Unsafe (Detective Karen Sharpe Mystery) [Paperback]

John Connor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Detective Karen Sharpe Mystery | Publication Date: November 1, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The dysfunctional personal lives of the lead police characters overshadow Connor's fifth novel featuring West Yorkshire Det. Sgt. Karen Sharpe (after 2007's Falling). Sharpe must contend with a trainee, Det. Constable Marcus Roth, who as a child prodigy was socially warped by being accelerated in school and thus placed with much older peers. An unrepentant ladies' man, the 28-year-old Roth, despite being attracted to Sharpe, has few compunctions about getting involved with her teenage daughter. Sharpe, for her part, is sleeping with a Pakistani “Category-A” crook, whom the security services wanted her to get close to as a means of learning about his brother. Sharpe soon crosses the line between playing a part and getting emotionally involved. The soap-operaish background tends to obscure the main plot line, the investigation of a young woman's brutal murder. (Dec.)
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Review

"Compelling."  —Guardian

"A first-rate thriller with a terrific climax."  —Sunday Telegraph

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752885243
• ISBN-13: 978-0752885247
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,950,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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