PROTECTION is GJ Moffat's fourth book and is definitely my favourite of his to date. His main character, Logan Finch, has made a huge career move and is now a bodyguard, instead of a lawyer. He still works for his friend Alex Cahill, in his security company, and seems much more suited to carrying a gun than a briefcase. In this instalment, Logan is detailed to his first main job as a bodyguard and finds himself protecting Chase Black, a notorious American serial killer, who has been let out of prison on appeal after the police made a mistake collecting evidence at one of the crime scenes. Black has written a book about his time behind bars and is in the UK on a promotional tour with his publisher. Trouble is, there might be somebody who wants to kill him, so Logan is drafted in to keep him safe.

A thread running through the whole book is the big question as to whether or not Black is guilty. Logan can't decide and Jake Hunter, the American detective who put him away in the first place, is having serious problems with accepting the fact he might have been wrong, as he is usually right about people. The case opens again and Hunter is back on the trail - determined to nail Black, or whoever it was that killed the people whose mutilated bodies he had to look at and still continues to be haunted by.

PROTECTION is altogether much tougher than the earlier books in this series about Logan Finch. The writing style has you more on edge and there is none of the earlier romantic fluff, that I really disliked. In PROTECTION we see GJ Moffat really come into his own and earn his place as one of the bad boys in Scottish crime fiction. Awesome.

Amanda C M Gillies, Scotland
September 2012