FOURTH DAY
by Zoe Sharp
Charlie Fox, her SIG loaded and aimed, infiltrates a California cult that’s been stockpiling ammo.
Private-security honcho Parker Armstrong is playing this job close to his bulletproof vest. He won’t tell agents (and lovers) Charlie Fox and Sean Meyer (Third Strike, 2008, etc.) who hired him, but he wants them to breach the Fourth Day compound and come out with Thomas Witney. They get their man, then lose him in a rundown motel, where he’s tortured and murdered, drawing the ire of federal superspook Epps. Charlie, who had promised Witney protection, is saddled with guilt. Her insistence on going undercover at Fourth Day pits her against its leader, Randall Bane, whose psychiatric insights lead Charlie, like many of his followers, to emotional epiphanies. But cult expert Chris Sagar, disagreeing with her take on Bane, eggs Parker and his minions on. Who to trust? Everyone seems to have a secret agenda. Even Charlie’s motives are suspect, coiling around a past miscarriage she never got around to mentioning to Sean. Guns blaze, fists pummel and the plot gears up for a Ruby Ridge/Waco finale before matters settle down, not entirely to Charlie’s liking.
Charlie, whose most distinctive quality is her killer instinct, gets quite a physical and emotional working over. Will it soften her up next time around?