Tennison Archives - Debbish Archive

Book review: The Dirty Dozen by Lynda La Plante

Monday, August 19, 2019 Permalink

It wasn’t until after I read this book (that) it occurred to me we can’t be that far from the Jane Tennison we eventually meet in the Prime Suspect series. Though I guess a decade is a lifetime in Jane’s world.

In the last book in this series Murder Mile, I commented that there seemed to be less sexist crap (misogynist bullshit I think I said) than in previous novels, but sadly her entry into the all-male Flying Squad, sees Jane yet again struggling with prejudice despite ‘integration’ seven years earlier.

Book review: Murder Mile by Lynda La Plante

Wednesday, August 15, 2018 Permalink

I’ve been enjoying Lynda La Plante’s series featuring the young Jane Tennison. I loved the original English Prime Suspect TV series also but the somewhat sexist environment of the 1990s is nothing compared to the police service in the 1970s.

My main complaint regarding both earlier books in this series (Tennison & Good Friday) was that they featured two separate crimes – ultimately merging in some way and I felt they really didn’t need the complexity and we readers didn’t need the distraction.

I like to think my exacting opinions and informed literary reflections (*ahem*) made it through to La Plante because this book is centred around ONE CRIME. (And I loved it!)

Book review: Good Friday by Lynda La Plante

Monday, August 28, 2017 Permalink

Lynda La Plante’s Tennison was one of my favourite books when released in 2015. It’s basically the backstory of Jane Tennison – the ‘take no shit’ senior detective / chief inspector whatzit from her popular Prime Suspect books and the (equally popular) TV series based on those books (starring Helen Mirren).

Set in the early 1970s, Tennison, Hidden Killers, and now Good Friday, focus around the early years of Jane… after she first joins the police force. Obviously the sexist attitudes and prejudice she experiences in the Prime Suspect series (kicking off in the early 1990s) is nothing compared to the attitudes of many two decades earlier… but the resilient and resourceful young Jane doesn’t let that stand in her way.

Book review: Hidden Killers by Lynda LaPlante

Friday, October 28, 2016 Permalink

One of my top six books last year was Tennison by Lynda LaPlante. As a fan of the (ahem) older Jane Tennison via LaPlante’s Prime Suspect series I loved that she’d leapt back in time, allowing us to meet a young Jane and giving us the opportunity to understand how the popular character of the 1990s became so resilient… not to mention a bit of a hard-arse.

Happily LaPlante is now offering up another episode in the life of young Jane – with her passion for justice and occasional disdain for authority – as she continues to doggedly pursue the baddies.