Good Friday: Before Prime Suspect there was Tennison – this is her story

Jane Tennison has been a police officer for only 4 years and has just completed her training to become a detective. As a WDC she has been assigned to the Dip Squad as she desperately wants to join the Flying Squad and she is advised this is the best way in. The book deals well with the chauvinism and misogyny that was rife in the early 70s police force. Really WDC says it all really when you think about it. The CID officers are all of "The Sweeney" stereotype though - hard rinking and hard smoking and prone to suspect bashing interrogation techniques. That said the book moves at a romping pace and you don't have time to get too annoyed by yet another stereotypical Copper. To be fair if I wasn't old enough to remember the 70s cop shows I don't think some of these sections would have grated quite so much. Good mixture of the off work Jane and her interpersonal relationships are well described without being too schmaltzy or too disfunctional. Jane is having it tough though, on her first day on the Dip Squad she almost gets squished under a train and causes the team to loose their major suspect. Then she is caught up in a bombing at an underground station on her way to oppose bail for some dippers. Despite all this she still moves out of the section house and gets a small flat and starts getting her adult life together. Her faily are worried about her and she needs the extra money for paying the mortgage so Jane takes on a roommate, Pearl. Just when things are getting a little too much for her she meets up with a girl who was at Hendon with her, Natalie, and flunked out because she couldn't swim and was afraid of heights. They strike up a friendship over a get-together meal and Natalie quickly becomes Jane's major support system. Jane is seconded to the Bomb Squad laboratories as much to keep her safe from the IRA than because she is needed there. In fact the Powers That be see her as a liability. It soon becomes clear that all is not well with a young Jane Tennison as she lurches from blunder to blunder with occassional fragments of detective brilliance that serve to keep her clinging to her job by her fingertips. Even worse the 2 women in her life are not what they seem and her association with bth of them could bring her life crashing down round her ears. Even though we know that the young Jane Tennison doesn't mess it all up because this is part of a prequel series it is still an enjoyable ride through her early years as a WDC. The pace is absolutely spot on and it is a great book to lose yourself in for a few hours. I RECEIVED A COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READER'S FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

good read really enjoyed it took me a few days to finish it