Geoff Adams reviews 'Windows' written by Lynda La Plante published by Allen & Unwin/Zaffre.
The story about Dolly Hawkins and "her girls'' La Plante says is very dear to her heart.
Its first publication was as a successful TV script that became a phenomenal success in the 1980s, running to two highly-rated series of Widows. The author turned the script into a novel in 1983, and a further television series She's Out was a sequel with its plot set 10 years later.
The film version of this very entertaining crime story that has widowed wives becoming novices in the craft of serious crime, plotting a major security van heist, is to be released later this year. And the author has edited and reshaped her original novel for a new 21st-century audience.
Three women in London were widowed when their criminal husbands all died in a failed attempt on a van, but Dolly discovers her husband Harry's ledgers with a gun, money and his detailed plans for carrying out the hijack. She becomes the leader of her own secret gang. With the spectacle of a rich future she convinces the two other widows, plus a fourth woman recruit, to train for a copycat mission.
Complications are many, including a dedicated detective and rival gang bosses with their thugs, plus growing doubts that Harry had died in the fiery end of the original security van. Some things go badly awry but the girls do score the money.
La Plante tells the story in masterly fashion, with its many twists and turns, shaping all her characters in compelling fashion. One hopes that the author will consider a sequel novel next, perhaps after the coming film. There is a solid base left for continuing the plot. Rich widows left overseas and Harry very much alive, furiously wanting vengeance against his successful wife, some big money still hidden in London - this could begin yet another bestseller.
Geoff Adams is a former ODT editor
