Whole Life Sentence

Lynda La Plante’s final Tennison crime novel, bringing readers up to the point at which the famous television series Prime Suspect began.

DETECTIVE JANE TENNISON’S POLICE CAREER HANGS IN THE BALANCE: A SINGLE STEP FROM GLORY - OR RUIN.

While she has elbowed her way into an elite team investigating non-domestic murders, there is nothing elite about her first assignments: a missing teenager cold case and an apparent suicide Tennison suspects is, in fact, murder.

But as she uncovers explosive evidence, Tennison’s new colleagues watch like vultures circling prey. And, one by one, the cases no one else wanted are taken from her - and the glory along with them.

Now Tennison has had enough: of the rampant sexism, snide remarks and undermining. It’s time to take what is rightfully hers from those who have held her back.

She just has to do what she does best: find her prime suspect . . .

Lynda La Plante was born in Liverpool. She is the author of nearly forty novels, all of which have been bestsellers. She trained for the stage at RADA and worked with the National theatre and RDC before becoming a television actress. She then turned to writing--and made her breakthrough with the phenomenally successful TV series Widows.

Lynda’s original script for the much-acclaimed Prime Suspect won awards from BAFTA, Emmys, British Broadcasting and Royal Television Society as well as the 1993 Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Lynda is an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Best Writer’s Award in 2000. In 2008, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Literature, Drama and Charity.

Lynda La Plante is the first lay person to be awarded an honorary fellowship to the Forensic Science Society. In 2020 she launched the acclaimed Listening to the Dead podcast with former CSI Cass Sutherland, exploring forensic science and its impact on solving crimes.