John Connor

The author was a barrister with the Crown Prosecution Service, based in West Yorkshire and handling serious crime in the north of England. During 14 years with the CPS he has been involved in the prosecution of over 40 homicide cases, many undercover drugs enquiries and massive child abuse investigations. He divides his time between West Yorkshire and the family home in Brussels, where he is married with two children.

Nominations

2008: Portico Prize (FALLING)

Books

Unsafe

A woman‘s naked, battered body is found in a motorway lay-by. Karen Sharpe, newly-promoted to Detective Sergeant, is given the case.

Falling 

DC Karen Sharpe is on an emotional precipice. A year and a half ago she was the victim of a terrifying crime. Desperately trying to shelter from its effects she has been working simple fraud and theft cases in West Yorkshire CID. But the brutal murder of a young pregnant woman threatens the precarious wall she has built around herself.

A Child's Game 

Millenium Eve: a man is tortured, set on fire and thrown off the balcony of a high-rise flat in Leeds.  DS Baines, Karen Sharpe’s confidant and lover, is assigned the case.

The Playroom 

A year has passed since Operation Phoenix has come to a bloody close.  DC Karen Sharpe has been moved to something quieter.  The Child Protection Team – policed by female officers and known chauvinistically as `the Shopping Squad’ by her male police colleagues – seems to be the best place for her to keep a low profile. 

Phoenix 

PHOENIX introduces Karen Sharpe, a Detective Constable on the Drugs Squad in West Yorkshire.  Her partner, Phil Leech, and Fiona Mitchell, an informant, are murdered – apparently in a professional hit – and Karen is put on the enquiry team.  While evidence at first seems to point to two local drug dealers, Karen believes there is a far more sinister explanation.  One that relates to her past life, a life she’s been struggling to forget for years.