Spotlight on Robert Greer

Today we are going to shine the spotlight on the work of Robert Greer and his CJ Floyd Mystery series.



Latest release: BLACKBIRD, FAREWELL

Featuring the vivid characters and streetwise dialogue that have made the CJ Floyd series a critical and commercial success, BLACKBIRD, FAREWELL introduces CJ Floyd’s protégé and is a punch-packing whodunit that exposes the dark side of the pro-athlete good life.

PRAISE FOR THE LATEST IN ROBERT GREER'S CJ FLOYD MYSTERY SERIES:

“Every entry in the versatile Greer's CJ Floyd series (The Mongoose Deception) is different in scope and theme. Here, he takes on professional and college basketball, the pressures placed on young men to perform, the media hype, and the organized crime possibilities of point shaving and drug dealing. Much like Les Roberts's mysteries about Cleveland, Greer's books in this series also give readers a strong sense of place (the Denver area) and a rare look at a diverse community that works together regardless of racial and economic barriers. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, starred review

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:



THE DEVIL’S HATBAND

Cheroot smoking African-American bail bondsman CJ Floyd is a man who plays the odds whether chasing down bond skippers, keeping a thumb on Denver's gang-bangers, or working on the occasional bounty hunting case that comes his way. When a couple of corporate "oreos" toting fashionable briefcases and sporting manicured nails appear in CJ's office one day asking him to locate the missing daughter of a federal judge, CJ reluctantly accepts the job, hoping the money he earns will help him meet his always shaky expenses for the month. Seems the missing woman, Brenda Mathison, has skipped out on a high paying, high tech job at Carson Technologies with proprietary bio tech documents.

PRAISE FOR THE DEVIL'S HATBAND

"CJ Floyd is the archetypical lone-wolf, American private eye, smart, tough, principled and complex in the best Philip Marlowe tradition." —Booklist

"Comparisons with Walter Mosley will surely follow Greer on his road to literary success. But look to the cultural texture and tremendously affably characters for Greer's distinctive style. Examine also the professional background knowledge laced throughout the writing and it's easy to understand the difference." —Columbus Dispatch



THE DEVIL’S RED NICKEL

For CJ, the case begins when a beautiful black woman hires him to look into the death of her father, one LeRoy Polk, a.k.a. Daddy Doo-Wop, a famous Chicago D.J. Sleek, smart, and hard-driving Clothilde Polk is sure her father did not die of the heart attack doctors first suspected. Before long, he realizes that the death of Daddy Doo-Wop is part of a bigger story, one that reaches back to Chicago in the fifties when the Mob called the tune. From payola to paychecks, from the dirtiest of deals to some old tapes that still might be worth gold, CJ is entering into a realm where a great melody can lead to a deadly refrain, and where someone has a murderous hit parade of his own.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE DEVIL'S RED NICKEL

"The energy just leaps off the page... The characters are well-drawn, his scenarios compelling and evocative -- think of Dashiell Hammet and Chester Himes in a pickup truck." —Austin Chronicle

"Jam-packed with action and characters and local color... The plot rips along so quickly, you just plunge ahead with the hope that Greer will pull it all together for you later... lively and intricate and rich in detail... one heckuva ride." —Mostly Murder



THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

PRAISE FOR THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE

"Greer relaxes into a lean, loose style that fits his western mysteries like a beat-up pair of lizard-skin boots." —New York Times Book Review

"Greer has a great sense of place and a knack for fixing his colorful characters in your mind, offering an unusual background of Colorado diamond mining, the rodeo, and black life in Denver ." —Detroit News and Free Press

ABOUT THE BOOK: There were only two things that terrified retired rodeo star and all-around gadfly Hambone Dolbey. One of them was water. So when Hambone's lifeless body was found floating in a wet suit, those who knew him best knew for sure that the cowboy had been murdered.



RESURRECTING LANGSTON BLUE

No one emerges unscathed from war, and ER doctor Carmen Nguyen is no different. More than thirty years after Vietnam , when the ghosts of that distant war come calling, Carmen decides to look for her father, Langston Blue, an army sergeant and Vietnam combatant, whom she never knew. Blue remains a shadowy figure, forever missing from Carmen's life and presumed dead since the end of the war. But Ket Tran, Carmen's feisty aunt and the guiding light in her life, has a sliver of evidence that Blue may still be alive—and on U.S. soil. Carmen enlists the help of CJ Floyd to find him.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT RESURRECTING LANGSTON BLUE

"A taut mystery intertwined with political intrigue and colorful detail." —Ebony

"A great plot setup, with the ever wily and determined C.J ready to match wits with all comers. Strongly recommended." —Library Journal, starred review



THE FOURTH PERSPECTIVE

PRAISE FOR THE FOURTH PERSPECTIVE

"[A] great, convoluted mystery, possibly Greer's best in his CJ Floyd series—it's an absorbing read filled with surprises." —The Denver Post

"Entertains with interesting characters and a good puzzle. It should please Greer's current fans and attract new ones." —The Boulder Daily Camera

ABOUT THE BOOK: When a young Nicaraguan immigrant appears in CJ Floyd's recently opened Denver antique and western collectables store toting a rare book on Montana medicine, CJ uses the last cash he has to purchase the book. A book that turns out to contain a lot more than the dry mundane history of the medical profession in Nineteenth Century Montana. When the young student is found murdered in an alley a few blocks from CJ's store, a police investigation pegs CJ as a suspect, and CJ must turn to his comrades to investigate the killing themselves.



THE MONGOOSE DECEPTION

In unraveling America 's most important twentieth-century political crime, CJ enlists the aid of his always-faithful cadre of street-smart former rodeo cowboys and friends. CJ puts his own life on the line as he travels the potentially lethal trail that may lead to the identity of the killer, and to the one person living who actually knows the entire story about who killed JFK.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE MONGOOSE DECEPTION

"Expertly crafted." —The Denver Post

"African American investigator and bail bondsman C.J. Floyd (The Fourth Perspective) and his cohorts get caught up in a series of murders that may be linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy—Greer gives the JFK killing a newish spin in a riveting story..." —Library Journal