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Monday, July 27, 2009
SET in West Yorkshire, Unsafe starts with a terrified little boy.
Andrew Farrah is frightened of Mary, who is supposed to be caring for him. He’s terrified of his father, Martin too; and with good reason. The half Pakistani six-year-old is clearly being battered; and worse, his mother, Rebecca, has disappeared.
Then a woman is found, dumped, naked on a road. She has been tortured, and killed. Soon the jigsaw links that woman to the little boy.
Someone in that house of horrors clearly killed Rebecca, but who, exactly? Was it the foul mouthed Mary Bradley? Was it her violent husband John, her son Martin, Rebecca’s husband, or Martin’s half-witted brother?
DI Karen Sharpe is put onto the case.
A flint-hearted woman, damaged by her past in Northern Ireland, she is determined to break the criminals, even if that means bending the rules. I found it hard to like Karen; but then I haven’t read the four previous crime novels in which she has appeared.
Her creator, John Connor knows his stuff. He became a barrister in 1988, and spent 15 years working for the Crown Prosecution before turning his hand to writing.
He has garnered praise for his previous violent thrillers that touch on social issues.
If Karen appears to have no feelings, her younger counterpart, DC Marcus Roth makes up for it. He is sleeping with Karen’s daughter Mairead, but is lusting after Karen.
The boy whose childhood was ruined by his brains – he was packed off to Oxford University at 14 – has an Oedipus Complex.
Feeling irrational guilt, because his twin brother was born brain damaged, he sometimes wishes the tables had been turned.
The murder story is easy to follow. But the interconnecting criminal gang, and their histories make things more complex for those readers who are not familiar with the rest of the series. That said, it’s a page turner.
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