KILLER INSTINCT - Zoe Sharp

He thought she was an easy target. He was wrong.

After she's kicked out of the army, Charlie Fox teaches women to defend themselves against rapists and murderers-exactly like the predator who comes looking for her.

Charlie was no good at being the nice girl her parents wanted, so she joined the British Army and acquired a whole new set of skills. And just when she thought she'd found her calling, she was dishonoured, disgraced, discharged.

Now she puts those painful, hard-won lessons to good use, teaching self-defence to battered women in a local refuge-passing on the finer points of breaking bones when running simply isn't an option.

Her abilities come in even handier when she takes a security job on the doors at the New Adelphi, a hot nightclub with a charismatic owner.

And they come in handiest of all when her work brings her to the attention of a vicious rapist who's begun women at both the nightclub and the refuge. Will those skills be enough to save her-and those she cares about most?

If you like strong independent 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. The fantastic debut novel in a series filled with twists and turns. Highly recommended by readers, who can't wait for the next instalment. Revised and updated edition

Author's Note:

This is Book #1 in the long-running Charlie Fox series. If you want to find out her backstory-how and where she discovered her true killer instinct-this is the place to start. 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.