Product Description

Charlie Fox, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, has a new client: a lottery millionairess mother who is looking for protection from a nuisance ex. When Simone decides to escape his unwanted attentions and the scrutiny of the press by going to America, it should make Charlie's job easier, what with the main character she is protecting her from out of the picture. But Charlie has some very bad memories from her last time in the US and from the moment they arrive Simone seems to undermine all of Charlie's measures for her security. As the action culminates in a shoot-out in the snow, Charlie struggles to get to the bottom of what is jeopardising her assignment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #284902 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Today's best action heroine is back with a bang. Cross your fingers and toes that she survives for future adventures - you'll definitely want her to.' LEE CHILD'If you don't like ZoA" Sharp there's something seriously wrong with you. Go live in a cave and get the hell out of my gene pool'STUART MACBRIDE

Ken Bruen
'Charlie Fox is fast becoming the must-read heroine of mystery...
The narrative moves like a banshee on speed...with a marvellous twist that
I never saw coming... This is mystery on the grand scale and yet so simply
written that you nearly miss how cleverly it is constructed'

Stephen Booth
'Zoë Sharp is one of the brightest of the new generation of
British crime writers'

Customer Reviews

Second Shot
I picked up this book on a whim at my local bookshop one day at lunch and have only just gotten around to reading it. It's my first Zoe Sharp book and although I don't think it will be my last, I dont think I'll be rushing out to buy another any time soon.
'Second Shot' follows the story of Charlie Fox who is a hired bodyguard assigned to be sent overseas to America to help protect Simone Kerse and her 4 year old daughter, Ella. Simone and her daughter have recently won the lottery and are now multi millionnaires, Simone, fearing for both hers, and her daughters safety travel to America to elude Ella's father and hopefully hunt down Simone's long lost father.
Theres a lot of action and the writing is good along with the pace, however, the only downside is that it all seems a bit far fetched. It's hard to believe and therefor the quality suffers.
Worth the read for some quick thrills but theres nothing new here.

Going downhill fast
I have enjoyed the Charlie Fox sequence of novels since they first came out but I am becoming disheartened by the formulaic nature now Charlie is a bodyguard. I am particularly concerned that all she cares about is what Sean thinks of her. Where is the Charlie of the earlier novels? She may have had her problems but she could deal with things without Sean saving the day every time with Charlie lying in a crumpled heap. I don't find the addition of lots of hardware (guns) an attraction, and this also means that the books are increasingly set in the USA. I'd rather motorbikes in the UK any day. Unfortunately as Second Shot ended with Sean's firm setting up an American branch this seems increasingly unlikely.

Over-the-top plot, poorly done
SECOND SHOT (Lic. Invest-Charlie Fox-London, Boston, New Hampshire-Cont) - Poor
Sharp, Zoë - 6th in series
Thomas Dunne Books, 2007, US Hardcover - ISBN: 0312358954

First Sentence: Take it from me, getting yourself shot hurts like hell.

Simone Kerde won multi-millions in the lottery and her greatest wish is to get to know the father that left them when she was very young. She is being hounded by the press and feels threatened by her ex-boyfriend, the father of her 4-year-old daughter.

Private bodyguard, Charlie Fox, is hired to take Simone and her daughter to Boston, where a private investigator, where they meet Simone's father. What should have been a joyous reunion turns deadly with Charlie a target.

Sharp always knows just how to grasp the reader's attention with the opening line. However, exciting though it may be, opening the story with a climatic scene and then telling the main story in flashback is not a technique of which I am particularly fond.

Sharp also used foreshadowing, which I find unnecessary and annoying. I prefer to have the story build as it otherwise seems a bit of a cheat. But that's just me.

There were many more things which bothered me about this book than that. Sean, for being Charlie's lover, seemed very cavalier about Charlie's concerns. Many of Charlie's actions and decisions seemed incredibly stupid for someone who is a professional bodyguard.

For me, the best thing was the sense of place when the book was in Boston and North Conway, New Hampshire. These are locations I know well and it was fun to visit them with Charlie.

That, however, was not enough to make up for, what was otherwise, an over-the-top plot that left me almost as cold as a New England winter.