First Drop (UK Edition) Published in paperback by Piatkus Books Publication date: February 3 2005 ISBN: 0-7499-3457-3 Published in hardback by Piatkus Books Publication date: January 29 2004 ISBN: 0-7499-0661-8

'I tried to remember my own emotions, to put my actions down to extreme fear, or anger. Anything but the cold calm deliberation with which I'd shot him.'

It should have been an easy introduction to Charlie Fox's new career as a bodyguard. In fact, it should have been almost a working holiday. She just has to look after the gawky fifteen-year-old son of a rich computer programmer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Trey Pelzner is theme park mad and in theory all Charlie has to do is baby-sit him on the rollercoasters.

The last thing anyone expected was a determined attempt to snatch the boy, or that Trey's father and their entire close protection team − including Charlie's boss, Sean Meyer − would disappear off the face of the earth at the same time.

Now somebody out there wants the boy badly and they're prepared to kill anyone who gets in their way. Evading them, in a strange country, takes all the skill and courage Charlie possesses.

As she soon discovers, once you've hit the first drop there's no going back, and you'd better hang on tight because you're in for a wild ride.

From the author's notebook

The idea for First Drop came about through my work as a photo-journalist, which takes me out to cover the big Spring Break event at Daytona Beach in Florida just about every year. The place is crawling with teenagers from all over the States who come to hang out and look at the cool cars and the cooler car stereos. What better place, I thought, for Charlie to try and hide a wanted kid?

The biggest problem writing the book was trying not to make it too American. I had to do it for much of the dialogue but I knew Charlie wouldn't think in American, so I kept having to go back and alter things like 'parking lot' to 'car park' and 'trunk' to 'boot' in her mind.