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)
UNSAFE (Orion Books, March 2009)
A woman's naked, battered body is found in a motorway lay-by. Karen Sharpe,
newly-promoted to Detective Sergeant, is given the case. She suspects that
one of the young woman's in-laws may be the prime suspect, a family often
at odds with the law, headed by a fearsome matriarch, with a propensity to
violence, who rules the family with fear. But she knows she cannot make a
case of it, not without bending the rules.
And one of her team, DC Marcus Roth, looks on, increasingly
appalled as Karen's methods become more unsound. And he has to make a choice
between the woman with whom he is having an affair, and obeying the law.
FALLING (Orion Books, 15th November 2007)
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. Drafted onto the squad to deal with the victim's
six-year-old child, Karen finds herself overwhelmed by the devastating nature
of the attack. As nightmares from her past start to reoccur, her relationships
with those closest to her - her partner, Pete Bains, and her thirteen year
old daughter, Mairead - begin to crack under the strain. An illicit relationship
with her boss promises excitement and escape - a new beginning without the
trappings of past horrors and guilt. But life has a savage lesson in store
for her. As West Yorkshire erupts in a summer of explosive race riots, events
tip Karen into the depths of the very world she has been fleeing.
World rights: Orion Books
Polish rights: PWRSA
A CHILD'S GAME (Orion Books, 16th February 2006)
Millennium 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.
Anna Hart and her daughter, Rachael are on their way to the airport, to join Anna's lover, wealthy property developer, Nicholas Hanley, for a special Millennium Eve celebration. When a 4x4 rams their taxi off the road, and the pair is kidnapped, thus begins a relentless and terrifying twenty-four hours for mother and daughter. But Anna and Rachael are not all they seem. They are none other than Karen Sharpe, ex-intelligence operative, and her daughter, Mairead, pulled back into the murky world of undercover. She must remain on-mission, even though it threatens not only her sanity and her life, but the well-being of her daughter, Mairead. This time she is in too deep.
World rights: Orion Books
Czech rights: Olympia
German rights: Goldmann
Indonesian rights: Hikmah
Polish rights: PWRSA
Swedish rights: Forum
French rights: Editions J-C Lattès
THE PLAYROOM (Orion Books, 2005)
John's powerful second novel sees the return of Karen Sharpe and it is a tour-de-force.
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.
When a woman with Recovered Memory Syndrome goes to Karen, and claims to have been abused as a child by a well-known local politician, Karen finds herself digging up old crimes - the sexual assault and murder of two girls and the death of an influential and wealthy property developer. As she tries to reopen the old investigation, all resources are diverted when the daughter of a local judge is kidnapped in broad daylight.
World rights: Orion Books
Czech rights: Olympia
German rights: Goldmann
Polish rights: PWRSA
Swedish rights: Forum
French rights: Editions J-C Lattès
"A gripping and unusual police procedural" - Suzanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
PHOENIX (Orion Books, 2003)
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.
Seven years ago Karen Sharpe didn't exist. Seven years ago she was Sinead
Collins, working undercover for the intelligence services as a double agent
within the IRA. She was responsible for uncovering the bomb plot that led
to three IRA members being killed on Gibraltar. Now the terrorists want Karen
Sharpe dead at any cost.
Worldwide rights: Orion Books
US rights: Bloody Brits
Chinese rights: Qun-Zhong
Czech rights: Olympia
Dutch rights: Karakter Uitgevers
German rights: Goldmann
Polish rights: PWRSA
French rights: Editions J-C Lattès
Reviews for John Connor's novels:
"Compelling" - Guardian
"FALLING is a compelling, intelligent thriller."- Financial Times
"Enjoyable, intricate and well-composed." Sunday Telegraph
"John Connor builds upon the promise of A Child's Game with another fine effort."- Evening Herald (Ireland)
"The writing is skilled and the West Yorkshire
background described with authority in a plot based on racial tensions and
their explosive repercussions... not a comfortable reading but a gripping
one" -
Literary Review
"(PHOENIX) A first-rate thriller with a terrific climax" - Sunday Telegraph
"It'll be a rare reader able to put A CHILD'S GAME down after a chapter or so...the police procedural novel is given the kind of spruce up it has been in need of for some time." - Daily Express
"THE PLAYROOM drips authenticity from every pore...Karen Sharpe is a terrific creation." - Tribune
"Soon to be a name on the lips of every crime fiction devotee." Halifax Evening Chronicle
A sixth novel will be published in February 2010.
