It’s been an absolute honour to be part of Team Tennison, where, since August last year, I’ve been reading and reviewing the books in the Tennison series as part of the build up to today – the publication of the final book in the series. My review of Whole Life Sentence is written with thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join Team Tennison and to the publisher for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

Newly promoted Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison has elbowed her way into the Area Major Incident Pool, or AMIP, an elite team investigating non-domestic murders.

With her new position, she hopes things will change: the rampant sexism, the snide remarks, the undermining. Then she gets her first assignment: a five-year-old cold case of a missing teenager no one else has any interest in investigating, and an assumed suicide Tennison suspects is, in fact, murder.

But as Tennison gathers the crucial evidence to secure arrests, her new colleagues watch like vultures circling prey. And one by one the cases that she has built from the ground up are taken from her – and the glory along with them.

Review:

I’ve absolutely loved being part of this project and Whole Life Sentence is my favourite book in the series. It’s been a pleasure to get to know Jane Tennison and see her solve murders, make mistakes and fall in love. In this novel, she is very similar to the character we see in the Prime Suspect series and I love her tenacity, her occasional vulnerability and her determination to stand up to the prejudiced detectives with whom she shares an office. Throughout the series, Lynda La Plante has acknowledged the attitudes of the times when the novels were set, but used the narrative to call out this behaviour and it’s a very effective technique. In Whole Life Sentence, we are introduced to Maureen and I adored her partnership with Tennison, which readers can see growing before their very eyes. It’s wonderful to see Maureen’s naivety gradually fade away as Tennison’s influence makes its mark on her.

Tennison is disappointed to be allocated a cold case, but she approaches it in the same way she would any other investigation and she is keen to deliver justice to the victim’s family after five years of wondering what happened to their daughter. There are many facets to the case and Lynda La Plante weaves them all together really well to create a compelling and tense story that I found really difficult to put down. Her writing is, as you would expect, slick and engaging and I honestly felt as though I were working on the investigation alongside Tennison and Maureen.

I’m actually really sad to be reaching the end of the Tennison series, but as it ends where the Prime Suspect series (the books and the television series) begins, I definitely have more to read by this fantastic author!

Whole Life Sentence is available from Amazon.