Second read just as good as the first

I am addicted to this series! Can't wait to read the rest. Highly recommended for anyone who likes thrillers with a tough, strong female lead character.

I'm not a big fan of mysteries that don't contain some sort of law enforcement, PI, or lawyerly character in them. Don't really know why, just a quirk. The author either has to be a very good writer, or the story needs to be believable in regards to why the non-detective gets involved in the mystery/thriller.

Ms. Sharp does both. Though I do have some problems with some of the minor parts of the characters, for the most part they are all unique, and all interesting.

And most importantly, the stories, while not totally out there, aren't just cookie cutter plots either.

Charlie Fox is starting a new career as a bodyguard and looking after the teenager son of a computer scientist should not be difficult. There is a vast cast of characters and complex plot to keep you engaged as the fast paced story unfolds. When Charlie is around you can count on some bodies accumulating and in this case the FBI gets involved. Highly recommend this series.

Love this series! Charlie Fox travels to Florida, but the simple job of protecting a grumpy teenager turns into shootouts, kidnappings, crooked cops, and car audio contests during Spring Break. She's such a kickass female character--I love reading about her!

This is the first book in this series that felt like a solid suspenser, and about which I had no reservations upon completing it.
Charlie Fox has gone to work for her ex (superior officer and lover), Sean, in the private security business. Her first actual assignment after completing some training is with Sean as a U.S. private computer firm's extra security detail in Florida. The dossier is skimpy, to say the least, and Charlie is unhappy to find she is delegated to look after a teenager, Trey, the son of Keith, a programmer working on a high-level project that could make or break his employer. Both Sean and Charlie are concerned they are not getting the full story.
Then Charlie is detailed to escort Trey to an amusement park for the day... where Charlie must avert an attempt to either kidnap or kill Trey. They escape and head back toward Keith's home, but unable to reach Sean, or head of security Jim Whitmarsh, Charlie leaves Trey at a diner, and slips back to the house--now completely vacant, with no sign of Sean, Keith or anyone else. All Charlie finds is Sean's backup gun and whatever ammo is already loaded.
Charlie and Trey go on the run, ending up in Daytona Beach during Spring Break, because Trey has friends to meet up with, and getting lost in the crowds seems like a good idea. Violence pursues them, with former allies now showing themselves to be enemies, and bodies accumulating as Charlie tries to keep Trey safe and whom she can trust. When news reports reveal Charlie is being set up as a murderous kidnapper, Charlie has to employ all of her training and inherent grit to figure out what is going on, why multiple pursuers need Trey and her dead... and whether Sean has already been killed.
The details of these stories are what keep me coming back to read about a character I have had trouble fully embracing. I'd describe Sharp's narrative style as brutal reality. She talks about the results of riding a stolen motorcycle without a helmet in relation to buggy, humid Florida in a way that makes one grimace in sympathy (and disgust). She describes being hit by men much larger and more intent on harm than her, and makes you feel your eyes water and ears ringing. And she carries you inside Charlie's mind as she determines on vengeance for an incalculable loss.
I'm not fully won over yet--Charlie remains a puzzle to me in some ways. But the writing and plot on this book were almost cinematic. I could see it all unfolding in my head as it happened. Good stuff for fans of hard-boiled suspense stories.

I love reading about kick-ass women

And Charlie Fox meets that requirement. I've read most of this series before several years ago and now I'm re-reading it.

I select my “crime fiction” readings mostly based on January Magazine’s “Best of the Year” recommendations. Zoe Sharp’s “First Drop” made the list in 2005. Cindy Chow, the reviewer, characterizes the novel as “brilliantly suspenseful yet emotionally affecting” and writes that “[it] is a stellar breakout for Sharp”. I beg to differ. The plot is suspenseful for about the first hundred pages; then it gets bogged in ridiculous attempts to twist it in every way possible. Maybe teen readers can find it emotionally affecting; grown-ups will find it hard to reconcile the high body count with a juvenile writing style.

The protagonist (and the narrator) is Charlotte “Charlie” Fox, a twenty-something British ex-military, who gets her first job in the U.S. as a bodyguard for a fifteen year old spoiled brat, the son of a top-notch computer programmer who is working on breakthrough software for stock market prediction (yeah, right). I applaud the refreshing idea of having a female equivalent of, say, Jack Reacher, starring in a thriller. Charlie’s skills in hand combat, marksmanship, and survival in general are first-rate. I would love, though, to see the author’s writing skills match Charlie’s skills as a bodyguard. Particularly irritating is the teenager-level writing in a long fragment of the novel where some characters suspect that they will soon be executed and have to prepare to die. The author writes “He rummaged through the little bowl, picking out four packets of Sweet’N Low which he emptied into his cup along with two packets of creamer. The he stirred the resultant muddy-colored gloop with one of the straws.” Now I know what to think about when preparing to be shot.

Four stars for Charlie Fox’ character, half a star for implementation, so the average is

Two stars.

Excellent plotlines featuring Charlie Fox, entertaining and also suspenseful at same time. Couldn't see the ending coming. Just a really satisfying read, as I've come to expect from Zoe. If you like Sarah Paretsky I reckon you'd be pretty happy with any of Zoe's novels. Deserves much more media interest....

A book that shows why you shouldn't write what you don't know.

Starts out boring because it's just not the kind of thing Charlie ever figured she'd be doing as a bodyguard--babysitting a teenager. But oh my, the action starts and never stops. Plus it's really hard to figure out who is behind it all and why...

FIRST DROP (Pub. 2004) by Zoe Sharp was an entertaining read. I liked this story for several reasons. First, it has a female lead, Charlie Fox, which is largely why I read it. Second, it's not a formulaic story, in that Charlie is not a detective or a homicide cop. She is an Englishwoman, ex-special forces and now working for a security firm.

The story takes place in Florida, and is centered around Charlie's first assignment in America -- acting as bodyguard to Trey, a 15-yr old boy, who's father has developed a software program that supposedly will allow someone to make millions on the stockmarket. But the program has kinks in it, and there are a lot of people out to keep the program for themselves.

The story opens with Charlie and Trey at an amusement park in Fort Pierce. A man attempts to take out Trey with a gun, but Charlie tackles him before he can accomplish the act, and then she and Trey go on the run, hiding from whoever it is that's out to hurt Trey. They end up in Daytona Beach, where the majority of the story takes place.

My favorite thing about the book is that it largely moves at a very quick pace, with strong action in every scene. A lot of people end up getting shot throughout, so if you don't care for violence, this is not the book for you. The author handles each shoot out scene in a mostly believable and organic way, and I found the scenes interesting and kept turning the pages to see what would happen next.

The author also does a good job of plugging in some plot twists related to who the bad guys really are: crooked cops, corrupt corporate executives and Trey's own father as well as a brief walk-on part played by a computer guru/espionage geek. It keeps the reader guessing just enough, and there is also Charlie's fledgling love interest, Sean, who has talked her into coming to work for his company as a bodyguard. But Sean goes missing early in the story, and by mid-story Charlie's convinced Sean's been killed. The author handles the love-interest lightly, so it does not detract from the action thriller this story is meant to be, and yet it adds just the right note to keep the story from being formulaic, and makes us care more deeply about Charlie on a personal level.

The author's writing style is strong, and for the most part I largely enjoyed it, with the exception of a couple grammar issues that could readily have been edited out. The author is English, which I think was responsible for these instances of author missteps (her editor must be English also) - she slips in some English phrases in dialogue coming from Americans, which rings false, not a big deal, but it sticks out.

And on the flip side of that, the author's got every character in the book using the word 'reckon', even Charlie, which made me feel like I was chewing sand in how often it occurs. Perhaps the author was consciously trying to make the characters sound American, but someone needs to clue Ms. Sharp into the fact that no one in America uses that word (with rare exception). Executive characters, teen characters, etc stating things like, "I reckon we should leave." And in addition to the very-much overused 'reckon', the author seems to think the best way to write 'authentic' American dialogue is to have every character, including executives and FBI agents, sound like rednecks in using poor grammar, i.e. 'was' instead of 'were', 'ain't', and 'don't' when 'doesn't' should have been used. I'm okay with redneck-isms coming from one or two characters if they are supposed to be rednecks, but she literally makes every character use poor grammar, on more than one occasion, none of who are supposed to be rednecks, so she gets a big goose egg on that portion of the scoring.

The only other negative, which thankfully, got ironed out by page 70ish, was a constant use of flashbacks on Charlie's part, to scenes that occurred anywhere from a few days to months earlier, done in a way that interrupts the flow of the present action, to relate backstory info that doesn't really make any difference to the story. I was just about to give up on the book because of it, but thankfully the author got it out of her system and carried on with the proper story after pg 70.

Back to the positives. I enjoyed seeing Charlie in action, thinking through possibilities of who they were really on the run from, how to get out of sticky situations all while protecting her charge (Trey). I also enjoyed the 30 pages or so where they are staying with Trey's teenage friends. It brings a fresh note that takes the story out of the standard formula stuff most action thrillers contain.

The ending is satisfying and definitely kept me flipping pages, and there are several surprise twists in the last fifty pages, as well as a small surprise twist at the very end which is fun and leaves us off on just the right note.

All in all, in spite of the grammar bug-a-boos, FIRST DROP is really a good read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something a little different then the formula driven action thrillers. I give it 4.5 STARS overall, and would have given it 5 had it not been for the sand-chewing grammar blips. There is no 'world threat', and although the FBI and police occasionally make an appearance, they are kept to a minimum in the overall story, which I appreciated and is what keeps this story from being cookie cutter. I will definitely read more of the Charlie Fox series.

another good Charlie Fox novel