Phoenix

Karen Sharpe #1

by John Connor

The 8th April 1996 was a bad day for Karen Sharpe, the eighth anniversary of something so deeply buried she had hoped to forget it ever happened. Each year she tries to cope in whatever way she can. Most years she turns to booze. But this year that wasn't going to work. Sometime after midnight Phil Leech, her DS and partner, is executed in a military style killing, whilst Fiona Mitchell, his pretty 21-year-old informant, ends up on a South Pennine moor with bullets through her face and chest. Karen had been due to meet both when drink and memories intervened, preventing her from getting there. As the investigation begins, odd details keep forcing Karen to examine her own unclear memories. As she follows her instincts, and some very disturbing clues embedded in her own secret history, she must confront her past and act quickly if she is to prevent the seed of destruction planted eight years before from wreaking devastating and brutal consequences.

Genres: Thriller, Crime, Mystery, British Literature

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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

[Adri266 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Co nepochopim je, preco vydavaju knihy nie v aktualnom poradi. Ale najprv vydali Hernu, co je druha v poradi, a potom prvu cast
No nevadi.
Dalsia skvela kniha. Postava Karen sa mi velmi paci, aj ked v skutocnosti by som ju mozno nemala rada. Je polosialena, napriek tomu dosahuje vyborne vysetrovacie vysledky. No v realite by ju vyhodili z prace, predpokladam.
A o co ide? Jej kolega a jeho informatorka su zavrazdeni. Napriek tomu je do vysetrovania zapojena aj Karen. Zacina si spominat na minulost, na ktoru uz zabudla a vychadzaju na svetlo veci, na ktore nikdy nechcela opat mysliet.
Finale je opat skvele. Kniha nesklamala, joj, dufam, ze sa mi podari zohnat dalsie.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I think I should have mainly because I tended to get a bit confused with the relationships & connections between various characters. What I did like about it though was the fact that it was set around Bradford/Halifax....my home ground....so I recognised a lot of the places.

Overall it was a good read with a strong female lead who isn't the usual type of "heroine". I found it a little complicated in parts but I think that was my lack of concentration rather than the book.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up from a charity shelf in the Co-op, only moderately optimistic - West Yorkshire a definite plus. And then, what some would call another police procedural with usual pairing of dysfunctional boss and disobedient female team member. (And why and how else would you want to concoct a story without such conflict?)

But immediately I found this several rungs above the 'usual' in terms of quality of writing, characters, sense of place, plotting and police action. And only 50 pages in ordered book 2, delighted to find there's several more to come.

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in a series of dark police procedurals concludes with an unexpected climax and a glimmer of hope.

[Fi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought for a while that I'd found a new author - and a new detective - to follow; but by the (entirely predictable) end of the book I'd changed my mind

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

First read of this author. Was enjoyable - well constructed.

[The Villan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t bother hard to get into

[Bryngel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good and interesting story. It's well written, but a bit too detailed at times. I think it's a decent book, but I don't like Karen Sharpe much. Perhaps that will change with the next book.

[Kotka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Świetna! Z przyjemnością będę kontynuować

[Arnab Goswami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, not the best writing. A little cheesy at times.

[Jan Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a police procedural/thriller this is a good read with many plot twists and action. But - I am not fond of angst-ridden detectives at the best of times and with Phoenix all of that guilt actively got in the way, for me at least. To me the lead, Karen Sharpe, feels more male than strong female. I do recognise that my lack of patience may come from not having read any others in the series and therefore not having any attachment to Sharpe.
Phoenix cannot be faulted on the thriller side so a good read for those who want the action front and forward.

[Fmds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klasyczna powieść policyjna w dobrym angielskim stylu. Tu wszystko się zgadza. Ciekawa zagadka - chociaż rozwiązanie już chyba nie tak bardzo. Dobre postaci - dobrze napisane, przemyślane, ciekawie poprowadzone. Mamy zagadkę zabójstwa policjanta i wyrzuty sumienia głównej bohaterki, która mogła znaleźć się w tym samym miejscu i o tej samej porze, co nieboszczyk. To wszystko powoduje, że główna bohaterka "opowiada" o swoim życiu w dość nietuzinkowy sposób. Jej przeżycia są dość traumatyczne, ale o ironio właśnie ten element przyciąga nas w tej postaci najbardziej. Powiecie, że jak każdego detektywa w dobrym kryminale. Tak, ale w innych książkach jest to budowane na innym szkielecie. Pomysł wykorzystany tutaj jest dużo ciekawszy. Przekonajcie się ;)
Podobała mi się fabuła. Nie była przekombinowana i nie była nudna. Autor umie wykorzystać budowanie schematu - ale w dobrym tego słowa rozumieniu. Kryminał jednak jest dość sztywno ujęty w ramy. Tutaj to był atut.
Książka jest dobrze napisana. Ma dobre tempo. Ja ją pochłonęłam właściwie w jeden dzień.
Jedna rzecz, do której mogłabym się przyczepić, to taka, że główna bohaterka zachowuje się jak rasowy samiec, i to jest trochę niezrozumiałe - autor mógł po prostu w to miejsce stworzyć bohatera mężczyznę i byłoby to bardziej logiczne. Albo dać bohaterce trochę mniej przerysowaną rolę. Wiem, skąd pomysł na taki zabieg, ale myślę, że Connor lekko przesadził.
Mimo to Feniks przerwał moją złą passę słabych książek po kilku tygodniach i za to jestem mu wdzięczna. Mam kolejne dwie książki z cyklu i na pewno do nich sięgnę.

