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Trial and Retribution #3
Trial and Retribution III
Helen Booth, a petite 15-year old goes missing on her paper round in south London. An anonymous phone call leads the police to a boathouse in Putney where they discover her blood-stained jacket and trainers. A murder inquiry is launched, headed by Detective Superintendent Michael Walker.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
Lynda La Plante
134 books1,873 followersLynda La Plante, CBE (born Lynda Titchmarsh) is a British author, screenwriter, and erstwhile actress (her performances in Rentaghost and other programmes were under her stage name of Lynda Marchal), best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.
Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the six part robbery series Widows, in 1983, in which the widows of four armed robbers carry out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.
In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States Prime Suspect airs on PBS as part of the anthology program Mystery!) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote at TV movie called Seekers, starring Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.
She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.
Her output continued with The Governor (ITV 1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and was followed by a string of ratings pulling miniseries: the psycho killer nightmare events of Trial & Retribution (ITV 1997-), the widows' revenge of the murders of their husbands & children Bella Mafia (1997) (starring Vanessa Redgrave), the undercover police unit operations of Supply and Demand (ITV 1998), videogame/internet murder mystery Killer Net (Channel 4 1998) and the female criminal profiler cases of Mind Games (ITV 2001).
Two additions to the Trial and Retribution miniseries were broadcast during 2006.
Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the six part robbery series Widows, in 1983, in which the widows of four armed robbers carry out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.
In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States Prime Suspect airs on PBS as part of the anthology program Mystery!) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote at TV movie called Seekers, starring Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.
She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.
Her output continued with The Governor (ITV 1995-96), a series focusing on the female governor of a high security prison, and was followed by a string of ratings pulling miniseries: the psycho killer nightmare events of Trial & Retribution (ITV 1997-), the widows' revenge of the murders of their husbands & children Bella Mafia (1997) (starring Vanessa Redgrave), the undercover police unit operations of Supply and Demand (ITV 1998), videogame/internet murder mystery Killer Net (Channel 4 1998) and the female criminal profiler cases of Mind Games (ITV 2001).
Two additions to the Trial and Retribution miniseries were broadcast during 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 4, 2025
Another great series from Lynda La Plante!
July 10, 2023
Another decent police procedural from La Plante
May 14, 2016
A good gripping read featuring credible characters. Persistent complainer Warrington is a really obnoxious creation & the desperation of Pat North as he continues to hound her is almost palpable.
Never seen this on TV but will be keeping an eye for a re- run :o)
Never seen this on TV but will be keeping an eye for a re- run :o)
December 19, 2020
unpredictable! superb ending!
January 22, 2022
I'm going to do a review for the series as a whole and post it for each book, this is because I feel that the further along the series and especially the last book are mostly about the private lives of the detectives rather than the crimes themselves.
I do feel that of all the series of Linda La Plante's that I've read/watched this is probably the weakest as far as story and character development go.
The character of Mike Walker is not someone I like, yes he may get the job done, but he really is a dinosaur, and frankly I don't think he is that good of a detective. He guesses a lot or plays a hunch, which by luck has been proved correct, so often no more follow up is done once a case has either had a confession or thought to be proved. Finding evidence whilst the case is going through trial seems really far fetched to me and also not professional.
The character of Pat North has a lot of potential, she should have stayed well away from getting involved in a relationship with Mike Walker, and frankly that whole scenario is completely unnecessary.
The Detective Sargent character of Dave Satchwell starts off predictable, seems to move forward, and then de-evolves by the last book.
How much of all of this is due to the fact that the author was writing for television, rather than writing a "book" I don't know, but the story does seem to suffer because of it.
I won't be revisiting the tv series, and I doubt very much that I will listen to the books again.
I do feel that of all the series of Linda La Plante's that I've read/watched this is probably the weakest as far as story and character development go.
The character of Mike Walker is not someone I like, yes he may get the job done, but he really is a dinosaur, and frankly I don't think he is that good of a detective. He guesses a lot or plays a hunch, which by luck has been proved correct, so often no more follow up is done once a case has either had a confession or thought to be proved. Finding evidence whilst the case is going through trial seems really far fetched to me and also not professional.
The character of Pat North has a lot of potential, she should have stayed well away from getting involved in a relationship with Mike Walker, and frankly that whole scenario is completely unnecessary.
The Detective Sargent character of Dave Satchwell starts off predictable, seems to move forward, and then de-evolves by the last book.
How much of all of this is due to the fact that the author was writing for television, rather than writing a "book" I don't know, but the story does seem to suffer because of it.
I won't be revisiting the tv series, and I doubt very much that I will listen to the books again.
