This is a fitting end to a tremendous series of books. Tennison is one of the all time great fictional detectives and this doesn't disappoint. I've read all the books in this series and once again Lynda La Plante does a great job of highlighting how difficult it was for women in the police force. The plot is fantastic, illustrates how Tennison could spot things no one else could.

Now I've finished the series I'll finally be able to read the Prime Suspect series of books as I didn't want to do so until it has finished.

A first foray into the world of Jane Tennison for this reviewer and a really terrific story! Tennison has been promoted to DCI and is after a posting at the new Met Police AMIT major crime unit. She secures the post and immediately starts to encounter misogynistic and extraordinarily obstructive behaviour from both her boss and her fellow officers. Having been sidelined with a cold case to review, Tennison makes such good progress that it turns into a live investigation, allowing her to display her exemplary detective work. Of course, this isn’t what her fellow officers want to see and the story manages to focus brilliantly on both the investigation and on Jane’s efforts to overcome all the obstacles placed in her path. The writing could have flowed a little more smoothly at times, but this was an engrossing read with an important message.

My thanks to Lynda and NetGalley for allowing me to read Whole Life Sentence before the publication date.

Set in 1991, newly promoted D.C.I. Jane Tennison finds herself being marginalised by the misogynistic members of the newly formed Area Major Incident Team, which is led by Detective Chief Superintendent Kernan.
He is determined to get rid of Tennison and promote D.I. McGregor, regardless of his long list of conduct complaints.

Arriving for her first day on the team, Jane finds that she has been allocated a remote store cupboard for an office. Whilst the other DCIs have at least a DS allocated to support them, Jane has been allocated uniform WPC Maureen Havers.

Instead of a major investigation, Jane is allocated a 5 year old missing person case which she is determined to solve.

This is a story of the issues which Jane has to deal with in order to command the respect due to her position.

Many aspects to Jane’s character, both professional and private, will be revealed, giving the reader pause for thought.

Brilliant. No stop tension and a rapid age turner. I could not stop reading this book. WARNING don’t buy it unless you want to lose yourself in one of the best stories of the year!

This is the first book I’ve read about Jane Tennyson, I’ve seen all the tv shows however never dipped into the books. This was so good I’m off to download the lot now!

I’m not sure what timeframe this novel was set in, it feels very 1970’s with male attitudes , female stereotypes and the language it is written in. Superb all round, a great detective story, , in fact 2 stories and a book that you don’t want to put down.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

Newly Promoted to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison has secured a transfer to the new and prestigious Area Major Incident Pool at Southampton Row Police Station. Her presence is however welcome. Despite Jane’s credentials and abilities, she is subjected to a chauvinistic campaign designed to force her out. Whereas as DCIs Shepherd and Hickock receive the important cases Jane is given a missing person cold case from 1986.

Whole Life Sentence picks up around a year after a Taste of Blood. Ever ambitious, Jane secures her latest promotion and place on the team where we meet her in the first episode of Prime Suspect. We get to see her meet characters like Maureen and DS Otley, who is as vile as he was in the first series.

La Plante provides us with two fascinating cases: missing student Brittney Hall and the suspected suicide of the wife of an associate of DCI Hickock. Through dogged determination Jane advances and all but solves the cases only to have them removed at the pivotal moment. Due to La Plante's immersive writing, you genuinely feel Tennison's drive and frustration. The Brittney Hall case is complex and moving and displays La Plante's unequaled understanding of forensics.

Having read the previous nine entries this is definitely one of the stronger entries and one I highly recommend. My one complaint is that Kathy Morgan is described as leaving the force due to injuries, but died alongside DCI Bradfield. I'm sure this will be fixed by the time of publication.

I am grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley for this Arc

What a brilliant last book in this series

Not a lot to say about the books as all of this authors books are brilliant

Picking up a Lynda La Plante book you just know you won’t be able to put the book down! Especially with Jane Tennison! Life is never easy for her and the way she always has to prove herself to male nastiness at work! I feel Jane has grown up since we first met her and she now picks her battles better than she used to!

Totally gripping story line and now I’m finished I think I might go back to the start of the series and re read!

Thank you Lynda for being the queen of thrillers and can’t wait to read your next book!

