"PRIME SUSPECT"--Lynda La Plante’s thrilling detective novel Prime Suspect introduced readers around the world to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison--books became basis for smash-hit PBS series starring the incomparable HELEN MIRREN

Prime Suspect

An international bestseller, Lynda La Plante’s thrilling detective novel Prime Suspect introduced readers around the world to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, a gritty investigator locked in a tooth-and-nail struggle to claim the authority, acceptance, and respect she deserves from Scotland Yard's chauvinist detective squad—even as she desperately tracks the maniac now running loose in the streets of London. Fans of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone books and the work of Kathy Reichs or Karin Slaughter will be immediately drawn to La Plante’s Jane Tennison, the remarkable, no-nonsense police woman who laid the groundwork for all the rest who followed.

In the dark night of the soul . . . . 

If   Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison hadn't been a  woman, she might not have noticed the victim's shoes  . . . . and that they didn't match the size given on  the info sheet now so obviously misidentifying the dead blonde as a hooker named Della Mornay. Being so through, so good at the details, made Jane a  top investigator; being a woman made the boys in the  squadron want to see her fall on her face. But  Jane Tennison was determined to catch the madman  stalking women in London's street shadows. She had a  prime suspect, and she needed to make the charges  against him stick. She also needed to keep her own secret in check: she couldn't let anyone see  that she was falling apart inside, as her obsession  with cracking this case and breaking out from  under the heel of the station house boy's club took  over life, destroying her relationship with the man  she loved, pushing her closer and closer to the  dark urges of a killer . . . .

A dark and riveting race against the clock, Prime Suspect is an unforgettable introduction to this bestselling series from Edgar Award-winning author Lynda La Plante.

"It's not your average police procedural when Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison shows up to solve a murder...She is a fully developed character whose attitudes resonate with the reader, and LaPlante's plot is great. This thoroughly enjoyable mystery is highly recommended."-- Library Journal


 

Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection

The Emmy®-winning crime series seen on PBS

"A perfect marriage of astoundingly talented actress and brilliantly conceived character" --USA Today
 
"Riveting" --The Boston Globe
 
Oscar® winner Helen Mirren is Detective Jane Tennison, "one of the great character creations of our time" (The Washington Post), in a series that won more than 20 major international awards and raised the bar for police dramas.
Tenacious, driven, and deeply flawed, Tennison rises through the ranks of Britain’s Metropolitan Police, solving horrific crimes while battling office sexism and her own demons.

“Rare is the drama that works so well on two levels: as a crackling whodunit and as a finely tuned character study of a strong but insecure woman trying to prove herself in a man’s world” (Time).

Seen on Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! and created by crime writer Lynda La Plante, Prime Suspect features some of Britain’s biggest stars, including Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), Zoë Wanamaker (Poirot), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Ciarán Hinds (Jane Eyre), Tom Bell (Reilly: Ace of Spies), and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting).


LYNDA LA PLANTE



Born and raised in Liverpool, La Plante trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where her fellow students included Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Ian McShane.

After finishing her studies, she began her career as an actress appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a variety of productions, as well as popular television series including Z-Cars, The Sweeney, The Professionals, Bergerac and Rentaghost.

Whilst filming The Gentle Touch with Gill Gascoigne, La Plante wrote a treatment for a TV series based on a botched bank robbery. Widows was commissioned by Verity Lambert of Euston Films for Thames Television. It became one of the highest rating series of the early 1980s.

Following the overwhelming success of Widows, La Plante became a sought-after crime writer and subsequently signed her first book deal with Pan MacMillan. Her debut novel, The Legacy, was published in 1987 and received both critical and best-seller success. Her second, third and fourth novels came soon after – The Talisman (1987), Bella Mafia (1990) and Entwined (1993) – all of which became international best sellers.

In 1990 La Plante started working on her next television project, Prime Suspect, which was released by Granada in 1991. Prime Suspect starred Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison, airing in the UK as well as on PBS in the United States. In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Allen Poe Writer’s Award for her work on the series. She also received the Dennis Potter Award from BAFTA and was made a fellow of the British Film Institute.

In 1993 La Plante formed her own television production company, wrote and produced high-rating series The Governor (ITV), Supply and Demand, Killer Net (Channel 4), Mind Games (ITV) and acclaimed series Trial and Retribution and The Commander (ITV). During this period La Plante also released the Cold series of books – Cold Shoulder, Cold Blood and Cold Heart, followed by Sleeping Cruelty (2000).

In the United States La Plante co-wrote and was executive producer of The Prosecutors (1996 NBC) alongside Tom Fontana (starring Stockard Channing). La Plante was also executive producer of Bella Mafia (1998 CBS), starring Vanessa Redgrave, which she adapted from her novel of the same name. In 2001, she co-produced The Warden (TNT), starring Ally Sheedy (a changed format of La Plante’s series The Governor) along with her adaptation of UK hit Widows (2002 ABC). La Plante also produced the pilot (based on her Cold series) of Cold Shoulder (2006 New Regency/CBS), starring Kelly McGillis, and executive produced Daniel Petrie Jnr’s adaptation of her show Framed (2002 TNT) which starred Sam Neill and Rob Lowe.

In 2002, after completing the novel Royal Flush (2002), La Plante moved to Simon & Schuster UK. Here she began working on her Anna Travis series, which includes Above Suspicion (2004), The Red Dahlia (2005), Clean Cut (2007), Deadly Intent (2008), Silent Scream (2009), Blind Fury (2010), Blood Line (2011), Backlash (2012) and Wrongful Death (2013). So successful were the books that a UK television series was written and produced by La Plante for ITV starring Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds. Twisted (2014) continues La Plante’s run of internationally acclaimed bestsellers.

Lynda La Plante was made a CBE (2008) for services to Literature, Drama and Charity. She is a member of The Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame and is the only lay person to be made a fellow of The Forensic Science Society.

She lives in London and New York with her son Lorcan and Cockapoo Max.

http://lyndalaplante.com/