KILLER INSTINCT TO FOURTH DAY

From KILLER INSTINCT  to FOURTH DAY

By Zoe Sharp

 Zoe Sharp created the British female equivalent to Lee Child’s American hero Jack Reacher.  It is exciting to discover a female protagonist who not only measures up to her macho male counterparts, but who grows and develops through the series. 

As a role model for budding crime writers I think Zoe Sharp is one of the best.  Over the course of the Charlie Fox series she has honed the craft of writing and is now at her peak.  Her characterisation is most decidedly three dimensional; her plots are exciting, believable and completely hold their own against any of the American writers. 

From KILLER INSTINCT we learn Charlie’s backstory of rape, betrayal, dismissal from the army and estrangement from her parents.  At this point she employed as a bouncer and self defence instructor and with relentless determination she struggles to overcome her past.  Sharp presents us with a sensuous, loyal, intelligent and vulnerable young woman who is slowly letting go of her past. 

                     In RIOT ACT, Sharp carefully unpeels another layer of  Charlie’s character by introducing us to Sean Meyer, her ex lover from her traumatic army days.  This demonstrates both Charlie's strength and her vulnerability.      

 However it is in HARD KNOCKS that an undercover Charlie, embarking on a body guard training school demonstrates the full extent of her skills from combat to weaponry.  We also appreciate the compassion she feels for her fellow trainees and how uncomfortably jealous she still feels around Sean; Nothing like a bit of love interest to spice things up between armed combat and car chases!
  

When in FIRST DROP Charlie is forced to kill in order to protect her client we see her as a true professional, albeit it one with a conscience.  It doesn’t come easy for Charlie to accept her capacity for violence, especially with her parent’s disapproval hanging over her like the proverbial bucket of shit on a wobbly rock. 

 This is why her loyalty to her friends is unlimited and why in ROAD KILL it is inevitable that she jumps in, regardless of her personal doubts, to avenge the motorcycle death of her closest friend, thankfully regaining some of her lost confidence in the process.                                                                           

    SECOND SHOT  puts our hero at a real physical disadvantage when she is shot but still determined to complete her job.  She has difficulty accepting her physical limitations and pushes herself to extreme lengths.  She also however has to deal with her emotional vulnerability after her father leaves her in no doubt of his disapproval of her lifestyle. 

By this time we are well aware of this rocky relationship, so Sharp, in an interesting twist develops this theme in THIRD STRIKE.  It was this book that, for me, raised Zoe Sharp from being a bloody good writer with a damn good female character to being a  bloody excellent writer with a fantastically complex, flawed, skilled and most importantly, totally believable character: LET’S HERE IT FOR THE GIRLS!

THIRD STRIKE brings Charlie, Sean and her parents together in the confines of a road trip to protect her parents and vindicate her father.  Sharp, in this novel took me from laughter (an awkward discussion between father and daughter about a rather boisterous overheard sex – eek cringe!) to frustration at their wrong assumptions about the others motives and finally to tears at the very end when Charlie makes a momentous discovery that left me wondering what her next novel would hold.

Well, as expected FOURTH DAY held a range of drama, adrenalin, poignancy and humour.  Charlie is no longer the same Charlie from Killer Instinct; Her self confidence, independence and professionalism have grown and In this book she is able to ignore both her lover Sean and her male bosses instructions to follow a course of action she believes to be right.

   

I have yet to read the next two Charlie Fox novels FIFTH VICTIM and DIE EASY , but I’m hoping Santa will see my Amazon wish list