[Stuart Haining · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10. VFM 15%. Very readable with good unusual characters for a change. Not much of a plot but looking forward to more in the series. Worth reading again,

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Connor's Phoenix is a strange book. Well over a half of the book is an enthralling police procedural. The activities of detectives are described in great detail and I suppose with tremendous authenticity as Mr. Connor was involved in numerous homicide prosecutions over the years and was a police advisor in long-term undercover operations. The action takes place in West Yorkshire, which is well described (well, at least from the point of view of a person who has never been there).

The main character of the story is DC Karen Sharpe who acts a lot on her own, often ignoring her supervisors' orders. Because of some traumatic experiences in the past, Ms. Sharpe carries a deeply hidden secret, and is not quite balanced emotionally. Still within the frame of a police procedural, DC Sharpe gets involved in a sort of affair with her supervisor. I am writing "a sort of affair" because one needs to read several well-written pages of boozy dialogue between her and the supervisor to appreciate what is going on between them. Also, of all things there is an absolutely un-erotic but well written "love scene" between the two characters.

So all is well and I am about to rate the book as solid four stars when suddenly the book turns into a fast, so-called "edge of the seat" thriller. The blurb on the cover says "breathless climax". Well, for once the blurb is spot on. Since I do not like fast pace, edge of the seat, breathless climaxes in the plot, my rating goes down.

The characterizations of DC Sharpe and others are rather thin and formulaic. Still, the writing is good to very good. Most of the book is a very solid, detailed police procedural.

Three and almost a half stars.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

PHOENIX - EX
John Connor – 1st book (UK release)
DC Karen Sharpe has a past, one of which not even she seems to have full. When her ex drug squad colleague and his informer are found shot on the moors the safe bet is that a mid league drug dealer had the hit arranged but Sharpe senses otherwise and, realizing she could be part of the mystery, embarks on an attempt to solve the crime without compromising her past. In the end the attempt fails and all comes to a head in a stand off on a lonely misty moor.

As an American, I had a bit of trouble in spots as I don’t have the knowledge of history which might have been helpful. That aside, this was a same-day read for me. The sense of place was excellent and the characters interesting. Karen Sharpe reminds me a bit of Carol O’Connell’s Mallory in that she’s obsessive, violent and compelling. This was an excellent book and I’ve now added Connor to my “must read” list.

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it difficult to work out what rating I wanted to give the book. It was certainly competently and knowledgeably written. The author's personal experience and research shows in the level of detail around police procedures. I also thought that the author handled the narrative shifts between characters extremely well and I was certainly surprised by the full details about Karen's past.

What was more awkward for me was that the book felt dense. This was not an easy read and I did find, to a certain extent, need to force myself to return rather than looking forward to it avidly. It was also, perhaps, a little bogged down by procedure and detail rather than motivation and a faster moving plot.

[Mary J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in a series of books about Detective Constable Karen Sharpe. She is a brilliant, difficult cop assigned to a complicated investigation labeled "Phoenix." The moors, towns and cities of Yorkshire in northern England add atmosphere to this excellent police procedural set in 1996. Although the case begins with the murder of Karen's partner and his informant, Irish politics help to stir the pot. Is Karen Sharpe more than she appears to be? I could hardly put this book down as I read long past my bedtime to find out.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really good mystery with a female lead written by a male. Set in England there are two murders to solve. Drugs, the IRA and other things make this one really interesting. This is the first female detective that is as hard, cynical, and a sexual user of others that I have seen in print. I thought I knew where the book was going, but I did not connect the blatant hint in the beginning pages with the resolution of the mystery. Worth reading another of these if they are around.

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good police thriller set in Bradford England, the start of a series featuring hard but vulnerable DC Karen Sharpe, who has a mysterious past.
I found it hard to keep track of all the different minor police characters so the story was a little confusing and I had to keep referring back to work out what was going on, but the strong characters kept me interested and I'll definitely read the next one.

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of murder/ who dunnit books and this one seemed particularly dark. I understand murders not a particularly cheerful topic but this was still a bit further. I thought the characters in this book were so real. a lot of the time the cop or investigator is almost faultless but Karen Sharpe was very real and very human with a past haunting her every move.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen Sharpe is part of West Yorkshire's CID and is called in to work on the case of a murdered policeman and his snitch. I wanted to like this as it's set in Yorkshire but I found it difficult to care about the main character or the bodies whose deaths she was investigating.

[Robert Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Thriller readers everywhere.

This is an engaging novel which is well crafted by. John Connor. With. Several subplots woven together for the full-on thriller, it is to be recommended as a must for every home library.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

First by this author but will certainly try another.

[Mish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, particularly for this genre. I will look for more from this author.

[Peter Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out like any other detective/thriller and I found it difficult to maintain interest at first, BUT, as the layers to the story began to unfold, I was in!

[Sheena Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book, made me realise that the troubles in Ireland were not that long ago