Lynda La Plante Planning Prequel to Prime Suspect

Crime novelist Lynda La Plante is planning to write a prequel to her successful television series, Prime Suspect.

Titled Tennison, the book is scheduled to be published in 2015. She also plans to adapt it for a made-for-television movie to air in 2016.

"When you first meet her (Tennison) in the early 90s, she is a very complex character, but what made her so?" La Plante said in a press release. "Nobody knows what drove her to become a DCI or want to join the police force in the first place."

When asked by BBC Radio 4's Front Row whether Helen Mirren, who played the character of Jane Tennison in the television series, would return for a minor role, the author said, "I would love to even approach her to consider it but I feel she has carved out such an impressive career. I really doubt she would want to go back."

No plot details for the book were released, but La Plante did say that Tennison's case would likely center around the murder of a young woman.