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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riot Act, 1 May 2003
This is the sort of book that makes you wish for an attack of amnesia so that you could read it again and enjoy all its twists and surprises afresh. Zoe Sharp has a wicked turn of phrase and the ability to create characters of intriguing depth. Charlie Fox is an enigma. The front she presents to the world is as tough as her old disgarded army boots but it conceals a very private vulnerability. Riot Act opens with Charlie house-sitting for a friend who lives on an estate in Lancaster, a simple enough favour on the face of it. But rivalries flare up. People - including Charlie -get hurt. Some of them die. When Charlie realises she is on the killer's shopping list she thinks things couldn't get any worse...as you would. And then an old friend turns up to prove her wrong. This book is packed with twists and surprises. Just when you think you've sussed it, Zoe Sharp throws in another loop that knocks all your best guesses into a cocked hat. Read it and enjoy. Incidentally, if you're a dog-lover, this is the bizz.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Involving and enjoyable crime novel, 28 Dec 2010
I enjoyed this book very much. It is the first Zoë Sharp I've read and it certainly won't be the last. It's the second in her Charlie Fox series, but you don't need to have read Killer Instinct first to enjoy this: we are given all the necessary background in a very skilful way which never feels like clumsy exposition.
The book is well-written and very well paced. Charlie Fox, having been thrown out of the Army Special Forces, becomes involved in dealing with gang crime and vigilantes on an estate in Lancaster where she lives. The plot is largely plausible, although it does require a bit of suspension of disbelief from time to time - for example, the flimsy reasons for not going to the police but investigating privately - but the story is involving and exciting enough for this not to matter, and it is good to have a decent story set in a believable, everyday situation.
Charlie Fox is an engaging protagonist, there is a decent smattering of humour and a good mix of tension, action and thoughtfulness. I would warmly recommend this book as an exciting, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping read - and the series keeps getting better, 15 Jan 2011
This review is from: Riot Act (Hardcover)
I love the Charlie Fox series and while this is the second book to feature Charlie, it's the first real book of the series featuring the troubled relationship between Charlie herself and her ex-lover Sean Meyer. Ex-Special Forces trainee, Charlie is a brilliant mix of toughness and vulnerability, but not at all in a typical or expected way. Here she is house-sitting for a friend in Lancaster when she gets drawn into urban violence on a run-down estate - only there's far more going on here than meets the eye.
I have to say that I prefer the later books where Charlie is a bodyguard. But even here, Sharp shows herself an astute story-teller, especially good at characterisation, and twisted, brutal plots. These aren't books that are gory in a serial-killer way, but they certainly don't shy away from violence, bloodshed and death.
Despite that, the heart of these books are Charlie herself and her tense and tormented relationship with the enigmatic and utterly compelling Sean Meyer.
I've given this only four stars since there are points at which we can feel Sharp learning her craft - but the upside is, the later books just keep getting better.
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