Third Strike by Zoe Sharp is the seventh book in the “Charlie Fox” mystery/thriller series. Publisher: Minotaur Books, October 2008
‘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.’
The last person that ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, ever expected to self-destruct was her own father, an eminent consultant surgeon. But when Charlie unexpectedly sees him admitting to gross professional misconduct on a New York news program, she can’t just stand by and watch his downfall.
That’s not easy when Richard Foxcroft, always cold towards his daughter, rejects her help at every turn. The good doctor has never made any secret of his disapproval of Charlie’s choice of career − or her relationship with her boss, Sean Meyer. And now, just as Charlie and Sean are settling in to their new life in the States, Foxcroft seems determined to go down in a blazing lack of glory, taking his daughter and everyone she cares about down with him.
But those behind Foxcroft’s fall from grace have not bargained on Charlie’s own ruthless streak. A deadly professional who’s always struggled to keep her killer instinct under control, this time she has very personal reasons for wanting to neutralise the threat to her reluctant principal.
And when the threads of the conspiracy reach deep into a global corporation with almost unlimited resources, the battle is going to be bitter and bloody . . .
Charlie Fox, professional bodyguard, having recently re-located to New York is surprised to discover that her father is being hounded by the press for causing the death of a patient due to drunkenness and negligent. Charlie seeks the truth only to find out something is amiss. She learns that her mother is being held hostage and her father is being blackmailed at the risk of losing his reputation. Charlie, Sean and her parents race across the country to take the enemies out and along the way, the estrangement that Charlie felt with her parents slowly dissipate. From the first page to the last sentence, this was a thrilling ride that I did not want to get off let alone end. [5 stars – it was amazing]