Lynda La Plante

I really should have just dropped this one, but I kept giving it longer to improve until eventually I'd come too far to quit now. I really wish I'd just given up earlier though and saved myself the bother.

I really disliked this book. The writing style was very dry, just '-- happened, and then --, and he said --.' I don't need a lot of excitement, but this was simply tedious. Lots of contradictions, lots of stretching believability. The story bounced from character to character to character, show more but really Jack was the center of the entire book universe, all the others only existed for his benefit. We hear a couple things about each, but none of them are really persons in their own right. They're only there to assist him, or be interrogated by him, or inspire him to feel something, or whatever. I couldn't muster much care for any of them since they were all so paper thin.

And unfortunately, I found Jack, the only developed character, very unlikable. And actually kind of a loser. I'm stunned anyone would craft a series around him! He's selfish, small minded, just does whatever he cares to do whenever he cares to do it. He shouldn't be a police officer at all really, much less considered for promotion. And on top of all that, he really isn't even very good at solving crimes. He basically fobs off all his work responsibilities to pursue his own interests, and it's only because one of the personal interests just happened to overlap with the case, that he ever contributed anything at all! Sheesh.

He's been a cop for years but has never felt much interest in anything until he started fixating on, (and admiring, and emulating) criminals! Yay, that's just peachy in a cop really. Also he had a lovely childhood with his adopted parents and never cared to know anything about his biological ones, until his dad is actually dying, and then suddenly he's on a mission to replace him before he dies or something, even at the expense of actually spending what time he has left with his dad! wth?? And we're told repeatedly that his girlfriend is the love of his life and most important person to him, etc. and then he's a terrible boyfriend for the entire book! Ugh. He's a self-centered @ss-hat and I'm glad to be rid of him. show less

The death of a prominent theatrical agent puts Detective Sergeant Jane Tennison, now assigned to the Gerald Road police station in Knightsbridge, in the middle of a brutal murder investigation. The victim, Charles Foxley, had many powerful friends . . . and just as many enemies, including an antagonistic ex-wife. But who despised the man enough to commit the heinous crime?

The sixth in the Jane Tennison series, the story alternates between the points of view of Jane and her associate, show more Detective Sergeant Spencer Gibbs. The characters are well-drawn, realistic, and believable; the plot, twisting and sometimes surprising. Jane often fights an uphill battle for her career in the male-dominated [and often unaccepting] department, a situation some readers may find frustrating; readers should expect some grisly descriptions as the story unfolds.

This finely-detailed police procedural is intriguing; the detectives follow up many avenues of investigation, often leading nowhere and Jane finds that those in charge don’t take her seriously. The resolution of the investigation neatly wraps up the main plot while a secondary plot involving corruption in the Flying Squad [where Jane was previously assigned] is brought to a successful conclusion. However, there’s a loose thread or two left dangling as the story ends. Nevertheless, readers who enjoy police procedurals will find much to appreciate here.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book through Bookish First show less

TENNISON: A JANE TENNISON THRILLER (Book 1) by Lynda LaPlante.
“Before Prime Suspect there was Tennison - this is her story.”

It is 1973 and Jane Tennison is a probationer, a recent grad of the Metropolitan Police Training Academy. She is placed in Hackney (an area of London) where a Dickens’ novel ‘seems to come to life’. Rife with racism, sexism, crime, vice, cruelty, grittiness, male-domination and manipulation, Jane struggles to keep her head above water in this atmosphere.
Her show more character’s personality is hard to pin down as she is (or seems) so young, so inexperienced, so vulnerable. Yet there is an inner toughness, stubbornness, confidence and resolve. She is also uncannily intuitive and intelligent.
TENNISON is a very dramatic British police procedural. The plot is exceptional and the characters very well-developed. The ‘sense of place’ is also very strong.
TENNISON offers a very interesting perspective of the early 1970s. There is constant change, constant societal and cultural disruption. I admire an author tackling this time period.
TENNISON is painful to read at times. Jane is so manipulated; so looked down upon by her male ‘superiors’. I had to take several reading ‘breaks’ and calm down.
TENNISON, the book, made it easier to accept and admire the TV production of this title. I was unsettled by the TV production and didn’t know why, as I am a huge fan of Lynda LaPlante and her Prime Suspect production. I concluded that the character of Jane Tennison is so complex, especially as a young probationer, that the new series couldn’t develop Jane’s character (in 1 show) to the point where we can see an older, more mature Jane, played (flawlessly) by Helen Mirren.
I would heartily recommend this book and subsequent series. show less

In volume 4 of the series, Jane Tennison has been recently promoted to Detective Sergeant and is working in CID in Peckham, south London. She and a colleague are called to a scene where a woman has been found collapsed among piles of rubbish - this being the 1979 Winter of Discontent when the bin men were on strike for weeks - and they discover the woman has been strangled. Soon afterwards, another woman's body is found although her social status and age are very different from the first show more victim and the cause of death is also different. Only the proximity of the bodies leads the detectives to link the two cases, but then a third victim turns up and a certain missing man is implicated. Only Jane doubts his guilt, being less hampered by the stereotyped views and prejudice of most of her male colleagues.

I enjoyed this volume more than the previous book. Jane was more confident and more instrumental in solving the crimes, though she still has to cope with outrageous 1970s male chauvinism as well as her own tendency to be a bit gung-ho and stubborn about following up leads discounted by her so-called superiors. Her sympathy to women and a child affected by the crimes is well drawn. I also liked her colleague Paul Lawrence, a superb forensic officer who would also suffer from extreme prejudice if his sexual orientation were known to his male colleagues. The other police characters are all one dimensional.

The story is a little predictable in terms of who the real culprit is and the ending, but there was far less clunky writing than in the previous volume and only one actual anachronism that stood out and jarred - the use of "Listen up". I googled it after finishing the book and it seems that it was actually used in the 1970s but in the USA military, so it would not have been current in 1970s Britain. But overall, I would rate this at 4 stars. show less