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HARD KNOCKS
by Zoe Sharp
Piatkus, March 2003
320 pages
18.99 GBP
ISBN: 0749906219


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Charlie Fox has been burned out of her apartment and is reluctantly spending Christmas with her parents. Sean Meyer sends his assistant to ask Charlie for help. Another ex-Army buddy, Kirk Salter, has been killed in Germany and Sean feels responsible since he was the one who sent Kirk to Germany.

Sean and Charlie have a history, and she's still trying to sort out what happened. She has a choice here...spend more time with her parents and never see Sean again or go to Germany and try and sort out what happened at Einsbaden Manor during the training course. Since Charlie has more or less been drifting since her discharge, teaching the odd course in self-defense and doing some security work (KILLER INSTINCT), taking the odd house-sitting position (RIOT ACT), she reckons she has nothing to lose by taking Sean's offer of a course in close body guard work in exchange for trying to find out what was actually happening.

Once in Germany, the basic-training like course brings flashbacks to Charlie but she suppresses them, and the nightmare memories, to try and do her best to learn what the school has to offer and what Major Gilbey and the instructors at the school are trying to hide. What part does the staff if Einsbaden Manor have in the series of kidnappings of the children of prominent Europeans, and who killed Kirk Salter.

I don't think that there is an equivalent protagonist to Lancaster's Charlie Fox in US crime fiction. She rides a motorcycle. She can protect herself. She is recovering from an horrific incident in her past. And she is willing to move on. The next book in the series is due in January. When I met Ms. Sharp, she was on her way to Florida to do research for it. Rev up your bike and get ready to go for a ride.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, July 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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