This short story collection follows ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard Charlie Fox from a disused viaduct in Lancashire and the wilds of Dartmoor, via swanky Long Island and a spa hotel in the Catskill Mountains, to the war-torn Middle East. Danger and thrills go along for the ride.

[Scroll down for tasters of the stories]

1. A Bridge Too Far

2. Postcards From Another Country

3. Served Cold

4. Off Duty

5. Truth And Lies

6. Across The Broken Line

7. Kill Me Again Slowly

8. Risk Assessment

9. Hounded

The post Fox Five Reloaded appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

‘Before she was a bodyguard, she was a soldier…’

Charlie Fox is one of the toughest cookies you could ever hope to meet. Word of advice, though—don’t try to get her to talk about her time in the military. Let’s just say it didn’t end well.

Before her fall from grace, Charlie was considered a rising star. She made it through one of the toughest challenges any soldier would have to face—Selection for Special Forces. The nightmare that came next is a story I’ve explored in scenes and flashbacks throughout the series.

But what happened before that? Back when Charlie was a young soldier in the regular army, on patrol in Afghanistan, being kept away from the front line fighting as stipulated by the regulations concerning female personnel. What did she do back then to prove her worth as a specialised soldier, under life-and-death conditions? How did she earn her chance?

That is a story I’ve never told.

Until now.

The post TRIAL UNDER FIRE appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

ROAD KILL: #05—Live fast. Die soon. Not if she can help it.
Charlie Fox is back in the UK, caught up in the aftermath of a fatal motorcycle ‘accident’ involving her closest friends. The only way to find out what really happened is to infiltrate a group of illegal road racers hell-bent on living fast and dying young. By the time she finds out what’s at stake, it might be too late to stop them all becoming road kill…

SECOND SHOT: #06—She’d die to save a child. Would she kill for one?
Charlie Fox’s latest assignment is to protect Simone and her daughter Ella from the attentions of an ex-boyfriend. Simone’s refusal to accept new security measures puts them in danger. After a bloody shoot-out in a frozen New England forest, Charlie is fighting for her life. Her only thought is to keep Ella safe. But Charlie’s in no fit state to protect anyone, least of all herself…

The post CHARLIE FOX: BODYGUARD appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

KILLER INSTINCT: #01—He thought she was an easy target. He was wrong.
Charlie Fox is teaching self-defence to battered women. When her work brings her to the attention of a vicious rapist, will her skills be enough to save herself—and those she cares about most?

RIOT ACT: #02—Fear kept people down. Until she helped them make a stand.
Charlie Fox is supposed to be dog-sitting for a friend, not leading the resistance, but what’s a girl to do when the woman’s housing estate turns into an urban battlefield? She is more than able to take care of herself, until a ghost from her Army past comes calling. Someone she was trying very hard to forget…

HARD KNOCKS: #03—The British Army let her go. Big mistake.
Charlie Fox didn’t really care who shot dead her ex-army comrade during a bodyguard course in Germany. But when old flame Sean Meyer asks her to go undercover at the elite training school and find out what happened, she just can’t refuse.

She expected training to be tough, but will she graduate from this school of hard knocks alive?

The post CHARLIE FOX: THE EARLY YEARS appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

‘The dead man had not gone quietly … There was a time when I would have given everything I owned to be the one responsible for that.’

Former Special Forces soldier-turned-bodyguard Charlie Fox will never forget the men who put a brutal end to her military career, but she vowed a long time ago she would not go looking for them.

Now she doesn’t have a choice.

Her boss and former lover, Sean Meyer, is missing in Iraq where one of those men was working as a private security contractor. When the man’s butchered body is discovered, Charlie fears that Sean may be pursuing a twisted vendetta on her behalf.

Sean’s partner in their exclusive New York close-protection agency needs this dealt with—fast and quiet—before everything they’ve worked for is in ruins. He sends Charlie to the Middle East with very specific instructions.

At one time Charlie thought she knew Sean better than she knew herself, but it seems he’s turned into a violent stranger. As the trail grows more bloody, Charlie realises that unless she can get to Sean first, the hunter may soon become the hunted.

