I’m delighted to be part of Team Tennison, where, over the next few months, I’ll be reading and reviewing the books in the Tennison series, in the build up to the release of the tenth book later in the year. My review of the first book in the series, Tennison, is written with thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to be part of Team Tennison.

Blurb:

From the creator of the award-winning ITV series Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren, comes the fascinating back story of the iconic DCI Jane Tennison.

In 1973 Jane Tennison, aged 22, leaves the Metropolitan Police Training Academy to be placed on probationary exercise in Hackney where criminality thrives. We witness her struggle to cope in a male-dominated, chauvinistic environment, learning fast to deal with shocking situations with no help or sympathy from her superiors. Then comes her involvement in her first murder case.

Review:

Before I begin, I will say that I have not read any of the books in the original Tennison series or ever watched any of the Prime Suspect series on TV, so I am approaching this series with no preconceptions or prior knowledge and I’m excited to be able to start this series from afresh.

Tennison is set in 1973 and I feel that Lynda La Plante has done a brilliant job of taking the reader to that time. As well as making reference to the political situation and popular culture, she also portrays the attitudes in society and family life really well. This does mean that there are several incidents of racism and sexism, which would now be seen as offensive, but the author does often challenge this through the narrative.

Although Tennison has a really engaging and fast paced plot, I felt that this novel was more about building the foundation for future novels in the series and acquainting us with the character of Jane Tennison. I became fond of Jane quite quickly and I enjoyed reading as she developed friendships and challenged the often sexist behaviour of her colleagues. Lynda La Plante also conveys Jane’s emotions very clearly and Jane’s happiness, sadness and disappointment are all tangible through the pages. The characters of her colleagues, in particular, Gibbs, Bradfield and Kath are all wonderfully developed and I loved the moments of humour they provided as well as the more serious advice they gave Jane.

As I mentioned before, the plot of Tennison is fast paced and engaging. Ultimately, the reader receives two investigations for the price of one in this novel and I really enjoyed trying to work out the direction in which it would go. Towards the end, in particular, the story becomes especially tense and I was on the edge of my seat, hoping for a successful outcome.

I’m really looking forward to continuing with the series.

Tennison is available from Amazon.