Second Shot (US Edition)		Click book cover for larger image
			St Martin's US Paperback	St Martin's/Dunne US Hardcover

'Scarily good. Today's best action heroine is back with a bang. Cross your fingers and toes that she survives for future adventures − you definitely want her to.' Lee Child

'Take it from me, getting yourself shot hurts like hell.'

When the latest assignment of ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, ends in a bloody shoot-out in a frozen forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, she's left fighting for her life, with her client dead.

Simone had just become a lottery millionairess but she never lived long enough to enjoy her newfound riches. Charlie was supposed to be keeping Simone's troublesome ex-boyfriend at bay and accompanying her on a trip to New England to track down the father Simone had never really known. A relatively low-risk job.

But Simone's former SAS father has secrets in his past that are about to come back and haunt him, and the arrival of his long-lost daughter may be the catalyst that blows his whole world apart. Was the prospect of getting hold of Simone's money tempting enough to make him engineer her death? And what happens now to Simone's baby daughter, Ella?

With Simone gone, Ella's safety becomes Charlie's main concern. She's determined, despite her injuries, not to let anything happen to the child. But the closer Charlie gets to the truth, the bigger threat she becomes. Only, this time she's in no fit state to protect anyone, least of all herself. . . .

From the author's notebook

For Second Shot, I decided I wanted to do something different with the character of Charlie. She's always been enormously self-sufficient and very physically capable, but I wanted to take that away from her and see how she coped. So, as the title suggests, she gets shot − twice.

One of the difficulties that faces just about every author is coming up with names for characters. Well, at the charity auction in aid of the Youth Literacy Program run by Centro Romano at the Bouchercon mystery convention in Chicago in 2005, I was handed the name for one integral character in Second Shot, after Frances L Neagley bid to be included in the next Charlie Fox book.

I tried to include a few of Frances's personal details, like her love of Tab cola and her support of the San Francisco Giants, and mixed them into the character of the Boston private investigator who's initially tasked with tracking down Simone's missing father. It's a vital role in the book and I was delighted to include her.