Riot Act by
Zoe Sharp
hbk out August 02
Published by Piatkus
at £18.99
This is the sequel to 'Killer Insticnct', a successful debut by Zoe Sharp
introducing her heroine Charlie Fox, who is a young woman working part-
time as an instructor in a gym, after being dicharged from the army under a
cloud. One problem is that there are repeated references to the events in the
previous book, which can only be pieced together gradually if one hasn't
read that one first. The male interest is Sean, also an ex-army instructor who
Charlie blames for her ejection from the ranks.
Charlie, devoted to his Suzuki motor-cycle, is house-sitting for a friend in a
run-down housing estate in north-west England, where the ethnic minority
are the majority. There is a nearby estate peopled by whites and open
warfare breaks out between the two groups, in spite of - or perhaps because
of - paid vigilantes. Charlie gets caught up in the violence, and the situation
gets worse when Sean re-appears in her life. The climax is a two-day battle
in the estates, which become virtually a police no-go area, rife with murder,
looting, burning and shooting.
The writing is excellent, especially as the blurb states that Ms. Sharp's
childhood was spent on a boat and she opted out of formal education at the
age of twelve. The book is an exciting read if you like guns, bikes, fast car
chases and plenty of blood. The locale seems a bit odd for it, being a housing
estate in the suburbs of Lancaster, when the action seems more suited to
Manchester's Moss-side or East London, but at least it's nice to have an
action thriller that's not set in America, like the majority of books on the
stalls.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
