The Playroom

Karen Sharpe #2

by John Connor

On her thirteenth birthday the daughter of a Bradford judge is kidnapped in West Yorkshire, sparking Operation Shade - a massive fifty-strong detective investigation working against the clock to try to locate and save her. Knowing the chances of Sophie Kenyon surviving will diminish dramatically after the first twenty-four hours, Detective Chief Superintendent John Munro begins to crack under the pressure of holding together an enquiry swamped with leads. Meanwhile, left off the Shade investigation because of her past encounters with Munro, DC Karen Sharpe is pursuing her own single-handed enquiry into historic child abuse allegations. Twenty-three-year-old Pamela Mathews says a local MP raped her ten years before. The task of finding corroboration looks hopeless, but Sharpe keeps at it. Anything rather than face up to her own tangled personal life. She lives with a lawyer she doesn't love and is trying to care for a child who thinks she is her aunt. The truth is more complex and frightening, leading back to still unresolved events from a year before. Karen's enquiry uncovers connections with the present day disappearance of Sophie Kenyon.As the true nature and extent of the conspiracy is uncovered, Karen realises that there are powerful interests at work - men who have plotted for ten years to conceal the truth. Her investigation becomes a race to find clues that will save Sophie's life. But violence interrupts. Events spiral out of control and drag her towards a terrifying confrontation with a man who will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden. In an explosion of violence and bloodshed, she is left fighting not just to locate Sophie Kenyon, but to save herself.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

John Connor is the pen name of Tom Winship. John Connor recently left his job as a barrister to write full time. During the fifteen years of his legal career he prosecuted numerous homicide cases in West Yorkshire and London. He advised the police in numerous proactive drugs and organised crime operations, many involving covert activity. He now lives in Brussels with his wife and two young children.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE PLAYROOM (Police Proc-England-Cont) - Ex
Connor, John – 2nd in series
Orion, 2005 – UK Hardcover
DC Karen Sharpe has been contacted by a woman who claims she was kidnapped and raped 10 years ago by a local MP. In the meantime, the daughter of a local judge has been reported missing. Although a major task force has been created, Sharpe is left off the team. But roadblocks are being erected in both investigations and it becomes clear there is a connection between the past and the present.
*** First, you have an excellent police procedural with a diverse and interesting cast of characters. Second, you have Karen. For those of us who like complex, tough, damaged but redeemable, female characters, Karen fits the bill. Third, it is a well-written, tightly plotted, suspenseful story. It is graphic and as far from a cozy as one can get. But all together, it is an excellent book which kept me reading way too late into the night. I highly recommend this book and series.

[Adri266 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Mam tohtorocneho vitaza o naj knihu a je to tato knizocka, ktora ma sice obalom velmi neuputala, zaujala ma cenou a anotaciou. A ked som ju precitala, WOW, mam noveho oblubeneho autora. Len skoda, ze nema toho viac prelozeneho aspon do CZ. No mozno ho pozhanam v ANJ.
A o co ide?
Kniha ma niekolko dejovych linii, az kym sa nespoja v zavere.
Vysetrovatelka Karen ma zaujimavy pripad. Jedna mlada zena si zrazu spomenie na to, ako ju v detstve uniesli a znasilnovali. Medzi dotycnymi chlapmi je aj velmi vyznamna osobnost. Karen zacne vysetrovat na vlastnu past, hoci su na nu vyvijane tlaky zhora, aby to nechala tak.
Zaroven sa Karen musi vysporiadat s tym, ci ma povedat dievcatu, ktore si osvojila, pravdu o jej rodicoch. Ma ostat s partnerom, ktory ju miluje, ale ona jeho velmi nie? a preco si Karen vzdy kontroluje, ci nema pod autom bombu?
Medzitym zmizne ine dievca, dcera sudcu. Iny tim ju hlada, ale cas sa pomaly krati. Najde sa? Kto je za tym? A preco zomieraju zname osobnosti?

Za kazdou kapitolou som si vzdy musela kratko vydychnut, premysliet si, co sa stalo, a citala som dalej.
SKVELA KNIHA, na 100% odporucam.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm ... I'm trying to analyse why this, greedily ordered when I was but 50 pages into 'Phoenix', fell somewhat short.

Firstly it was the oversize font which felt like an attempt to fool the reader, bulking out an otherwise slender tome. (The 'Phoenix' I read an older edition, tiny print and well-packed pages). Secondly it did feel like Karen was behaving with a ludicrous disdain for rules and her superiors. That said, the tension mounted and the ending bloody enough to redeem the whole to some extent. I'm just slightly less desperate to seek out book 3.

