Unsafe

Karen Sharpe #5

by John Connor

On the day Karen Sharpe is promoted to detective sergeant, she loses control and attacks a prisoner she is interrogating. Duly suspended, Karen is investigated and seemingly cleared, but more than a year later the incident still casts a long shadow. When the battered body of a young girl is discovered, it kicks off an inquiry that pushes Karen and a trainee, DC Marcus Roth, too close for comfort, both on and off-duty. The investigation leads to Mary Bradley, currently the carer for a helpless six-year-old boy, Andrew Farrar. As the truth of Mary Bradley's violent past emerges, the inquiry becomes a race against time before Andrew becomes just another one of her child victims. Meanwhile, with the case holding more and more personal resonance for Karen, Marcus discovers that when threatened she has a tendency to ignore the rule book and act on instinct. Before the scores are finally settled Marcus will be wondering whether Karen's legitimate world and Mary Bradley's illegitimate one are really any different.

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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

[Michelle Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a few surprises that I didn't expect as a first time reader of this author. He writes his main female character as a very unlikable character, which is quite unusual for me. I was still invested in the outcome.

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

I've read all five of these now and each time have the same feeling, that the so-called heroine Karen is so awful that you have no sympathy for anything that happens to her, but they are still exciting police thrillers. In this one, set several years after the last book, Karen is living alone with Mairead staying for the Uni holidays, and they both appear to be dating Karen's younger colleague Marcus, who himself is pretty screwed up. They investigate the murder of a young mother who has been horrifically tortured, and discover that the children are living with the likely abusers, who happen to be related to a drug-dealer that Karen has had a run in with previously.
She's also undercover for the secret service again, sleeping with a mysterious businessman who may or may not be a criminal, this isn't really resolved. Karen reveals herself to be a complete psychopath who will use anything or anyone in the pursuit of her own ends, but given that she is motivated more by revenge than any noble purpose - she does want to protect her daughter, but their relationship is fairly twisted, and save the innocent children, but that seems somehow peripheral to her getting the bad guys. The previous books go some way to explaining her twisted psyche, by surely by now she could stop the emotional self-harm with every man she gets close to. There isn't a single likeable character in the book ( Pete Bains barely features and she's screwed him over too so he's all twisty now) and the police are all pretty rotten. A hard book to rate, as while I can't say I enjoyed it, I did speed through it once it got going, and while it isn't particularly clever and the sudden ending annoyed me too, it wasn't your typical British police drama either.
I guess if you liked the previous books it's worth continuing but there's no redemption here, I can't decide if I want to read more or not, it would be nice if they could wrap things up with a decent ending.

[Elizabeth]

Enjoyable thriller with somewhat unlikable characters!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one really made me think. The "ends justify the means" message was extremely annoying; seemed a little too much like artistic cheating. If you can't figure out how to get the mystery solved and the kids saved and the perps doing their time without breaking the law, you've set up a bad story. This may be true to life, as in things like this may actually happen, but that doesn't make it right, and in my opinion it's sloppy mystery writing to use illegal means to attain the hoped-for conclusion. Also very disturbing, with the question raised on the back of the jacket: how are Karen's and Mary's worlds different? Both of these women do whatever they feel like to accomplish the goal they have, making themselves happy. There's not a "good guy" in this book to cheer for, and that weakens the story too much to make it worthwhile.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be warned, there are some harrowing parts to this story! I‘m sure some will not be able to read beyond some of the graphic descriptions of both child abuse and horrific torture of an adult woman.

There is also the moral question that the author raises; as another reviewer puts it "do the ends justify the means?" when we are thinking about police work.

However, much of the story does ring true, and the exciting climax had me gripped.

[Evander · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, I think. I didn't realize it was part of a series when I picked it up while in the hospital, but it didn't seem to make much difference to how I got through the plot, and the people were still well characterized. Good enough crime procedural to pass the time.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

good read