The King of Tides (Lancaster and Daniels) by James Swain

James Swain is back with a new series. In this one ex-Navy Seal Jon Lancaster, somewhat a celebrity after shooting a kidnapper is hired to protect a young woman. His price? A new fridge. You see, he doesn't work for money but goods. Another quirk: he looks fat but is as tough as any action hero. Those are the most unusual traits for the hero. Note he is fleshed out well enough to never seem too one-dimensional.
The girl he needs to protect has an alarming number of stalkers for a regular girl. The reason behind this is quite surprising and leads Lancaster to team-up with FBI agent Beth Daniels who has a personal reason for doing her work. You see, Beth was abducted when she was young.
What follows is an exciting search for the reasons the girl is being stalked which takes Lancaster and Daniels to some uncomfortable areas.
There's huge load of twists and turns in this one, which reminded me a bit of a Harlan Coben novel. I figure this one to be a bit more of a thriller than a standard hardboiled PI novel. I must say that was part of the fun. It's really a page-turner. Sometimes I had to struggle to suspend my disbelief, but I admit I read this one in just a few days.