Former Delta force commando Cavanaugh now works with a highly trained team as a protector for the rich. Hired by Daniel (not Dan) Prescott, an unfit, overweight and paranoid scientist who has discovered a highly addictive drug, Cavanaugh teaches him the fundamentals of escape and evasion, including creating a new persona. Pursued by two, apparently separate, teams, Cavanaugh’s base is attacked and most of his crew is killed – and Prescott seems to have been colluding with them. Now Cavanaugh has to track own his own client, uncover the truth, and take him out.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read one of Morrell’s novels, though I’ve in the past thoroughly enjoyed his work (from First Blood, the basis for the Rambo movies, to my favourites, Fraternity of the Stone and Brotherhood of the Rose), and I wasn’t disappointed – in The Protector Morrell delivers a non-stop, action-packed, cleverly plotted tale of espionage and secrets within secrets, populated by fully developed characters. The details are clearly well researched but subtly inserted – the description of Prescott as an elicitor (the tradecraft of extracting information without people realising) is a great example of Morrell imparting information that illuminates what went before and supporting what comes next without clumsily dumping exposition on the reader. And he convincingly depicts reactions – the training scene in a swamp that takes place in the prologue is particularly good, at least as far as I (who’ve never been in anything like that situation) could tell, and I found my own pulse speeding up in sympathy.
There isn’t anything new and ground-breaking here, but The Protector is an above-average addition to the genre and well worth the trip. - Alex
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