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I admit to having rolled my eyes when Zoe Sharp shifted her tough girl loner heroine to the States. It all felt a tad like jumping on the fast-moving Lee Child bandwagon. But Charlie Fox is still kicking some very serious arse – and she's finding herself in the middle of personal turmoil as she does so. FIFTH VICTIM has Charlie in a bad place, both mentally and physically. Her lover Sean is in a coma in hospital, and she's been lumbered with a bodyguarding job among the filthy rich of Long Island. There's been a spate of teenagers being kidnapped. They're being returned alive after the ransom has been paid, but with a permanent gruesome reminder of what happened to them. No-nonsense Charlie finds herself dealing with the archetypal spoiled brats in the bizarre world of the idle rich. At the same time, she has to deal with her fears for Sean and her relationship with boss Parker Armstrong. FIFTH VICTIM starts with a bang and carries on at high octane pace for the next 400 pages, rather like Charlie's beloved motorbike. Sharp's a fiendish plotter, with double, triple and quadruples crosses, but also knows when to ease back on the gas. And what sets her apart from a number of the wham-bam thriller writers is the characterisation – these are all immensely believable characters – and the continuing story arc for Charlie across the books. The private life angst is important, but never unbalances the story. So what you've got with FIFTH VICTIM is a plot that defines page-turner. You may well guess the baddie – I did and quite often I don't – but it won't matter in the least, as the set pieces are so vivid. The ending comes out of left-field like a punch to the stomach. But in the event, a series I've always enjoyed appears to have acquired a new impetus from its change of location and – whisper it quietly, given my affection for Jack Reacher – is aging considerably better than the big man. Zoe Sharp's books are well worth searching out if you haven't found them – and they'd transfer to the big screen like a dream. And at least Tom Cruise couldn't muscle in and play Charlie …! § Sharon Wheeler is a UK-based journalist, writer and lecturer.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2011
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