September 12, 2021
Despite not liking any of the characters I quite enjoyed this. I couldn’t grasp the two main detectives, neither had much in the way of personality and I’m far from sure this relationship will go the distance. Both lacked any colour and were flat. I was a bit nonplussed at what they saw in each other but it might be ‘birds of a feather’. The storyline kept me engaged even though there a few questionable scenarios. Yet another author who feels readers need to know whenever a character needs to smoke. I’ve got nothing against smoking, it’s just not interesting enough to keep pointing it out. I’ve reserved the next book in this series as I’d to see the outcome and see if North and ???? See, so colourless I’ve forgotten his name ready! It might be Walker. So to see if they suddenly develop into real characters
October 19, 2021
Two men, one with mental health problems, are implicated in the death of a 15 yo girl and both say the other committed the murder and they only found out after the fact. With the defence teams of both men attacking each other, it looks like easy work for the prosecution, but will justice be done? I was engrossed by this but didn’t enjoy parts, they just don’t grip me as much as the Tennison novels. DI Pat North is such a passive character who seemed to make a huge amount of bad judgement calls and DSI Walker was entirely unsupportive - it was hard to be patient with either of them. As usual Lynda La Plante has painted a fascinating suspect in Stephen Warrington, how much is he to blame for his actions and harassment? Audio narrator Colin Mace gave his usual good performance.
September 15, 2022
Good detective novel
July 13, 2023
A fast-paced, well-structured crime drama. I couldn't put it down.
July 27, 2023
Audiobook was brilliant and the narrator, Colin Mace, rocked it!
February 18, 2024
Continuing with my chill out books
April 15, 2025
As expected, gripping and entertaining. She just writes great crime.
January 8, 2023
Brilliant police drama involving a young girls disappearance and two suspects.
Lynda La Plante is a genius with this type of story.
Lynda La Plante is a genius with this type of story.
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January 16, 2009Trial and Retribution III by Lynda La Plante. B-plus. Narrated by Christian Rodska. Produced by BBC-WW, and purchased through audible.com.
Well, now that I’ve read the third of this six-book series, I guess there seems to be a common theme. Detective superintendent Walker, a passionate intense man who is always trying to catch the criminals, and who is known to cut some corners to try to convict the person he thinks is guilty, has snafus in the court system allowing the person he actually thought and knew was guilty to ultimately get away. I like these books because I like police procedurals, particularly British ones. But it’s hard to believe that Walker is this acknowledged leader, district superintendent, with the mistakes he has made in these books. Actually, it’s kind of like the show “Law and Order” where the police screw up, they go to court, the judge throws it out, and they have to do it right to get a conviction. Except in the Trial and Retribution books, they don’t get the second chance to do it right. In this third book, a teenage girl goes missing and clues given by an obviously mentally ill man lead finally to finding her body. This mentally ill man is fixated upon, and stalks, Detective Inspector Pat North, who is now living with Walker and therefore has moved out of homicide and into vice. Pat suffers some major nightmarish attack from the man, and then has to relive it testifying in court, and Walker does not understand how difficult it is for her. Also, both the prosecution and defense make mistakes that lead to what Walker believes is a misdirected verdict by the jury.
Well, now that I’ve read the third of this six-book series, I guess there seems to be a common theme. Detective superintendent Walker, a passionate intense man who is always trying to catch the criminals, and who is known to cut some corners to try to convict the person he thinks is guilty, has snafus in the court system allowing the person he actually thought and knew was guilty to ultimately get away. I like these books because I like police procedurals, particularly British ones. But it’s hard to believe that Walker is this acknowledged leader, district superintendent, with the mistakes he has made in these books. Actually, it’s kind of like the show “Law and Order” where the police screw up, they go to court, the judge throws it out, and they have to do it right to get a conviction. Except in the Trial and Retribution books, they don’t get the second chance to do it right. In this third book, a teenage girl goes missing and clues given by an obviously mentally ill man lead finally to finding her body. This mentally ill man is fixated upon, and stalks, Detective Inspector Pat North, who is now living with Walker and therefore has moved out of homicide and into vice. Pat suffers some major nightmarish attack from the man, and then has to relive it testifying in court, and Walker does not understand how difficult it is for her. Also, both the prosecution and defense make mistakes that lead to what Walker believes is a misdirected verdict by the jury.
March 5, 2010
To begin with, the name of the victim is Cassie, not Helen as appears on the head of the page.
Anyway for most of this book I was thinking 'boring, predictable'... but to give it full credit, there is a good twist in the final chapters, which for me saves the book from a lower rating. However I didn't like the characters; I wasn't interested in the amorous relationship between Walker and North, I found North just as wussy and stupid as the woman police officer in the other La Plante book I have read, and I found the whole police operation ridiculous. Hell there's even the old 'take my handcuffs off so I can.....' line.
I don't know if I will be interested enough to read any more of these.
Anyway for most of this book I was thinking 'boring, predictable'... but to give it full credit, there is a good twist in the final chapters, which for me saves the book from a lower rating. However I didn't like the characters; I wasn't interested in the amorous relationship between Walker and North, I found North just as wussy and stupid as the woman police officer in the other La Plante book I have read, and I found the whole police operation ridiculous. Hell there's even the old 'take my handcuffs off so I can.....' line.
I don't know if I will be interested enough to read any more of these.
February 7, 2015
Have finished it but will not be reading a Linda La Plante again for a while. Was very uninteresting, did not enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews