Fifth Victim by Zoë Sharp

"Bodyguard and ex-Special Forces soldier Charlie Fox would do anything to take her mind off her partner; shot, left for dead and now lying in a coma. So concentrating on a new assignment seemed like the perfect way to escape the pain, and her own empty apartment. The job, to protect the naive daughter of an investment banker from a gang of kidnappers who prey on the children of the wealthy Long Island set. Kidnap is a lucrative crime for those with the nerve to pull it off. Usually those who disappear are returned unharmed - except this syndicate likes to take a piece of the victim as part of the pay-off. Still, it all looked simple at first. A round of exclusive boutiques, charity auctions, luxurious parties aboard million-dollar yachts - and few risks for an experienced operative. But Charlie soon finds out that defending a girl determined to put herself in danger is far from easy. And when her instincts lead her to suspect an inside job, she discovers that not everyone who mingles with the jet-set is what they seem - and the idle rich can be as ruthless as any criminal."--Publisher description.

Charlie's next bodyguard job is to protect a young woman from becoming the next kidnapped victim. It might sound like a clich?? plot, but Zo?? Sharp has a talent for breaking clich??s into bits and pieces and reconstructing them into something unexpected, unpredictable and complex. Add to it that book 8 and 9 (this one) really puts Charlie under pressure and I'm all here for this sort of character development. I've already ordered the rest of the series :)

Zoë Sharp gets better and better every time.Reeling from the events of [b:Fourth Day 7670620 Fourth Day (Charlie Fox Thriller, #8) Zoë Sharp http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1279197985s/7670620.jpg 10281569], Charlie Fox is tasked with preventing the kidnapping of a young socialite. Recently, a few of her peers had been kidnapped and tortured, and the client wants to prevent that from happening to her daughter. Drama ensues pretty much the way you'd expect it to in this kind of novel.There's an character development and a greater emotional depth than you'd find in a Jack Reacher novel (the only thing I can think of to compare these to), but the action is just as gripping, the chase scenes as riveting, and the plot as (if not more) complex than you'd find there. Best use of a horse I can think of in recent memory.To get the full story, it'd be best to have read the series at least from [b:First Drop 3523 First Drop (Charlie Fox Thriller, #4) Zoë Sharp http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312063331s/3523.jpg 7311]–but this book would be a great way to meed Charlie for the first time.Minor quibble: I'm so over the little device of starting the novel with a tense moment from about the middle of the novel, getting to a cliff-hanger and then jumping back to the beginning. I get that it's Sharp's schtick, but...ugh.