Second Shot		Click book cover for larger image
			St Martin's Press US Paperback Oct 2008	St Martin's Press US Hardback Sep 2007
	BBC Audiobooks UK Audio CD Set Jun 2008	ISIS/Ulverscroft UK Large Print May 2008	Allison & Busby UK Paperback Jun 2008	Allison & Busby UK Hardback & Trade Paperback Aug 2007

Second Shot is the sixth book in the Charlie Fox series . . .

'Scarily good. Today's best action heroine is back with a bang. Cross your fingers and toes that she survives for future adventures − you definitely want her to.' Lee Child

'Take it from me, getting yourself shot hurts like hell.'

When the latest assignment of ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, ends in a bloody shoot-out in a frozen forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, she's left fighting for her life, with her client dead.

Simone had just become a lottery millionairess but she never lived long enough to enjoy her newfound riches. Charlie was supposed to be keeping Simone's troublesome ex-boyfriend at bay and accompanying her on a trip to New England to track down the father Simone had never really known. A relatively low-risk job.

But Simone's former SAS father has secrets in his past that are about to come back and haunt him, and the arrival of his long-lost daughter may be the catalyst that blows his whole world apart. Was the prospect of getting hold of Simone's money tempting enough to make him engineer her death? And what happens now to Simone's baby daughter, Ella?

With Simone gone, Ella's safety becomes Charlie's main concern. She's determined, despite her injuries, not to let anything happen to the child. But the closer Charlie gets to the truth, the bigger threat she becomes. Only, this time she's in no fit state to protect anyone, least of all herself. . . .

From the author's notebook

The plot for Second Shot went through a lot of different incarnations before it finally settled into this story. It went through a lot of different titles, too. Originally, I had it pencilled in first as Cold Cuts and then Fall Line before my US publisher decided they'd like to follow on from First Drop with another numerically titled book. Once I'd decided on the opening sequence, the title just suggested itself.

In one of those amazing coincidences that life constantly throws at you, after I'd decided to have Charlie seriously injured in this book, I was giving a talk at a local book festival and happened to mention that I was always interested in talking to people for research purposes. A guy sitting in the front row reacted to this and, afterwards, he came up and asked if I'd be interested in talking to him. 'What about?' I asked. 'I was shot in the stomach in Turkey,' he replied.

So, if Charlie's gunshot injuries ring true, that's at least partly thanks to the real-life experiences of Mick Botterill.