#Review by Lou of Whole Life Sentence By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda #WholeLifeSentence #teamtennison @ZaffreBooks @bonnierbooks_uk @Tr4cyF3nt0n

Whole Life Sentence
By Lynda La Plante

Please join me as we, on Team Tennison, celebrate the publication day of Whole Life Sentence. The final book in the Tennison series and the one that then takes readers up to the point where Prime Suspect begins. ”It ends where it all begins”…

It has been a real privilege to be part of this team, reviewing all of the Tennison books. I’m now sorry to see the end of this amazing opportunity.
Discover the blurb and my final review on this series below.

BLURB

IT ENDS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…

DETECTIVE JANE TENNISON’S POLICE CAREER HANGS IN THE BALANCE: A SINGLE STEP FROM GLORY – OR RUIN.

While she has elbowed her way into an elite team investigating non-domestic murders, there is nothing elite about her first assignments: a missing teenager cold case and an apparent suicide Tennison suspects is, in fact, murder.

But as she uncovers explosive evidence, Tennison’s new colleagues watch like vultures circling prey. And, one by one, the cases no one else wanted are taken from her – and the glory along with them.

Now Tennison has had enough: of the rampant sexism, snide remarks and undermining. It’s time to take what is rightfully hers from those who have held her back.

She just has to do what she does best: find her prime suspect . . .

Review

If you’ve been following the books, you’ve also been charting the rise and rise of Jane Tennison’s career. We’ve seen her tackle crime, develop in both her career and personally.
This finale of the Tennison series does not disappoint!

The year in this book is 1991. Jane Tennison applied for another promotion and was successful. The reception she is met with isn’t exactly the warmest, but she’s faced that throughout her entire career. DCS Kiernan isn’t totally overjoyed by her appointment, but there’s a cold case sitting on his desk that needs tending to, dating back to 1986. She had been hoping for a more current, live case now she’s within the Area Major Incident Team (AMIT). Brittany Hall, a student last seen in a pub, then vanished. It becomes a more involved case than what’s on the surface. She’s also handed an apparent suicide case, but Tennison grows suspicious and thinks there’s more to it than meets the eye, so does some digging. What she uncovers is intriguing and brings up new angles and leads to follow-up.

Lynda La Plante, once again leads the reader along a dark, twisty path, where there’s both the male dominated career and the case itself to navigate. We see the tenacity that’s grown over the series and the results of her hard work and determination pay off even more in this book. It perfectly bridges between where she was when she first started to now and where she heads to in the series we know as Prime Suspect. It’s all expertly written and compelling and Whole Life Sentence is particularly engaging and shows a glimmer of how things progress in the ranks and gives a little hope in the form of a new WPC.

Will she find her prime suspect in time and navigate the obstacles of career and personal life? You’ll have to read it to find out.

#Review By Lou of Taste of Blood By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda #teamtennsion @ZaffreBooks @bonnierbooks_uk @Tr4cyF3nt0n

Taste of Blood
By Lynda La Plante

I can now reveal Taste of Blood is the penultimate book in the Tennison series. I have the pleasure of writing a review for as part of Team Tennison for the Compulsive Readers/Bonnier Books/Zaffre Books blog tour.

Blurb

YOUR NEIGHBOUR IS A KILLER . . . BUT WHICH ONE?

Detective Inspector Jane Tennison was beginning to feel she’d made a big mistake.

Having requested a transfer to a station nearer her home, she’s now wondering if any serious crimes are ever committed in Bromley. Especially since the first case she’s assigned to involves nothing more dramatic than an altercation between neighbours over a disputed property boundary.

Jane’s new boss wants her to wrap up the enquiry as quickly as possible, but something in the apparently trivial case doesn’t add up.

Why was Martin Boon so adamant that David Caplan shouldn’t install a new set of gates when they wouldn’t encroach on his own property?

Against her boss’s orders, Jane decides to dig deeper, and soon uncovers a trove of dark secrets in sleepy Clarendon Court involving a tragic death and a forbidden love affair. As Tennison hunts for the missing piece of evidence that will identify a vicious killer, she knows that this case will either make her career – or break it.

Review

Jane Tennison has changed stations to Bromley, but was this transfer decision a mistake? She reckons so as she doesn’t feel it is progress for her and allowing her to use all her skills. That is, until there’s a domestic violence case that has more to it than meets the eye. There’s warring neighbours, someone is dead and her boyfriend appears to have vanished into thin air, making it a meatier case when dug under the surface. It’s a gripping and intriguing case.

Throughout the series, readers see how Jane Tennison began in her career and what she’s come against as well as seeing her grow, personally and in her ambitions. Now, with all the experience she has gained, she has grown a lot in confidence and career-wise, is still doing pretty well.

