Hidden Killers by Lynda LaPlante

 

This is the second book in the Jane Tennison thriller series. As you may know, Jane Tennison is the main character in the Prime Suspect series and was played brilliantly by Helen Mirren in the series.
The Tennison thriller series is focused on her early career in the Metropolitan police in London.

This time, Tennison has been transferred to Bow Street from Hackney after a successful undercover operation in which Tennison, dressed as a prostitute, helped catch a potential rapist.

She has now graduated from a probationary constable to a detective and is still dealing with the fallout from her first detective opportunities at Hackney where her boss Bradfield and a female colleague and mentor who were both killed while trying to bust and armed robbery in progress.

I am not going to say much about the story because LaPlante does a brilliant job of unfolding the crimes, the investigation and the solve. What she does equally as well, if not better, is to create interesting characters – both main and peripheral.

Each character, from Tennison’s family, to each detective to the criminals and supporting actors are all written so well that you feel like you know them intimately. This makes you invested in the story. I loved Prime Suspect and Helen Mirren brought Tennison to life so well, that it is hard to imagine anyone else playing her if they decide to bring this to the screen.

Let’s hope they do and let’s hope there are many more Tennison thrillers on the horizon so we can enjoy reading great stories about her long and illustrious career.

Tennison by Lynda LaPlante

I have been on a reading binge with no end in sight. I am currently off my feet and have limited movement so I turned to my first love, books, to provide a mental escape from my physical prison. I also realized that I was “behind” in my goal for number of books read this year and suddenly put pressure on myself to catch up. So for those who follow my blog, expect a barrage!!

I am sure many of you immediately recognize the name Tennison (as in Jane Tennison) as being the main character in LaPlante’s series of books turned to tv shows “Prime Suspect” which stars Helen Mirren. If you haven’t seen it, here is my shameless plug for Britbox. This online service curates all British television and has the whole “Prime Suspect” series available.

LaPlante has gone back to show us how Tennison became the cop and woman we know and love. This is very exciting because it takes us all the way back to the early 1970’s when Tennison was fresh out of the academy and at her first posting in Hackney.

Tennison is still green and in uniform when she becomes seconded to the major crimes unit and becomes involved with unraveling both a murder and an armed robbery. There is only one other woman working with Tennison and she acts as a mentor and sounding board for Tennison.

As usual, she is battling both the villains and the powers that be that believe women should not be part of the argy bargy in police work. As the story opens, Tennison is living with her parents and soon to be married sister in Maida Vale. We get a sense of her family and how they feel about her being a cop as well as starting to glimpse the kind of child she was – and we all know that Jane Tennison must have been a stubborn little so and so!

LaPlante does an amazing job recreating both the neighborhoods and the characters who populate her novels. In Tennison, this is an opportunity to answer all those questions we had about her career prior to the first “Prime Suspect” case that many of us discovered by seeing Helen Mirren inhabit the role.

We also get to see how Tennison started out obsessed with her work and how her personal and professional life often crosses boundaries. One thing I can assure readers is that Jane is as feisty and difficult as ever but we also see some of the things that influence her privately.

After I finished this book, I went and bought two more. Yes, throw your book pillows at me now – it IS a series and therefore, if you are addicted like me, you have more reading in front of you! I am delighted to make the acquaintance of Tennison again and the superb writing keeps the pages turning. Five stars.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

Finally, a new focus for the spy genre! The Slow Horses referred to ae spies, that turning their training, on missions or for other reasons have been deemed unfit for James Bond style duty and have been farmed out to Slough House to bide their time doing document dumps and other administrivia until their retirement.

River Cartwright, one of the main characters is a particularly bitter slow horse. His grandfather was a big mucky muck in MI-5 and River was set to follow in his footsteps. Now relegated to Slough House, he blames his failure on another recruit who may or may not have had an agenda to get rid of River.

Joining him at Slough House, away from the Regency Park HQ are a variety of interesting failures. His boss Jackson Lamb appears to be merely riding it out. But is he? Slovenly, gross and all around jackass, he might also be brilliant. He knows his spycraft. Ho the technology man, Min Harper the milquetoast, Louisa Guy the angry woman, Struan Loy the office jokester, noisy Kay White and supposed alcoholic Catherine.

Nothing is as it seems though. Not even to the slow horses themselves. A journalist, marginally involved with British Nationalist interests, is tailed by the slow horses in what they consider to be a useless and frustrating training exercise. But is it?

That question is asked constantly throughout the book and it is almost impossible to decipher what is really going on. Based on snoopy Ho, you get one story about why each player has been placed in Slough House. Bu you are also privy to each players personal viewpoint.

The story does unfold kind of slowly – and not in the metaphoric sense. However, wants it gets galloping, it really engrosses you. My only frustration? It ended in a “read the next book to find out” fashion. I hated that. It means I have to read the next one to find out the end of the story. Arrrrrrrghhhhhh!

