BLINDSIDE is another corker from the talented G J Moffat. This is the third book in his series featuring Logan Finch, his police girlfriend DCI Rebecca Irvine and his good friend, now boss, Alex Cahill, and is definitely the best one to date. It is superbly devoid of the romantic cheesiness that was present in DAISYCHAIN, the first of Moffat's books, and has plenty of tension running through it instead. BLINDSIDE is still a light read, and still very different from my usual preference, but I love this book series!

This time around, Moffat very cleverly weaves together a first rate story, involving drug crime, murder and revenge, on both sides of the Atlantic, and the link between the two seemingly very different cases is awesome. The story begins with Cahill receiving the tragic news that Tim Stark, one of his former friends from his army days, is missing, believed dead. Nobody will tell him what happened and, desperate to explain what looks like a good soldier gone bad, Cahill travels stateside, accompanied by Finch, to get to the bottom of all the secrecy and provide a proper explanation for Tim's wife.

Meanwhile, DCI Lynch, now an excellent police officer and a very fine female character, has been transferred to a drugs-related case on her home turf as it seems to involve the odd murder or three. Lynch forgets her own safety at times and gets smashed in the face for her efforts but seems to make progress where others in the team have failed to do so. Then a chance phone call to Logan while he is away, coupled with a throw-away comment about her case, seems to link everything together and they start to make sense of what is spiralling out of control around them.

If you like fast-moving action and an exciting storyline, but aren't too bothered about guessing the ending before it is revealed, then you are going to love this book. You don't need to have read the previous two books in the series beforehand, but adding information about Finch's past will help to explain a lot of things, like his relationship with his daughter, and just how much he owes to his good friend Alex Cahill.

Highly recommended

Amanda C M Gillies, Scotland
January 2012

Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.