Prime Suspect — Lynda La Plante

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

The moment Jane Tennison takes over Scotland Yard's investigation into the death of sex worker Della Mornay, two grim facts become immediately clear to her. First, that the constabulary's old boy club is determined to hinder, harass, and undermine the new female Detective Chief Inspector at every turn. And second, that their murder victim isn't Della Mornay.

Now the police are a step behind, and a madman is loose on the streets of London. To apprehend the criminal stalking women through the city's shadows, Tennison will have to steel herself against the hostility of her fellow officers and conceal her own mounting obsession with breaking through the glass ceiling of the station house -- even as department politics, a crumbling relationship, and a wickedly elusive prime suspect threaten her very existence.

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.