book form, with a new female hero and a Pasadena, Calif., setting, in her first novel, ``Cold Shoulder'' (Random House, 415 pages, $24).
The violent and sexually graphic murder mystery introduces ex-Pasadena cop, ex-prostitute and recovering alcoholic Lorraine Page. Drunk on duty, Page kills an innocent teen-age boy. After years on the skids, she starts rehab, only to fall prey to, then nab, a vicious serial killer who uses a claw hammer as a weapon. In the process, Page proves her mettle as a private investigator.
Ripe for a sequel? La Plante is writing it now.
And yes, just as a few real Jane Tennisons exist in London, there is a real Lorraine Page somewhere in the United States - although her name has been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
``She was actually extremely hostile when I met her,'' La Plante, 50, said recently from Los Angeles, her voice strong and husky. ``She'd heard of me through `Prime Suspect,' and she tracked me down in L.A. She was now a private investigator, and she wanted money for her story. And I paid her.
``But she only wanted to tell me her story from the time she was kicked off the force - no, not in Southern California. And I needed to know what kind of person she was before that, before her tragedy. She said that wasn't the deal, but if I had started off with just this hardened, foul-mouthed person, no one would read the book.''
So La Plante began investigating the private investigator.
``When she found out, she told me to back off,'' La Plante said. ``I'd been back to her former police force, but they wouldn't talk because she had committed a terrible, terrible crime. I traced a retired captain who had worked with her and he wasn't forthcoming, either - until I offered him money.''
Notice a theme here?
``I have to pay; it is almost like checkbook journalism,'' said La Plante, who drew both Tennison, the prostitutes in her first British series, ``Widows,'' and the ex-paratroopers in her series ``Civvies'' from real-life research.
``Of course, people have this fantasy that if you have a book deal you're making millions. Then I show them my Random House contract, and they are shocked.''
To Liverpool-born La Plante, writing a California-set story in American English - you will notice a Britishism here and there - was easy.
A devotee of french fries, hamburgers, and the Home Shopping Network - ``you know what I'm doing today? I've ordered this machine to flatten my stomach and I don't know how I'll get it home'' - La Plante now alternates between houses in East Hampton, N.Y., and London, with frequent sorties to the West Coast.
Her interest in the social underbelly of cops, perps and pimps sprang from her former acting career. After attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she landed on stage, then TV. Many of her roles were as prostitutes.
``I'll describe myself: 5 feet, 2 inches, I would say slightly overweight, very ordinary looking, and very curly red hair - and somehow that translated into prostitute.''
So when La Plante wrote her first series, ``Widows,'' it was about prostitutes. Then came ``Civvies,'' a truly home-grown series.
``The real men behind `Civvies' were actually working as decorators on my house and they were appallingly bad. They were ex-Army men, crack investigators, who couldn't get jobs.
``It all spiraled out of control because they wanted to set up a security firm called Guardian Security and I guaranteed their financing. Six months later, they pulled an armed heist in an armored truck and I had to pay off the bank robbery,'' La Plante said, relishing the irony.
``Then I visited them in jail and I found they were all suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome from being in Belfast. And they became `Civvies.'''
To hone ``Cold Shoulder,'' La Plante spent six weeks with the real and rather passive-aggressive Lorraine.
``I'd ask her to take me to real brothels and crack houses and she would - but she'd just leave me there, and I wouldn't know when she was coming back. She was just awful.''
Then came six months writing in marathon sessions in London, puffing cigarettes in a dark room with drawn curtains.
``I have to have darkness,'' she said.
Although ``Cold Shoulder'' is written in speeding, cinematic style, it wasn't penned to be sold to TV or film, La Plante said.
``Even now, even after `Prime Suspect,' this story is just too dark, too crude. In reality even my publishers were worried that Lorraine was too tough. Plus if you're writing a novel and at the same time thinking `this would make a jolly good movie,' then it sways your judgment as a novelist.''
In the meantime, La Plante hopes to cap her career in crime with a new fall TV series for NBC.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren)by CNBundertakes her own investigation in ``Prime Suspect: The Scent of
Darkness,'' airing Sunday night at 9 on WBRA-Channel 15.