I find it strange that I have never picked up one of Lynda LaPlantes novels before. But having the chance to read this one as an eARC changed all that. I found it to be a really good read. Jane Tennisons early years of trying to climb the ladder in the police force. She is sent to the Flying Squad better known as the Sweeney. In at the deep end before she has even entered the station, she is dragged out on an armed robbery call, but being a woman and not being firearms trained she is told to keep her head down and stay where she is in the car, with the driver, when they reach where the incident is happening. She is in for a ride with this crew, up against misogynist’s from day one, the second officer in command who thinks she is fair game despite him being married, interesting to see Jane’s innocence in that part as she thinks he has taken her for a drink to talk about the job the same as the rest of the team do. The boss looks at it that Jane being there is just an experiment,and is determined to make this one experiment that isn’t going to work. Despite Jane’s doggedness to prove herself, which to some she does. To some she is just another woman who should just be making the teas. Representative of its time, I still think women may have to work that bit harder to get to the top. It’s not only the men that don’t want Jane there the secretary, the only other woman in the building is also determined to see Jane leave, and aids the boss by feeding Jane false information. But when they think they are leading her on a goose chase, it backfires on them, as Jane finds information that leads to more information, where she gains a little more respect from some of the team.I loved getting to know the characters, seeing their views on Jane start to change very gradually. Jane is determined to be accepted, at this stage she is still a fairly quiet but confident person. As we know from later years she does toughen up and become more hardened but that could also be said to be true of the men, if they see some pretty gruesome scenes over the years it is bound to change you. It bought back memories of growing up before technology was around as we know it today if you needed help you had to find a phone box, the cars were so much slower with no GPS or sat navs to work from. But the crime was still there the same as it is today. Overall I think this was a great book and I will certainly be looking out for more of these. This is the fifth book in the early years of Tennison.