Phoenix - Hardcover

Connor, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752857746 ISBN 13: 9780752857749

Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ), 2003

Synopsis

The 8th April 1996 was a bad day for Karen Sharpe, the eighth anniversary of something so deeply buried she had hoped to forget it ever happened. But each year it was there again, pushing to get out. And each year she tried to cope in whatever way she could. Most years she turned to booze. But this year that wasn't going to work. Sometime after midnight Phil Leech, her DS and partner on Operation Anvil, is executed in a military style killing, whilst Fiona Mitchell, his pretty 21 year old informant, ends up face up on a South Pennine moor with bullets through her face and chest. Karen had been due to meet both when drink and memories intervened, preventing her from getting there. The police operation to find Leech's killer - Phoenix - is one of the largest in the history of West Yorkshire. Detective Chief Superintendent John Munro is the Senior Investigating Officer. He thinks two middle tier drug dealers - Coates and Varley - are the most likely suspects. Fiona Mitchell was Coates' girlfriend and both men were the targets on Anvil. There is even a rumour of a deeper relationship between Leech and Mitchell. But Karen isn't sure.Odd details keep pulling her back, forcing her to look inside herself and examine her own unclear memories. As Munro's enquiry focuses its efforts on Coates and Varley, Karen follows her instincts to different and more disturbing clues, embedded in her own secret history. She must confront her past and act quickly if she is to prevent the seed of destruction planted eight years before from wreaking devastating and brutal consequences.

About this title

About the Author

John Connor became a barrister in 1988 and spent fifteen years working for the Crown Prosecution Service in London and West Yorkshire. He was involved in over thirty homicide prosecutions and provided advice to the police in numerous long term undercover operations. John was born in England and now lives with his wife and two children, and divides his time between Belgium, London and Yorkshire.

From Publishers Weekly

Connor introduces a tough Yorkshire female cop in his engrossing debut. After joining a fellow detective and the girlfriend of a known drug dealer for one too many drinks at a pub one evening, Det. Constable Karen Sharpe wakes up with a hangover the next morning to discover that she must identify the bodies of her companions, shot the previous night. Det. Chief Supt. John Munro, who heads the investigation, is convinced the case is tied to a botched drug deal. Sharpe, a wildcard who's used to following her own rules, pursues a different angle. She soon realizes that the murders may be linked to her own checkered past as an undercover operative. While U.S. readers may have difficulty at first keeping the various British and Irish political factions straight, Sharpe will remind many of a young Jane Tennison—stubborn, angrily vulnerable, and with some of the best instincts on the force. (Sept.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0752857746
• ISBN 13: 9780752857749
• Binding: Hardcover