The Story of a Sociopath by Julia Navarro

This is a difficult book to review. It is particularly lengthy and it is told from the viewpoint of the sociopath in the title. By nature, sociopaths are a turn off. This one, Thomas Spencer, is no exception.

Thomas grows up in an upper middle class household. His father is an attorney in a second generation New York law firm. His mother is a nurse who is half Mexican and half American. His younger brother is a lovely person with a personality that all love and a golden future. Thomas is a difficult person from childhood all the way to death.

As the story opens, Thomas and his brother Jaime are both children. Thomas is adored by his father, despised by the nanny/maid and distant with his mother. He is cruel to his younger brother as well as animals. He is unpleasant in every way but he is the heart of the story and there is little or no reprieve from Thomas.

What is great about this story is that sociopaths are most often shown to be criminals. In this story, the sociopathic tendencies of Thomas, translate into a certain amount of success in his chosen profession – advertising. His methods though, leave a lot of collateral damage in his wake.

As Thomas narrates the story, there are a number of places where he explains how an event played out. But he also gives an alternative narrative, in italics, about what he could have done instead. Thomas never chooses the correct or pleasing or socially appropriate response however.

As the book proceeds from childhood, to young adulthood, to adulthood, to old age, Thomas becomes increasingly less pleasant and more sadistic. Sadly, he is also the most successful character in the book and as life often imitates art, many of us can see how it works the same in the big wide world.

Thomas destroys lives, including many of those closest to him. He is unable to love although it is something that he desperately seeks and is unable to receive much less understand.

The story takes place in both New York and London with a segue to Madrid that felt incomplete. Strangely, it is the one time in the story that one feels Thomas has found what amounts to him, happiness and peace. It is also the one place in the world where as much as he is able, he abstains from damage.

It is one of those books I can’t stop thinking about so therefore, it must have resonated more than I thought. It is long – almost 900 pages, so it is one with length and depth and requires a commitment of time. If psychological manipulation and gaslighting interest you, and you want to better understand the mind of a sociopath, then this one is for you.

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

For those living under a rock or for more causal readers, Robert Galbraith is a pen name used by J.K. Rowling. This is her first book after the wildly successful Harry Potter series. She adopted the pseudonym, no doubt, to see if her writing alone would sell books, to test a different genre than young adult and to escape the expectations that came attached to her name and the success of the Harry Potter series.

Unfortunately, some numbskull at her publisher could not keep their trap shut and her cover was blown before the book even hit the shelves. I did not read any of the editorial reviews. I am not generally a reader of young adult fiction but I finally relented and read the Harry Potter books long after they came out and loved them. I felt that any writer, who could come up with those ideas, was probably going to write well no matter what they chose to write about.

All that being said, I waited quite a while to read this book. I did not want the experience to be tainted by any expectations from Gabraith/Rowlings previous work. I was not disappointed. As I expected, The Cuckoo’s Calling was a superb read regardless of what name is on the cover.

Set in the present day, a supermodel falls to her death from her balcony in a posh and exclusive London apartment building. It is classed as a suicide but her brother, unable to accept that ruling by the coroner, engages a childhood friend of his brother’s, Cormoran Strike, to investigate. Strike is one of the most interesting investigators I have come across in detective fiction.

Ex British military but the son of an aging rock and roll lothario and a super groupie. Yes, you read that right. His back story is as good as the one he is investigating and could fill a whole book in itself. Creating rich, detailed characters is definitely one of Rowling’s strengths and it shines in this book. Every character introduced is given something for the reader to grab onto and consider.

Into Strike’s life, drops a temporary secretary. For every great detective, an equally great offside must emerge and into his walks Robin Ellacot. A girl from the English countryside, newly engaged and with ambitions, she ends up at Strike’s office for a one week assignment. Robin is no rube however and it becomes quickly apparent that she will be there throughout this book and in any future Cormoran Strike adventures. How could it be otherwise?

What unfolds is an engrossing mystery. Cormoran follows leads provided by the supermodel’s brother and friends. Robin digs around the internet and turns out to be a pretty good sleuth herself giving Strike more to work with. By the end of the book, although Robin is still engaged, you get the feeling that her confidence in herself has built to a level that by the next book, that fiancé may be history. Robin might have been a wonderful country/suburban soccer mom but she wandered into Strike’s world and she will be infinitely smarter and more interesting from here on out.

This is a thoroughly engaging read and J.K. Rowling is a writer who can transcend genre’s. I hope she continues to try different types of novels because I suspect her writing is just that good. I know there is at least one other fictional work besides the new Harry Potter novel out and as much as I enjoy H.P., I hope she does not just fall back on that for a buck and continues to grow her craft.