Maxim Jakubowski's October 2015 Book of the Month.
DCI Jane Tennison is of course endurably associated with Helen Mirren who embodied the tough as nails and endearing character in the successful TV series. La Plante's talent in showing a brand new side to her in this prequel about her early life and halting professional police debut is in making us look at the character anew. Despite, or maybe because of her prolific screen and book CV, I've always found La Plante to be unfairly underrated and have long been a fan of her no nonsense plots and powerful female characters, in particular the splendid Lorraine Page COLD BLOOD series. Here, we get an insight into Tennison's first steps in policing, straight out of Hendon Police College and placed on probationary exercise in Hackney at 22 years old, in the teeming criminal streets of the immediate post-Krays East End. Still naive but determined to prove herself, she is drawn into her first murder investigation of a badly beaten up young girl. The obstacles, both human and professional, are a challenge to her grit and the perfectly engineered storyline sows the seeds of the older, tougher, more bitter Tennison that we know is to come. Both a fascinating retro exercise and a tightly wound, gripping read in its own right. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
1973.After leaving the Metropolitan Police Training Academy, 22 year-old Jane Tennison is placed on a probationary exercise in Hackney, London where criminality thrives. At first she struggles to deal with the shocking situations she faces, receiving no help or sympathy from her superiors. Jane feels out of her depth in this male-dominated, chauvinistic environment.Then she is given her first murder case . . .
Lynda La Plante is the author of over forty bestselling novels. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National theatre and RSC before becoming an actress. She then turned to writing - and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series Widows. Lynda's original script for the much-acclaimed Prime Suspect won awards from BAFTA, Emmys, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Award. Lynda is an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Best Writer's Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to Literature, Drama and Charity. Lynda La Plante is the first lay person to be awarded an honorary fellowship to the Forensic Science Society. In 2020 she launched the acclaimed Listening to the Dead podcast with former CSI Cass Sutherland, exploring forensic science and its impact on solving crimes.