[Sage Nudler · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I did end up liking this book but it took a hot minute.
I don't tend to read thriller police books but i do love them in TV shows so i decided to give this book a chance.
Ill start off by saying that i loved the main storyline. From the kidnapping to the surrounding characters great book and premiss.

I did feel like the book tried to provide us with background information in to the detectives which kinda got me lost in the book and i fell like less is more in this case.

Overall, not sure id recommend this book to anyone but if you do decide to read it I'm sure you'll like it

[Andrea Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 2nd in the Karen spark series and is fast and action packed, working in the child protection unit karen has many secrets and trouble seem to follow her around ,she does not take orders very well either , which the cause a catalyst of events that keep you entertained though out this book .. subject matter not for every one ....

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second Karen Sharpe police procedural is excruciatingly grim and compulsively readable.

[Stuart Haining · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 VFM 19%. Another gripping story, good characters, fast paced just marred by very little plot. Worth Reading again though and progressing to my third by this author next.

[Louisa George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to read this purely because it was set in the area where I grew up. It is a fairly bog-standard crime thriller mainly focusing around Karen Sharpe, a harried policewoman with West Yorkshire Child Protection Unit. Karen is suffering from fall-out from her previous posting and is using her job to distract her from emotional damage and dealing with her past. Significantly she is using it to prevent her from bonding with her own daughter with whom she has recently been reconciled.

A 12 year old girl, daughter of a prominent judge, disappears on her birthday. At the same time Sharpe is approached by a woman suffering from recovered memory syndrome and a tale of abduction and abuse as a young teenager. Are the two connected? If so, how? Everyone knows that in a child abduction case the first 24 hours are critical. It's a race against time for Karen to solve the old case and shed light on the new. But in doing so inevitably she puts her life, and the lives of those she loves, in danger. People in authority do not want this case solved.

The story is well written, but there are way too many characters- I still have no idea as to the importance of some of them or why they appeared. Otherwise it is an admirable thriller that had me turning the pages way past bedtime.

[ReadandRated · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I've read any John Connor books before so I had no idea what to expect from this one and was pleasantly surprised by the complexity of the story-line which is often absent from books of this genre.

It has a meaty main subject and touches briefly on descriptions of grooming and child abuse which some people may find they don't want to read but it wasn't gratuitous and it wasn't too in depth so I was comfortable with it as it was in keeping with the story and scene setting. However it's probably worth noting that some other reviewers haven't enjoyed/finished the book because of it's subject matter.

I thought it flowed well and was enjoyable to read although I found DC Sharpe's relationship with her daughter a bit of an unnecessary and somewhat unbelievable side line to it. Possibly because I read this book without reading it's predecessor but surely each book should be worthy of being read as a standalone?

I thought DC Sharpe was a good character, had all the usual traits of a readable cop - didn't play by the rules, couldn't let go of things, took lots of risks, didn't respect authority all that well, compromised her personal life for the job etc.

I'm giving it 3.5 stars, would have been 4 if it weren't for the silliness surrounding her daughter.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not particularly fond of books that are about crimes of this type. My neighbour had read it and thought it was the most thrilling book she had ever read, and that she couldn't turn off the lights in her apartment for weeks after having read it. So perhaps I just had high expectations. Sadly, I found this book too boring. I could easily have picked up any other British crime novel and I wouldn't have known the difference. I found the main character, Karen Sharpe, as instable, irritating and sometimes irrational, which made it even more difficult for me to like this book. This type of book just isn't my cup of tea.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first book in this series, and thought it was good but the story was confusing and the lead character, Karen Sharpe, was hard to like. This book fixed the first problem - really good exciting thriller - unputdownable for the last third of it - and a good cast of supporting characters. Karen is still a pretty unpleasant heroine, but learning more about her past explains a lot of it. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series to find out more.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad crime novel, but I could see the 'twist' coming so far in advance it took a lot of the guessing out of it. I had a hard time getting to know the main character, but I've just realised this isn't the first book in the series - oops! That explains that then. I'll have to find the earlier book/s and start again. Not recommended at the moment.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent police procedural. I need to find out more about Karen Sharpe. I should have found and read "Phoenix" first, it would have given me more insight into her background. I did enjoy this one, though.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enough layers and interesting characters to make this a more than usually interesting thriller. The heroine operates outside anything resembling normality in terms of work and family but regardless of believability, one still gets absorbed into the mystery solving process.

[Alicia]

Will tell you after I've read it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story but disturbing in parts.

[Bionic Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Connor is the pen name of Tom Winship, an ex-barrister. This is a competent thriller with a good plot, but is nasty and rather disturbing in parts.