- Paperback: 396 pages
- Publisher: Allison & Busby; New edition edition (15 Jan 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749081252
- ISBN-13: 978-0749081256
- Product Dimensions: 17.9 x 11.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 343,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Thoroughly sharp, modern, witty, and literate' Margaret Yorke
Product Description
An unidentified woman is found on a roadside - beaten into a coma and raped. The man who finds her, troubled by his inability to resuscitate her, spends hours at her hospital bedside, talking to the woman everyone calls Elise. Two years later Elise's condition is downgraded to persistent vegetative state - if the hospital takes her off life support, Elise's attacker will be guilty of her murder. Now months away from retirement, Chief Superintendent Frances Harman has been assigned to investigate Elise's case. This is stacked on top of Fran's growing obligation to her elderly parents, a duty that takes her from Kent to Devon, and back, every weekend. . Fran verges on overload as she takes on more and more responsibilities - her parents, Elise, the abduction of a child, the disappearance of her only witness, and the growing affection that she and her long-time colleague Mark Turner seem to share for one another. In a satisfyingly complex story of deadly crime, kidnapping, disappearance, and identity theft, can this warhorse of a detective beat the odds, the stress, and the danger that may just be too much for one woman to handle?
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'So here you are, Elise, on an ordinary ward at last. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
'So here you are, Elise, on an ordinary ward at last. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Life Sentence is the first novel in Cutler's Fran Harman series. On the most superficial level it is a highly enjoyable detective story, but it has a greater depth to it than that. I hope potential readers will not be put off because the heroine is not in the first flush of youth and is only months away from retirement. The character is so well drawn that one can identify and sympathise with Fran's problems and her point of view. Readers who are familiar with Cutler's work will already be aware of how well she deals with the awkwardnesses, embarrassments and uncertainties of developing relationships. In Life Sentence we are fully caught up with Fran's doubts and lack of confidence and are as anxious as she is for a successful outcome.
When the book ends we want to know what happens next and luckily we can, because there are, to date, two more books in the series.
When the book ends we want to know what happens next and luckily we can, because there are, to date, two more books in the series.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I hadn't been aware of Judith Cutler as a writer before seeing her at Bristol Crimefest a while ago, and I was gradually working my way around the works of a number of the authors featured there, although before I saw this one and read the back cover, I was more aware of Ms. Cutler's historical novels.
This is the first contemporary novel of a series of three currently available featuring Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman and I really enjoyed it from cover to cover. I particularly liked it because it was set in my local county of Kent mentioning many well known local villages and landmarks.
Cutler deals capably with a potential developing relationship in a clever career woman in her 50s looking more towards a retirement than new love, but who is juggling overwork and exhaustion, plus questioning her remaining strength towards committment to emotional entanglements. Despite her undoubted competence within the difficult constraints of a male dominated police force Fran has worked her way up the hard way yet still shows fragility when it comes to the psychological treatment meted out by her more than selfish parents and a sibling but on the other hand Cutler is writing from what seems like personal experience of the same long-distance dashes to elderly relatives in far-off counties, so she is carefully to bring the opposite point of view to bear.
On reflection I'm still not entirely sure I understand the implication of the title but perhaps that refers more to the PVS lady than to anything related to Fran. I thought the ending and resolution of the mystery a bit contrived but all in all I will probably seek out the next one to see what develops.
COLD PURSUIT and STILL WATERS are the second and third of the series.
This is the first contemporary novel of a series of three currently available featuring Detective Chief Superintendent Fran Harman and I really enjoyed it from cover to cover. I particularly liked it because it was set in my local county of Kent mentioning many well known local villages and landmarks.
Cutler deals capably with a potential developing relationship in a clever career woman in her 50s looking more towards a retirement than new love, but who is juggling overwork and exhaustion, plus questioning her remaining strength towards committment to emotional entanglements. Despite her undoubted competence within the difficult constraints of a male dominated police force Fran has worked her way up the hard way yet still shows fragility when it comes to the psychological treatment meted out by her more than selfish parents and a sibling but on the other hand Cutler is writing from what seems like personal experience of the same long-distance dashes to elderly relatives in far-off counties, so she is carefully to bring the opposite point of view to bear.
On reflection I'm still not entirely sure I understand the implication of the title but perhaps that refers more to the PVS lady than to anything related to Fran. I thought the ending and resolution of the mystery a bit contrived but all in all I will probably seek out the next one to see what develops.
COLD PURSUIT and STILL WATERS are the second and third of the series.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
First in a New Series -- Police Procedural
14 May 2012
Format:Paperback
I don't think it is possible to review this book without a nod to Linda LaPlante's Prime Suspect about the rise of Jane Tennison through the ranks of the police. Like Jane Tennison, Frances Harman is an intelligent, capable member of the force who as she enters middle age tries to juggle the demands of her family, her job and her life.
Currently she is running herself ragged trying to care for her aging, increasingly demanding parents who do not recognize that her competence extends beyond being a daughter and her demanding career. Her superiors are starting to notice that she is having trouble but do not understand her situation.
In an effort to help her, an old friend who has now risen past her, suggests that she be assigned a special case. A woman was found beside a road, still alive but in bad shape. She had been viciously assault and there is little chance that the coma she is in would improve. She is also anonymous. Frances is asked to look over the case to make sure that everything has been done properly and, if possible, to try to identify her before a court ordered termination of life support.
Interesting idea and story. I had some problems with the ease with which her personal problems are finally resolved. And she's a bit too competent. Otherwise though I did enjoy finding a mystery that addresses the issues of older women in positions of responsibility.
This book is followed by Cold Pursuit.
Currently she is running herself ragged trying to care for her aging, increasingly demanding parents who do not recognize that her competence extends beyond being a daughter and her demanding career. Her superiors are starting to notice that she is having trouble but do not understand her situation.
In an effort to help her, an old friend who has now risen past her, suggests that she be assigned a special case. A woman was found beside a road, still alive but in bad shape. She had been viciously assault and there is little chance that the coma she is in would improve. She is also anonymous. Frances is asked to look over the case to make sure that everything has been done properly and, if possible, to try to identify her before a court ordered termination of life support.
Interesting idea and story. I had some problems with the ease with which her personal problems are finally resolved. And she's a bit too competent. Otherwise though I did enjoy finding a mystery that addresses the issues of older women in positions of responsibility.
This book is followed by Cold Pursuit.
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