S is for – Stalking Charlie Fox | I choose how I will spend the rest of my life

S is for – Stalking Charlie Fox

One of my favourite authors, Zoe Sharp and her protagonist Charlie Fox,
can have me sitting and reading for hours.
I have read all the books in the series.
And I am not the only follower of this author and her characters.
Lee Child said, “If Jack Reacher were a woman, he’d be Charlie Fox.”
High praise indeed.
Now you can read what I was doing in 2012.

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STALKING CHARLIE FOX

Posted on July 19, 2012 | 11 Comments | Edit

“If you stay involved with Sean Meyer you will end up killing again,”
my father said. “and next time, Charlotte, you might not get away with it.”
Charlie Fox’s father in Road Kill.

Yes, I am still reading and following the adventures of my favourite heroine Charlie Fox. I have somehow got them out of order, but as I have already said, each novel stands alone and one doesn’t have to have read any of the others in the series.

In Road Kill we find Charlie involved with a group of bikers who are really so innocent that they get themselves involved with an unscrupulous gang of thieves.

Charlie is taking time out to sort out her life and her feelings for her boss, Sean Meyer.. She is refurbishing her parents’ cottage and instead of overseeing the refurbishment is doing much of the hard work herself. Into this scene comes a friend to advise that a really close friend has been seriously injured in a motor cycle accident and a second person has died.

Leaving the demolition work unfinished she rushes to Clare her friend’s side and is relieved to find that the dead man is not Clare’s partner but some other man. Jacob, Clare’s partner is away in Ireland on a buying tour for his business. Stories about the accident flow around; there is bad feeling towards Charlie from the biking group and when Charlie is brutally attacked by Jacob’s ex-wife and her strongman thug things begin to get out of hand.

Clare is very vague and secretive about what she was doing with this other man and how she came to be riding with him on his motorbike instead of riding her own beloved bike. Gossip has Jacob’s son involved with Clare (surprising to Charlie given how close Clare and Jacob are) and Charlie decides to investigate further. She learns that there is to be a trip to Ireland for the motorcycle group and is determined to become part of the trip, partly because Clare and Jacob have asked her to look after Jacob’s son, but also because nobody will or can give them a straight answer as to why the trip has to go ahead even after the tragedy. After proving herself capable of riding and keeping up with them, she is allowed to join them. Sean is also allowed to go along after he proves to the group that he would be a good person to have along.

I won’t go into more detail as it would spoil the story for any one else but it is well written (of course) and has a good plot, with our heroine (is there a better word for this) coming up trumps once again.

Needless to say, this novel is full of motorcycles (both Zoe and Charlie’s favoured form of transport), guns, shooting, good guys and plenty of bad guys; innocents abroad who really should not be allowed out on their own, murder, mayhem and some good love scenes between Charlie and Sean. I wonder where this relationship is going.

So as you can see a jolly good read and again, one that I recommend.

And I still have the next two books in the series sitting patiently waiting for me to get to them. So look out for more on this feisty woman, her lover and her exploits.