RIOT ACT - Zoe Sharp

She is supposed to be dog-sitting, not leading the resistance, but what's a girl to do when her housing estate turns into an urban battlefield?

No good deed goes unpunished. That's what Charlie Fox discovers when she agrees to dog-sit for a friend, only to find the woman's housing estate being terrorised by violent gangs.

Desperate and frightened, the residents have hired a freelance "security" firm, whose bully-boy tactics aren't a whole lot more appealing.

With her motorbike on hand and a big dog by her side, Charlie 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.

To save the locals of the Lavender Gardens estate-not to mention her own skin-Charlie's going to have to learn to trust somebody. And that's going to be a tough lesson. Trust has never been her strong suit.

If you like strong yet believable female protagonists, who will take down the bad guys without hesitation but who are still human enough to care, then Charlie Fox is definitely for you. Readers have found this second instalment well-written, gritty, and hard to put down. A real page turner. *Revised and updated edition

Author's Note:

This is Book #2 in the long-running Charlie Fox series. If you want to find out her backstory-how she reconnected with Sean Meyer after their time in the Army-this is where to look. If you're more interested in Charlie's career as a close-protection operative, then I'd recommend you begin with either Book #3, HARD KNOCKS, when she's undergoing bodyguard training at a school in Germany. Or when her new job starts with a bang in Book #4, FIRST DROP, when she and her teenage charge find themselves on the run in Florida.