Prior to receiving TENNISON I had never so much as picked up a book by Lynda La Plante. Nor had I been able to view the PRIME SUSPECT series when it aired on PBS. Business got in the way and life went on. As a result, I approached TENNISON with the cluelessness and excitement of a reader with a brand new book.
TENNISON opens soon after the discovery of the grizzly murder of a heroin adicted 17-year old prostitute. WPC Jane Tennison was a probationary constable assigned to work with London's CID on the investigation. OK, so now I knew. This was a police drama focusing on finding the bad guy, arresting him, and putting him away.
Wrong!
Oh, yes! Crimes were investigated. Clues uncovered. Leads followed up with. Bad guys uncovered and crimes solved. ("Crimes", plural, since there was also a major robbery plot to deal with.)
The great thing about TENNISON is that though the work of the MET and the CID unit are the stage for the story, the book is really only about a young woman named Jane Tennison who only ever wanted to be a member of the Metropolitan Police Service during the 1970's. It is about the leers, the groping, the juvenile pranks on the Women Police Constables, and the outright prejudice they had to face. It is as much about WPC Jane Tennison as it is about Jane, the daughter and sister in a loving family who totally didn't understand why Jane didn't want to do something important with her life like become a stewardess for BOAC.
Along the book's journey, Jane learns some important lessons about coping within the male dominated world of the CID. Throughout, the tenacity and keen observations of this young WPC remain the focus.
Even when the book winds up to a powerful and dramatic conclusion, it is this young and promising Probationary Woman Police Constable that remains the focus.
And I say: thank God for it!
TENNISON was a great read--my first book by Lynda La Plante. It will most certainly NOT be the last of her books I read!!!
TENNISON opens soon after the discovery of the grizzly murder of a heroin adicted 17-year old prostitute. WPC Jane Tennison was a probationary constable assigned to work with London's CID on the investigation. OK, so now I knew. This was a police drama focusing on finding the bad guy, arresting him, and putting him away.
Wrong!
Oh, yes! Crimes were investigated. Clues uncovered. Leads followed up with. Bad guys uncovered and crimes solved. ("Crimes", plural, since there was also a major robbery plot to deal with.)
The great thing about TENNISON is that though the work of the MET and the CID unit are the stage for the story, the book is really only about a young woman named Jane Tennison who only ever wanted to be a member of the Metropolitan Police Service during the 1970's. It is about the leers, the groping, the juvenile pranks on the Women Police Constables, and the outright prejudice they had to face. It is as much about WPC Jane Tennison as it is about Jane, the daughter and sister in a loving family who totally didn't understand why Jane didn't want to do something important with her life like become a stewardess for BOAC.
Along the book's journey, Jane learns some important lessons about coping within the male dominated world of the CID. Throughout, the tenacity and keen observations of this young WPC remain the focus.
Even when the book winds up to a powerful and dramatic conclusion, it is this young and promising Probationary Woman Police Constable that remains the focus.
And I say: thank God for it!
TENNISON was a great read--my first book by Lynda La Plante. It will most certainly NOT be the last of her books I read!!!