I’ve enjoyed all of the Tennison series to date, but this one brings her life closer to what people know best in Prime Suspect.

#Review By Lou of Unholy Murder By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda #UnholyMurder part of the #Tennison series #TeamTennison @CompulsiveReaders @ZaffreBooks #BlogTour

Unholy Murder
By Lynda La Plante

A chill in the air and one down the spine, until it envelops you. Discover the blurb and the rest of my review below. This is part of a series of reviews as part of the Tennison project.

Blurb

A coffin is dug up by builders in the grounds of an historic convent – inside is the body of a young nun.

In a city as old as London, the discovery is hardly surprising. But when scratch marks are found on the inside of the coffin lid, Detective Jane Tennison believes she has unearthed a mystery far darker than any she’s investigated before.

However, not everyone agrees. Tennison’s superiors dismiss it as an historic cold case, and the Church seems desperate to conceal the facts from the investigation.

It’s clear that someone is hiding the truth, and perhaps even the killer. Tennison must pray she can find both – before they are buried forever . . .

In Unholy Murder, Tennison must lift the lid on the most chilling murder case of her career.

Review

Spine-tingling and darkly chilling, this latest book in the Tennison series leaves its mark. Murder, let’s face it, its always going to be dark in some ways or another. Being unexpected killed isn’t exactly going to be light. This, however, is the darkest case that Jane Tennison has to solve, to date and the darkest and more tense one that readers will read.

Imagine the horror of digging up a coffin, when you’re just going about your daily job of construction. That’s what recent builders discover and it sparks, what turns out to be a rather more complicated investigation than what Jane Tennison first thought. A nun is unearthed, it’s a cold case and scratch marks are discovered on the coffin, just where you wouldn’t expect to see such a thing.

Both the priest and the builder are intriguing characters. The priest, you get the feeling, may actually want to assist Tennison, but feels conflicted between doing what’s right, which may go against certain things within the church, which you sense is hiding some truths, or to stay tight with his religion. The layers of complexity, in that not everything is black and white works well in the character development.

Tennison is still having, not just work issues, but also personal ones that interweave throughout this mystery, which continues her character profile. This takes readers further into her life story, with its conflicts, relationship building and slight, occasional elements of ease. She never really settles and life is often not plain-sailing.

For a chilling and rather haunting read, I recommend Unholy Murder.

#Review of Murder Mile By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @simonschusterUK @Tr4cyF3nt0n #TeamTennison #CrimeFiction #Tennison

Set in 1979, possibly most famous or infamously known as “The Winter of Discontent”, Murder Mile is the 4th in the Jane Tennison series. A great read for these dark, cold winter months. It’s an enthralling series so far as this is before Jane Tennison became as we know her in Prime Suspect. Sleuth out more in the blurb and my review below.

Blurb

Prime Suspect meets Ashes to Ashes as we see Jane Tennison starting out on her police career . . .

The fourth in the Sunday Times bestselling Jane Tennison thrillers, MURDER MILE is set at the height of the ‘Winter of Discontent’. Can Jane Tennison uncover a serial killer?

February, 1979, ‘The Winter of Discontent’. Economic chaos has led to widespread strikes across Britain.

Jane Tennison, now a Detective Sergeant, has been posted to Peckham CID, one of London’s toughest areas. As the rubbish on the streets begins to pile up, so does the murder count: two bodies in as many days.

There are no suspects and the manner of death is different in each case. The only link between the two victims is the location of the bodies, found within a short distance of each other near Rye Lane in Peckham. Three days later another murder occurs in the same area. Press headlines scream that a serial killer is loose on ‘Murder Mile’ and that police incompetence is hampering the investigation.

Jane is under immense pressure to catch the killer before they strike again. Working long hours with little sleep, what she uncovers leaves her doubting her own mind.

Review

Peckham, everyone has an image of this place in London and possibly one of them is from that popular comedy, Only Fools and Horses with a lot of wheeling and dealing and banter. Murder Mile paints a very different and darker picture. In 1979 it’s a very tough, hard part of the city. One that you may not want to just wander into on a whim to see what it was like. It is grim and bleak. There’s rubbish piling up like you wouldn’t believe and the murder count is high. The first one is discovered by a man setting up his market place stall one day.
Those bodies are piling up just as much as the rubbish on the streets due to strike action. It’s then honed in on 2 victims and then a 3rd happens. It becomes clear there’s a serial killer wandering the streets of Peckham.
Jane Tennison, meanwhile has been climbing the ranks to CID and Peckham is now her patch. It’s a force in trouble with this current case and as a reader, you can only hope the force comes good in the end as criticism is laid bare.