The only thing I am not sure about this book is why it has the title it has! Apart from that it is a refreshingly different story. There are several,themes to it but the most important is the struggle a newly transferred senior detective-but a woman-has in establishing herself in a nasty male culture. I think we would fine that that is not just fiction. There are crimes the woman solves but others she is pushed away from to let a man take over. It is exceedingly well dealt with. This book kept me reading and I recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for the invite to read this eARC.

I haven't read any of the previous books in this series, and thoroughly enjoyed Whole Life Sentence. I am a fan of this author though, having read both the Anna Travis and Jack Warr series.

The book begins well with Tennison going for promotion to join the AMIP Team. I really like the authors writing style and think the story flows effortlessly. Tennison is tenacious, driven, thorough, feisty, doesn't suffer fools and is allocated a cold case and also assists in what is first assumed to be a suicide. The plot line here is very intricate and well executed on both cases Tennison takes on and I love the many separate story threads that certainly captured and held my attention all the way through the story. Tennison is the first high ranking female officer on the team and is belittled, overlooked and puts up with a lot of male chauvinistic behaviour, quickly learning what battles to fight and which ones to let go. I enjoyed following Tennison as she revisits the cold case with help from Maureen, leaving no stone unturned, and then has to sit back and watch other officers take credit for solving the cases after her hard work. I hated, loathed even most of the male police characters simply due to their behaviour and attitudes. I suspect this is not to far off the mark for the police force at that time though. For me, the parts about Tennison's personal and home life didn't really add anything to the story - I'm guessing they were in previous books and good for character development - I preferred and enjoyed the story more when Tennison was investigating. Maybe I'd have enjoyed these parts more if I'd read the previous books.

So ...... overall a very good, well written, engaging and perfectly paced read from an author who knows how to connect with her readers. I think this can be read as a standalone book, although I'd suggest you read the previous books if you're new to this series, and I would recommend this book if you're a fan of Lynda La Plante or just love crime and police procedurals.

It’s 1991 and despite the negativity, sexism and being patronised by male officers, Jane Tennison applies for promotion at AMIT (Area Major Incident Team). She is delighted to get it, especially as it’s one in the eye for the overt misogyny of many on the interview panel. However, her reception at AMIT HQ by DCS Kiernan is less than warm and could even be described as ice cold. Appropriately perhaps, but much to her disappointment, he allocates a cold case to her instead of a live case that she’s hoping for. She’s to investigate the disappearance in June 1986 of college student Brittany Hall, last seen at a pub and reported to be intoxicated. Jane is determined despite the many obstacles that the male dominated team throw at her, that she will do her absolute best. A senior officer also hands her an apparent suicide to investigate but Tennison is suspicious from the start. How will she navigate the male hostility? Will it be a case of bring it on chaps and ultimately underestimate Jane at your peril? I do sincerely hope so.

As always, Lynda La Plante delivers an immersive read with incisive characterisations and an interesting plot to follow with several twists along the way. It’s not fast paced but that suits the cold case investigation and the tenacious enquiries of both cases. It’s a character driven mystery thriller and I like that as the storyline follows Jane‘s travails with this team, their constant undermining and awful sniping. My sympathies lie with Jane all the way with this lot. It captures the time period well, you view the male officers in all their awful ‘glory’ and it makes you angry, making me want to yell at them to get over it and accept her as an equal.

Jane feels very authentic, I like her and admire her for her resilience. She is feisty, she needs to have fight in her with all she’s up against but she knows when to bite her tongue. This also follows a new relationship she develops and you wonder if it will work out. I also applaud that she can get up in the morning and function as the pair of them do like a glass or two or even three.

I like the inexperienced WPC Maureen that Jane is assigned and although she’s initially very green, she soon gets into her stride.Her actions at the end make me cheer very loudly, well done Maureen … and more to come there.

Overall this is a compelling novel which I enjoy very much.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bonnier Books, Zaffre for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Jane Tennison is one of the best crime characters around, and it’s been fascinating reading the path of her career, as she’s risen through the ranks in a totally male orientated society, It feels so authentic with the scale of the misogyny of the time, which unfortunately is still around today, although no where as bad as when these books are set. To get to her rank she has had to sacrifice so much, put on a front of being as hard as nails and hiding the fact that she cares what people think, that she loves her job with a passion and knows she has to work twice as hard as the men just to try to keep up with them.