The post FOX HUNTER: #12 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

“The last thing they’ll do is get us out of here. Can’t afford to. We could tell too many stories. Stories they want to stay buried with us…”

A major earthquake sees ex-Special Forces soldier-turned-bodyguard Charlie Fox on a transport plane headed for the scene of devastation. Tasked as security advisor to the specialist team at the centre of relief efforts, Charlie knows the team members put themselves in constant danger as a matter of course. Her job is to find out what kind of other risks they’re prepared to take.

Her predecessor conveniently died while investigating rumours that the team were stealing from the dead. Now she’s been instructed to quietly uncover whether his death was as accidental as the official verdict suggests. Because, if it was an accident, why is everyone so obviously lying to her?

Charlie must seek answers amid the shifting and lawless landscape, before there are more than just earthquake victims buried in the rubble…

The post ABSENCE OF LIGHT: #11 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

In the sweating heat of Louisiana, former Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, faces her toughest challenge yet.

Professionally, she’s at the top of her game, but her personal life is another story. Her lover, bodyguard Sean Meyer, has woken from a gunshot-induced coma with his memory in tatters. It seems that piecing back together the relationship they shared is proving harder for him than relearning the intricacies of the close-protection business.

Working with Sean again was never going to be easy for Charlie, either, but a celebrity fundraising event in aid of still-ravaged areas of New Orleans should have been the ideal opportunity for them both to take things nice and slow. Until, that is, they find themselves thrust into the middle of a war zone.

When an ambitious robbery explodes into a deadly hostage situation, the motive may be far more complex than simple greed. Somebody has a major score to settle, and Sean is part of the reason. Only trouble is, he doesn’t remember why.

And when Charlie finds herself facing a nightmare from her own past, she realises she can’t rely on Sean to watch her back. This time, she’s got to fight it out on her own.

The post DIE EASY: #10 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

View video of song ‘The Victim Wont Be Me’ by Beth Rudetsky.

Protecting a wayward heiress on Long Island—playground of New York’s wealthy elite—is the perfect assignment for bodyguard Charlie Fox. With her partner in a coma and his shooter on the loose, she desperately needs the distraction.

Staying close to Dina Willner at parties aboard luxury yachts, glittering events at the local country club, and out horse-riding along the exclusive sands is all part of the job for Charlie. But the reckless behaviour of her thrill-seeking client will put them both in real danger. The kidnappers who ransomed four other young heirs somehow outwitted any security.

Now the only way Charlie can stay ahead of the game is to uncover the rich and untouchables’ darkest secrets. The kind that can destroy a future—or bury someone deep. With her client’s life on the line and the clock ticking, Charlie faces an impossible choice between justice and revenge.

The post FIFTH VICTIM: #09 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

“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 known as Fourth Day is well-funded and guards its privacy. Five years ago, Thomas Witney went in to gather evidence that the cult’s charismatic leader, Randall Bane, was responsible for the death of Witney’s son. Witney never came out.

Now, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, agrees to go undercover into Fourth Day’s California stronghold. A fast covert op—no real danger for someone with her mind-set and training. But Charlie is not prepared for the lure of Randall Bane, nor how easily he will pinpoint her weaknesses…

The post FOURTH DAY: #08 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..

‘I was running when I saw my father kill himself. Not that he jumped off a tall building or stepped in front of a truck but—professionally, personally—what I watched him do was suicide.’

Now settled in New York City and working for an exclusive close-protection agency, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard Charlie Fox is shocked to see an interview with her father on the morning TV news. A prominent UK orthopædic surgeon, he is under investigation after the death of a patient.

Despite the rift between Charlie and her parents, she can’t stand by and allow him to become a scapegoat, however much he tries to reject her offers of help. Joined by her fellow bodyguard and lover, Sean Meyer, she encounters some of the most ruthless criminals of her career as she seeks to exonerate her father.

She may have felt like killing him on numerous occasions in the past. But she’ll be damned if she’ll let somebody else do the job.

The post THIRD STRIKE: #07 appeared first on Zoë Sharp: Author of the Charlie Fox series and the Lakes Thriller series..