cover image The Opposite of Mercy

The Opposite of Mercy

Tom Winship. Orion (IPG dist.), $32.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7528-8525-4

British ex-soldier Paul Curtis is at loose ends in London after his recent return from service in Pakistan at the outset of this uninspiring contemporary thriller from Winship (author of Phoenix and four other Karen Sharp mysteries written under his John Connor pseudonym). Mysterious figures bearing official IDs pull Curtis away from his security job and bring him to the home of Phil Rathmore, a titled Tory bigwig, who reveals that he’s the real father of Curtis’s childhood friend, Chris Napier. Curtis, who hasn’t seen Napier in years, accepts money to refresh the friendship and keep an eye out for Napier’s safety. Meanwhile, lawyer Lara Durrani, Napier’s girlfriend, is put in the middle of a money-laundering scheme by her drug-dealing brother, Pasha, the subject of an intense counterterrorist probe, because of the eventual beneficiaries of the laundered proceeds—al-Qaeda. As with the Sharp books, soap operatic story lines tend to overwhelm the efforts at depicting gritty, real-world law enforcement. Cookie-cutter characters don’t help. (Dec.)