In this case her new boss is determined to side line her, but he obviously doesn’t know what she’s capable of, how tenacious she is, and the fact that she is a very good police officer. With only the help of one inexperienced police woman, Maureen, she is determined to make headway in the cold case that she has been assigned.

As always an excellent read, so well written and plotted. It’s got to be 5⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Jane Tennison has been promoted to DCI, and has a place on the new AMIT team. Inevitably, it's just as sexist, racist, misogynist, and every other "ist" as the rest of the force.

Her boss thinks he's sidelined Jane by giving her a cold case - the 5 year old disappearance of a teenage girl which wasn't exactly robustly investigated- expecting her to fail, and quit. He really doesn't know her...

Meanwhile, her colleague DCI Hickock has the apparent suicide of a vague acquaintance's wife, which he is keen to just write off.

Jane isn't prepared to let either case trundle on with shoddy work.

Another brilliant episode in this always excellent series

Another brilliant book by la plante.
I loved this 5*****
Would recommend this to people who enjoy the series

Whole Life Sentence completes Linda La Plante's prequel "Tennison" series, which has told Jane Tennison's story from when she first joined the police until the first book she appeared in, "Prime Suspect".

Despite the Met's glass ceiling Tennison manages to get promoted to the elite Area major Incident Pool, much to the disgust of its misogynist members. Given a cold case that nobody else is interested in and a grotty office away from the rest of the team ......the excitement of live cases, it's made very clear to Tennison that she's not wanted.
With her trusty but inexperienced assistant Maureen Jane sets out to solve a case considered to be a dead end with no foreseeable resolution and puts male noses even more out of joint when she casts aspersions on the friend of one of her fellow officers whose wife has apparently committed suicide.

Tennison fans won't be disappointed with this one as Jane doggedly chases clues and hunts down suspects in an attempt to get justice for the family of a teenager murdered years earlier with very little to go on. With her efforts hampered by so-called colleagues she has to get results and grit her teeth as they sneer,make snide comments and take credit for work she's done.

It’s Lynda La Plante so, in my opinion at least, it cannot be anything less than five stars.
There will obviously be a follow up to this one, although I did expect a twist in the tale that was never to materialise, so perhaps in a way, I did consider the book ‘un-finished’.

I am a big fan of Lynda La Plante's Jane Tennison books so I was excited to read her latest instalment. Jane Tennison must be one of crime fictions greatest creations. La Plante has drawn on the experiences of a real female detective in creating her character. In this book Jane is promoted and joins a new Area Major Incident team. Her welcome there is decidedly cool. She has to contend with misogynistic fellow officers who give her a cold case to solve. They are reluctant to give her credit for her ideas but Jane faces their opposition with confidence and good humour. Jane also has a new love interest. Will he be 'the one'.
Another great read in the Jane Tennison series of books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc. All opinions are my own.

This is the last book in this series but thankfully not the end of Jane as the prime suspect books take over from where this one ends. As usual Lynda La Plante writes another gripping read that sees Jane being given a cold case to solve while trying to deal with the hostility and lack of support in her new department . It is as always for me a five star read and I’m already looking forward to reading the next book that the author writes.

What a treat to meet the feisty Jane Tennison again. On this occasion, she is eager for promotion to AMIT at the Met, but she’s forced to confront obstacles in the hostile male-orientated environment. It’s certainly an insight into sexism, but Jane has enough confidence to stand up for herself, keep her cool—well, most of the time - and prove her worth. Bravo, Jane.

Alongside her is an endearing sidekick, Maureen, who, although inexperienced, is not the airhead they believe. Their teamwork is praiseworthy as they unravel a complex, fascinating cold case and a suicide. Credit for their hard work is thin on the ground.

It beggars belief that Jane survives on such meagre sustenance and sleepless nights while she puts a hundred per cent into solving her cases and the intuitive way she can “read” people and think outside the box.

Thank you for a terrific read.

Fabulous as usual, by LLP. Great plotting, characters and back drop. I always have an all nighter when I read her works.