At the Sharp End . . .

FOURTH DAY: Charlie Fox book eight

Nominated for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel

'Randall Bane smiled, a little sadly, and asked in that utterly calm and reasonable voice, "Can you suggest one salient reason why I shouldn't follow my first instincts and rid myself of you at the earliest opportunity?"'

The cult calling itself Fourth Day appears well-funded and highly jealous of its privacy. Five years ago Thomas Witney went in to try and get the evidence that the cult’s charismatic leader, Randall Bane, was responsible for the death of Witney’s son, Liam. Witney never came out. Now, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, and her partner, Sean Meyer, have been tasked to get Witney out, willing or not. But planning and executing a clean, surgical snatch is only the beginning.

Zoë Sharp will keep you turning pages till dawn

Jeffery Deaver

Five years is a long time to be on the inside and the man who comes out has changed beyond all recognition. Can Witney be trusted when he says he now believes Bane is innocent of the crime and, if he is, who was behind the boy’s demise? And what happened to Witney’s safety net − the people who were supposed to extract him, by force if necessary, after less than a year?

With the dead man’s ex-wife demanding answers, Charlie agrees to go undercover into Fourth Day’s California stronghold. A fast covert op. No real danger for someone with her mindset and training. But Charlie has her own secrets, even from Sean, and she’s not prepared for the lure of Randall Bane, or how easily he will pinpoint her weaknesses . . .

From the author's notebook

The title for FOURTH DAY was a lucky find. I knew the book was going to be set mainly in a cult in California, and I checked carefully to make sure the names I had in mind were not genuinely attached to any real religious sects. As well as something that sounded suitable for a cult, I needed a title that had ‘fourth’ in it somewhere, to satisfy the publisher’s request for sequenced titles. Then I found the following quote in the Book of Genesis (King James Bible) and thought it was perfect:

Once again, I offered a character name in the charity auction at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Baltimore in 2008. The winning bid came from BG Ritts, who asked that I use only parts of her name rather than the whole thing as is, so it would be more like a private joke. It was a challenge, but that’s all part of the fun. I also had an unusual request from someone who really wanted to be the villain of the piece. And if you want to find out who that is, you’ll just have to read the book!