Widows’ Revenge – A La Plante Comfort Blanket

Lynda La Plante was/is the queen of the English thriller and has been for more years than she would probably admit too. Once you remember that Lynda became known in the 80s for her cutting edge thrillers with women as the leading characters, which was rare back then. Widows Revenge, the follow up to the massive hit of the 80s Widows takes us back to an age when geezers were geezers, and women were the “weaker” sex. This was originally published as Widows.

Widows’ Revenge is definitely a comfort blanket for all of us that love La Plante’s storytelling. There have been plenty of critics that have dismissed her over the years, but she has out lasted them and some of those literary types that look down their impoverished snobbish noses at the genre.

Dolly, Bella, Shirley and Linda are out in Rio, lying low as they took over plans of Dolly’s late husband’s plan for heist. Which they took over and were successful at. Dolly Rawlins has been shocked by her husband’s betrayal and even more so that he is still alive. While Dolly is back in England visiting a plastic surgeon, and Shirley is out in LA, Harry flies out to Rio to find ‘his’ money.

Hearing that Harry is looking for his money and Dolly, she knows she has to do everything to protect the money and herself, while taking aim at Harry and hurting him. Things become more complicated when Harry plans a new heist this time for £8million of jewels. But he will not give up looking for his cash.

This is a good old fashioned heist thriller, with plenty of twists and turns, with a twist at the end, that ties the story up in a bow. Lynda La Plante’s writing has always engaged the reader and drawn them in and kept them reading. The only complaint, very snowflakey would be the 50 page chapters, if that were to be a complaint. ( )

So, I have never read anything by this author. I won this book, and it looked interesting. I did not realize that Widow's Revenge is a sequel to a book called Widows. I definitely recommend reading the first book before you read this one. The background information would have been very helpful and given me better understanding of the time and place and events. The story itself is thought provoking. How would you respond if your dead husband was actually not dead at all? He's alive and well with another woman and a child. Seriously? Take everything he has. Take his money. What if he finds out and decides to track you down and take his revenge? I would personally see him dead, for real this time. ( )