It’s interesting mixing murder mystery and what was happening within Britain at the time, now what’s famously called “The Winter of Discontent”. It adds a lot of context and enriches the fabric of the story-telling for those, like me, who didn’t live through those times, but have become aware of it all.

The book is darkly enthralling and fascinating. Winter is certainly a great time to read it for added, real-time atmosphere, although could be read at any time of the year.

#Review By Lou of Good Friday By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda @ZaffreBooks #CompulsiveReaders #TeamTennison #BlogTour

Good Friday
By Lynda La Plante

Good Friday is a high octane book with the complexities of Jane Tennison moving life and work and the IRA.
This is part of the prequel to the original series of Prime Suspect, all written by Lynda La Plante.
Discover more in the blurb and then my review as part of Team Tennison below.

Blurb

BEFORE PRIME SUSPECT THERE WAS TENNISON.

Every legend has a beginning . . .

During 1974 and 1975 the IRA subjected London to a terrifying bombing campaign. In one day alone, they planted seven bombs at locations across central London. Some were defused – some were not.

Jane Tennison is now a fully-fledged detective. On the way to court one morning, Jane passes through Covent Garden Underground station and is caught up in a bomb blast that leaves several people dead, and many horribly injured. Jane is a key witness, but is adamant that she can’t identify the bomber. When a photograph appears in the newspapers, showing Jane assisting the injured at the scene, it puts her and her family at risk from IRA retaliation.

‘Good Friday’ is the eagerly awaited date of the annual formal CID dinner, due to take place at St Ermin’s Hotel. Hundreds of detectives and their wives will be there. It’s the perfect target. As Jane arrives for the evening, she realises that she recognises the parking attendant as the bomber from Covent Garden. Can she convince her senior officers in time, or will another bomb destroy London’s entire detective force?

Review

All carnage breaks out in Covent Garden Tube Station as innocent people’s worst nightmare occurs for real, with the IRA suspected for the terror attack. The pace gathers momentum from that point, as does the emotions of horror and sadness all mixed together, along with the desire to discover what happens next, from a policing point of view. Jane Tennison was witness to it all.

Tennison has moved up in her career to being a fully fledged detective, having now completed her CID Course at Hendon, she then joins The Dip Squad, which is illustrated in the book as it focuses on train lines. Her colleague, Brian Edwards moved to The Flying Squad, which was Tennison’s preference.

Tennison is also making moves to get her own flat to live in and the conversations around this with her parents will be familiar to many.

Good Friday is an excellent and highly charged book that I absolutely recommend.

#Review of Hidden Killers – Book 2 of the #Tennison series – a prequel to #PrimeSuspect By Lynda La Plante @LaPlanteLynda #TeamTennison #BlogTour #CompulsiveReaders

Hidden Killers
By Lynda La Plante

Hidden Killers is a compelling second book in the Tennison series. A series that takes you back to when Jane Tennison (Prime Suspect) is younger. Take a look at the blurb and then follow down to my review.

Blurb

The brilliant new crime thriller from the BAFTA-winning writer behind the TV series PRIME SUSPECT and author of WIDOWS, now a major motion picture

When WPC Jane Tennison is promoted to the role of Detective Constable in London’s Bow Street CID, she is immediately conflicted. While her more experienced colleagues move on swiftly from one criminal case to another, Jane is often left doubting their methods and findings. As she becomes inextricably involved in a multiple rape case, Jane must put her life at risk in her search for answers.

Will she toe the line, or endanger her position by seeking the truth?

Review

Having read Tennison (book 1), which set the scene perfectly well for the start of a young Jane Tennison’s career, Hidden Killers sees her promoted to London’s Bow Street CID at the end of her probationary period. This means she has a new set of work colleagues and bosses to get acquainted with. It’s a whole new level from being a probationer and when 2 cases come in for her to investigate – a rape and a mysterious sudden death, she doubts herself. She knows she lacks the experience of her work colleagues, but nonetheless investigates.

Pulling emotion, work ethic and crime together is done well in this book, with the air of being new to a team, with Jane Tennison trying to fit in, even though this at times puts her in danger. There are many strands and something to empathise with and relate to, especially when you’re new to a team, where all you know is the knowledge and understanding you have built up. Tennison’s building up of that experience really starts to increase, now she has that promotion.

During solving the crime itself, the book is engaging and nothing is really shied away from. The style of writing creates great tension that makes it a page-turner.

Hidden Killers is a book that I recommend. It is a natural continuation from the first. It is compelling and you really get involved and immersed into the 1970’s.