The C. J. Floyd Mysteries Series

Denver-based detective C. J. Floyd discovers a government conspiracy when a Vietnam vet who went missing in action reappears after thirty-four years.   For decades, Carmen Nguyen, an Amerasian emergency-room doctor in a Denver hospital, thought her father, Langston Blue, was dead after vanishing in Vietnam. Now she knows he’s alive, and she’s hired bail bondsman C. J. Floyd to find him. But what C. J. and his assistant, former Marine intelligence sergeant Flora Jean Benson, discover is nothing short of criminal.   An elite assassin, Langston was witness to a clandestine US-sanctioned war atrocity so dishonorable that he abandoned the rogue operation and went running for his life. Ever since, he’s been MIA, considered an expendable threat to military top brass. Resurfacing in Denver from self-imposed exile in the backwoods of West Virginia, he plans to locate the daughter he never knew and expose a truth more horrifying than anyone could imagine. But a Colorado congressman poised to capture a seat in the US Senate also knows what happened on that mission in the jungles of Southeast Asia—and he has a lot to lose.   In resurrecting Langston’s past, C. J., Carmen, and Flora are caught in a treacherous plot that leads to the highest levels of government, where the most powerful and corrupt players in the country are still hiding from the ghosts of war—and will do anything it takes to make sure their secrets die with Langston Blue.   Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his series featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West.   Resurrecting Langston Blue is the 4th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

A Creole woman’s secrets about the Kennedy assassination lure a detective from Colorado to the Louisiana swamps in search of the truth. In the wake of an earthquake, the mummified body of Antoine Ducane, a Creole member of the Louisiana underworld, is exhumed from the rubble of the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel. Before he disappeared decades ago, Ducane claimed to know the truth of JFK’s assassination—and its link to the president’s own covert anti-Castro mission: Operation Mongoose.   Now that an acquaintance of Ducane’s has been murdered, curiosity draws bail bondsman–turned–antiques dealer C. J. Floyd to the mystery. It doesn’t help that his close friend, an ex-Mafia don with a passion for western collectibles, has his own connection to Ducane that could prove just as lethal. No sooner does C. J. begin investigating than he’s dodging mob assassins, con men, Cuban rebels, JKF conspiracy theorists, and the CIA. And he can’t be sure who would kill to know Ducane’s secrets and who would kill to keep them buried. Either way, a fire has been ignited under the dogged amateur sleuth.   Enlisting the aid of his former bounty-hunter partners, C. J. is ready to make his move down a deceptive and dangerous trail that will take him from the mountains of Colorado to the backwoods of Louisiana—where a frail, long-silent, still-grieving Creole mother holds the key to the greatest political cover-up of all time.    Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his series featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West.   The Mongoose Deception is the 6th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

Ex-Vietnam gunner C. J. Floyd discovers his knack for detection when he traces a Denver flea-market treasure back to the murder of a World War II veteran.   After leaving Vietnam as a decorated gunner, Calvin Jefferson “C. J” Floyd returned to the Victorian home on Denver’s famed Bail Bondsman’s Row where he’d been raised by his uncle. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, he found a fast friend and kindred soul in Wiley Ames, a resilient World War II vet, former Skid Row derelict, and manager of a pawnshop in the city’s Five Points neighborhood.   But Wiley and C. J. shared more than the scars of war: They both had an appreciation for rare memorabilia, and Wiley came across a lot of it at his shop in downtown Denver. So when Wiley is gunned down in an alley, C. J.’s already fragile world threatens to collapse. But with no leads and the sad case gone cold, C. J. forges ahead in a new direction as a bail bondsman and bounty hunter in his uncle’s business.   Five years later, C. J. finds himself reopening his investigation of Wiley’s death when he comes across one of his old friend’s prized possessions at a flea market. It’s just one clue, but it’s enough to send C. J. off and running to make good on his promise to find the killer—and finally confront the ghosts of his own past.    Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his series featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West.   First of State is the 8th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

A rare antique draws Denver detective C. J. Floyd into a plot of murder, greed, and a mystery rooted in nineteenth-century Utah.   The owner of a Denver antique shop specializing in western collectibles, C. J. Floyd stumbles upon a unique find in the form of a book from post–Civil War America. It’s evidence of the near-mythic existence of a fourth daguerreotype, alleged to have been taken during the 1869 Golden Spike Ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, upon the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The existing three photos are museum artifacts. If C. J. is reading the clues right, he’s close to locating the fourth piece of an irreplaceable historical puzzle that at least one person has already died for.   When the book thief who sold him the stolen vintage tome is shot to death in an alley behind the store, C. J. is pegged as a suspect. Unfortunately, his angle on the crime isn’t easy to prove.   Soliciting help from his former bail-bonding bounty-hunter partners, C. J. follows a twisting path back through the secrets of American history, stalked by dangerous collectors, covetous art dealers, ruthless power brokers, obsessive curators, and a psychotic Rhodes scholar on a personal mission of revenge. As priceless as the ultimate prize might be, it could very well cost C. J. the most valuable thing of all: his life.    Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his series featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West.   The Fourth Perspective is the 5th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.  

The shooting of a Denver NBA superstar reveals a pro-sports underworld of greed, secrets, blackmail, steroids, and murder.   Shandell Bird’s career is soaring. But just after the NBA luminary signs a multimillion-dollar contract with the Denver Nuggets, and another as celebrity spokesman for Nike, the “Blackbird” makes headlines again—when he and a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist are shot to death mid-court. Honeymooning in Hawaii, bail bondsman and investigator C. J. Floyd is too far from reality to find the sniper, so he hands his gumshoes to his godson, Damion Madrid.   Best friends since grade school, Damion and Shandell grew up on the Glendale courts. At Colorado State University, they led their basketball team to the NCAA Championship finals. They were as close as brothers. Now Damion is hearing stories of Shandell’s connections to organized crime, point shaving, selling of performance-enhancing drugs, and association with low-life sycophants drawn to wealth and fame.   But the Blackbird had secrets no one knew—some so private he took them to his grave. On the dark road of discovery, Damion will be forced to shed his innocence and come face-to-face with the cold truth. And when he’s put in the crosshairs of a killer, only C. J. Floyd can help him.    Bestselling author Robert Greer has been hailed as a “taut, powerful writer” (The Plain Dealer). Fans of hardboiled detective stories or the novels of Walter Mosley will enjoy his suspenseful, edgy, “winning series” featuring a tough African American sleuth in the modern-day West (Library Journal).   Blackbird, Farewell is the 7th book in the C. J. Floyd Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.