by John Connor Orion, HK$105
The thirst for gritty police procedurals set in Britain seems impossible to slake. P.D. James begat Colin Dexter begat Minette Walters begat Ian Rankin begat Val McDermid and so on, until someone far in the future closes off this crime scene once and for all. Falling sits comfortably in this genre. DC Karen Sharpe is a tough but vulnerable policewoman with a specific procedural talent: a gift for communicating with children. So when a pregnant Asian woman is stabbed to death in front of her critically wounded husband, Sharpe is called in to talk to the only witness, the couple's six-year-old daughter, Jana. As the investigation shuttles between London and Yorkshire, Karen is haunted by her own past: a single mother trying to cope with a difficult teenaged daughter and even more difficult middle-aged boyfriend, Sharpe was investigated after her last case for (allegedly) shooting a suspect. Although the man is dead, he continues to ruin her life. John Connor writes well and with sympathy for his characters - not only Sharpe, but her alter ego Ronnie Shepherd and the bereaved Hussein family. Nevertheless, he also proves there really isn't anything new under the sun.
