Hard Knocks

Who doesn’t love a good British boarding-school story? Well, Charlie Fox for starters, especially now that she’s been dropped in the middle of one. Einsbaden Manor, snuggled deep in the German countryside, isn’t exactly Hogwarts: It specializes in training bodyguards, and it’s in Germany because the British government takes a dim view of some of the techniques it teaches. With her military background and her intimate knowledge of how to take a punch, Charlie hardly needs the lessons, but she does need to find out why an old friend ended his studies at Einsbaden—and his life—with a hail of bullets in his back. And of course, there’s a second question: Will Charlie figure out how to graduate without following her mate’s example?