If Lynda La Plante raised you on Widows and Prime Suspect, your standards are sky high. Fair enough. So are mine.
You want women who get underestimated and then make everybody pay for it. A London that feels real, from the interview room at the nick to the back room of the pub. Criminals who are cleverer than they look, coppers with as many secrets as the people they’re chasing, and a plot that stays three steps ahead of you right up to the last page. With Sudden Death just out and Jack Warr’s story finished in Sacrifice, a lot of La Plante fans are asking the same question: what do I read now? These are my picks for books like Lynda La Plante. Five dark London crime thrillers, all on Kindle, written for readers who like their crime with proper teeth.
What makes a Lynda La Plante book so addictive?
Authenticity, mostly. La Plante has spent decades talking to detectives, forensic scientists and the criminals they lock up, and you can feel it on every page. Her police stations smell of stale coffee and ambition. Her villains have reasons. Then there are her women. Jane Tennison fighting her way up a Met that didn’t want her in Prime Suspect. Dolly Rawlins and the other wives in Widows, finishing a job their dead husbands planned and doing it better. Nobody hands them anything.
That’s the feeling I chase in my own books. Families that close ranks, women everyone writes off, and a London where the past never stays buried for long. If you’ve also got a soft spot for East End sagas, my list of books like Kimberley Chambers is for you too.
The best books like Lynda La Plante
01If you loved Widows
Who Killed Lenny Gunn?
Whoever finds her husband’s killer inherits the Gunn empire.
In Widows, the wives find out what their husbands were really up to after they’re gone. Queenie Gunn has had since 1996 to work out what happened to hers, and now she’s run out of time.
Queenie Gunn has called the whole family round to tell them she’s dying. Cue the vultures. The Gunns have run their corner of Islington and Hackney for decades, and every single one of them reckons the crown should be theirs. Lenny Gunn was murdered in 1996, and somebody sitting at that table knows a lot more about it than they’ve ever let on.
Perfect if you love: women who take chargeLondon crime familiesa killer in the room
Side effects: you’ll spend the next family Christmas working out who’s lying. Probably everyone.
02If you loved Jane Tennison
I Am Queenie Gunn
Before they feared her, they underestimated her.
Tennison spent her career proving a room full of men wrong. Queenie did exactly the same thing on the other side of the law, with a much sharper tongue.
Before the money, the big house and the reputation, Queenie was a mouthy girl off Chapel Market with nothing to lose. Then she met Lenny Gunn. This is how a nobody became the woman nobody in London was stupid enough to cross. Plenty of people underestimated her. Most of them only did it once.
Perfect if you love: underestimated womenrise to power storiesold London
Side effects: you’ll stop letting anyone talk over you. Ever again.
03If you loved Jack Warr
Dead by 06:00
They all knew he was innocent.
Jack Warr’s whole series asks which side of the law he really belongs on. Danny and Theo grew up on opposite sides of Islington, and they’re about to find out the hard way.
Two in the morning. One phone call. Danny grew up on the Packington estate. Theo grew up in a big house on Thornhill Square. Best mates, right up until Danny went to prison for something he didn’t do. Thirty-two years later, they’ve got four hours to settle it, and by six this morning, somebody is going to pay.
Perfect if you love: miscarriages of justiceold loyaltiesone long night
Side effects: you’ll check the clock every ten minutes. You’ll still be up at six.
04If you loved Sudden Death
Little Apples Grow
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Sudden Death is about a family secret and the person who can’t leave it alone. Rosie Hart can’t leave this one alone either, and it’s hidden in a house that backs onto Highgate Cemetery.
Rosie Hart is the perfect carer. Gentle hands, soft voice, endless patience. She’s moving into a crumbling house in Highgate to look after Vi Driscoll, the dying matriarch of the most feared family in the East End. The Driscolls think they’ve hired some help. They haven’t. Rosie has her own reasons for being there, and kindness isn’t one of them.
Perfect if you love: family secretsa dying matriarchslow, cold revenge
Side effects: you’ll never look at a nice carer the same way again.
05If you loved Dolly Rawlins’ long game
My Name Is Not Evie Marsh
Her name was the first lie.
Dolly never rushed anything, and she never forgot a grudge. Neither does the woman calling herself Evie Marsh.
New name. New look. New job inside the company run by the man who destroyed her family. All she has to do is smile, keep her head down and keep the real her buried until she can bring him down. Revenge was the plan. Nobody planned for what she’d dig up along the way.
Perfect if you love: revenge plotsfalse identitieswomen with patience
Side effects: you’ll start answering to a different name just to see if anyone notices.
Three more for a La Plante night in
Already read those five? Lucky you. These three are shorter on gangsters and longer on marriages that are about to go very, very wrong.
The Ghosted Wife
Till death do us part.
Maria’s husband walks straight past her as if she isn’t there, and her children don’t answer when she speaks. Something in that house doesn’t add up, and the last line will stay with you long after you’ve switched the light off.
Buy on Amazon →
One of Us Dies on Saturday
Two texts. One weekend away.
Lauren gets a text saying her husband is going to kill her on Saturday. At the exact same moment, Mark gets one saying his wife is going to kill him. Which one would you believe?
Buy on Amazon →
Don’t Lie Back
You can always trust your therapist. Can’t you?
Nicole helps women leave men who control them. Then a new client starts describing her partner, and he sounds an awful lot like Nicole’s own husband.
Buy on Amazon →Lynda La Plante books in order: where to start
Brand new to La Plante, or trying to work out which ones you’ve missed? Each of her series stands on its own, so start wherever the story grabs you.
- Widows (Dolly Rawlins): Widows, Widows’ Revenge and She’s Out. Before Prime Suspect there was Widows, and it later became Steve McQueen’s 2018 film.
- Prime Suspect: Prime Suspect, A Face in the Crowd and Silent Victims, with DCI Jane Tennison at the height of her career.
- Jane Tennison: ten prequel novels following a young Tennison through 1970s London, starting with Tennison and finishing with Whole Life Sentence.
- Anna Travis: starts with Above Suspicion.
- Detective Jack Warr: Buried, Judas Horse, Vanished, Pure Evil, Crucified and the final book, Sacrifice.
- Jessica Russell: her forensic series, which opens with The Scene of the Crime.
- Standalone: Sudden Death, published 5 November 2026.
For the full list, her official website has every book, and you can track what you’ve read on Goodreads. Then come back here for your next one.
Your questions answered
What order should I read Lynda La Plante’s books in?
Each series stands on its own. Widows starts with Widows, the Prime Suspect novels start with Prime Suspect, the Jane Tennison prequels start with Tennison, and the Jack Warr series starts with Buried. The full list is further up this page.
What books are like Lynda La Plante?
If you loved Widows, try Who Killed Lenny Gunn?. If Jane Tennison is your hero, read I Am Queenie Gunn. If you miss Jack Warr, try Dead by 06:00.
What is Lynda La Plante’s newest book?
Sudden Death, a standalone mystery set in Paris, was published on 5 November 2026.
Is Sacrifice the last Jack Warr book?
Yes. Sacrifice is the final book in the Detective Jack Warr series.
Which Kadie Vellis book should I read first?
Start with Who Killed Lenny Gunn?, book one of the Gunn Family Trilogy. Or take the quiz and let it pick for you.
Are these books on Kindle?
Yes. Every book on this list is out now on Kindle apart from Little Apples Grow, which is out on 1 December 2026 and available to pre-order now.
Kadie x
P.S. Dolly or Tennison? You’re only allowed one. Come and tell me on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook.