The Playroom by
John Connor
pbk out June 05
(Orion)
at £10.99
This is the third new novel I've read in as many weeks where the plot is
based on paedophilia - and the second where young girls are incarcerated in
boxes or holes in the ground.
This is a sequel to John Connor's Phoenix and it helps if the reader has read
that one first, as there is so much common ground in the complex plot.
The action takes place in West Yorkshire and is a police procedural novel
revolving around Detective Constable Karen Sharpe, a six-foot-two amazon
who seems never to have heard of discipline or teamwork. She was formerly
a covert operative in Ulster and though it's a very long story, has been
placed in Yorkshire for her own safety, though she never ceases to draw
attention to herself. In this book, a judge's daughter has been abducted and
during the frantic search, old allegations appear against the local MP. Dirty
tricks abound, the Senior Investigating Officer cracks up, major figures
commit suicide and Karen ploughs on regardless, eventually suffering
multiple injuries that should have killed her twice over, before a climax like
that in Hamlet.
The author is a lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service in Leeds and
knows both his law and his geography of the area very well. A compelling
story, even if on the very edge of credibility.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
The Playroom by
John Connor
