Robert Greer

Blackbird, Farewell is the seventh novel in Robert Greer’s mystery series featuring bail bondsman C.J. Floyd. The specs look good – set in Denver instead of a more typical mystery locale; a hero who is neither a cop nor a lawyer (and, in this installment, out of town on his honeymoon, leaving his female, ex-Marine partner and an amateur-sleuth sidekick to solve the case); several entrenched characters, mostly from Denver’s old-school African American community; and the double homicide show more of a Pulitzer-winning journalist and a freshly-minted NBA star.

Great set up. The problem is in the execution. This reads like a first novel, not a seventh. The narrative is clunky, making it almost impossible to be absorbed in the story. Greer tries to pack too much back story into single sentences, leaving them unnavigable on a single read through. This habit is particularly irksome when the clunkers are incorporated into the dialog. Greer does a decent job with casual speaking voices, but no conversation between two long-time friends and business partners includes sentences as long winded as this:

But ever since Pinkie saved Damion’s behind last summer up at the Pawnee grasslands when Damion got himself all tangled up in that Eisenhower Tunnel murder case I was working, they’ve been as tight as Dick’s hatband.

Sentences like that taunt me to brush off the diagramming skills I learned in high school, but they do nothing to pull me into the story. Unfortunately, Greer drags the reader over several boulders just that big.

Things smoothed out and picked up in the second half. There were a couple of solid plot twists, a reasonably exciting climax, and generally good overall resolution. But these improvements were not enough to salvage what, at best, is a mediocre mystery novel.

Also posted on Rose City Reader. show less

THE FOURTH PERSPECTIVE BY ROBERT GREER

I am ashamed to admit that this is the first CJ Floyd mystery I have read. I knew Robert Greer had a mystery series, but I neglected it. Maybe because there are so many mysteries set in the West is why. After reading this book, I was so off base. In the already crowded field of western mysteries, this book was a breath of fresh air. Action, mystery, unexpected twist and completely believable plot and characters, this book has it all. Even though I am new show more to the series I was able to pick up on what happens in the earlier books, due to Greer good writing. I do look forward to reading the earlier novels and the newest installment of bail bond/antique dealer C J Floyd.
This book was an enjoyable, intelligent read. I thank library thing early review programs for helping me find this author. This is so much more than a mystery, it is a study in a man wanting to change, but his past won’t let him. Highly recommended. show less

CJ Floyd is a bail bondsman in Denver's historically black Five Points district, who seems to have a propensity for going beyond the requirements of his job and doing a little detecting along with providing bonds. This novel is the first of a series about Floyd by Robert Greer. I read it to get some background before reviewing Greer's Blackbird, Farewell for the Early Reviewers program.

The title of The Devil's Hatband refers to a nickname for barbed wire, used widely for ranch fencing but show more also for the murder of Brenda Mathison, a bright young black woman who has been involved with a radical animal-rights group trying to eradicate the cattle industry in Colorado and Wyoming. Immediately before her death, two men have approached CJ and offered him a generous fee for finding Brenda and some "valuable documents" she has taken. When her murder comes to light, Brenda's father, a judge who is involved with the group who had originally hired CJ, promises him a bonus for finding the killer.

Brenda's group had obtained the formula for a virus that could be used to quickly infect a herd of cattle, and which would also be deadly to humans. CJ has to use all his resources and connections to find out more about the group, learn about the virus, and concoct a plan to foil the group's plans.

We see some of CJ's friends in the Five Points area, including Rosie (short for Roosevelt) the mechanic and Mavis, who works in her father's restaurant and has had an on-and-off relationship with CJ, but has broken it off because he keeps putting himself in danger. These secondary characters add some color to the story and keep it from being overly focused on the main events. We also see some of the other bail bondsmen and learn some interesting tidbits about CJ; for example, he collects vintage rare license plates.

The story moves along in fits and starts, as a case typically might. CJ is beaten and his car is vandalized; he doesn't know if these acts are related to his new case or are the work of villains he has helped put away in the past. Conveniently, he has just the right connections to pursue the details of the case, including a doctor who can analyze the virus and a local who keeps an eye on the property of the radical group. he is also rewarded for his friendship with and support of a couple of homeless men in his neighborhood in Denver. There is a significant plot twist near the end of the book for which we were not at all prepared; it's frustrating to have such a development with no clues leading up to it.

My main complaint about this book is the writing style, which is quite clumsy and awkward in places. Greer makes very brief leaps into the perspective of minor characters, to present a point that could have been made more cleanly without the perspective shift. His word choices are often odd, sometimes apparently in search of variation. He tells us a lot of things that I would have preferred to glean from dialog or actions. His characters and setting are interesting enough to suggest that it will be worthwhile to catch up with him after he has a few more books under his belt. show less

Robert Greer’s seventh CJ Floyd mystery takes place in the heart of Colorado, where new shining star of college basketball Shandell "Blackbird" Bird is found shot to death on a basketball court. His close friend and college roommate Damion Madrid feels that the local police aren’t going to look as deeply into the murder as they should, and so he decides to investigate the murder himself.

Blackbird’s Godfather, Denver based bail bondsman CJ Floyd, is in Hawaii on his honeymoon. To help show more out the investigation, he not only sends his former Marine intelligence operative partner to lend a hand, but also lends helpful guidance and suggestions over the phone. As Damion and an assortment of shady and sometimes dangerous acquaintances dig deeper into the murder, they begin to unravel a conspiracy of corruption and lies that extend farther beyond the basketball court than anyone had imagined.

Greer’s novel is a captivating, quick-paced mystery with personal conflict, local history, and underworld manipulations weaved throughout. While the story is worth reading, there are a few hurdles that keep it from being a completely smooth ride.

There are plenty of colorful and interesting characters populating the late Blackbird’s world, and this is always a plus for mystery novels. However, the drawback in this case is that they tend to overwhelm the reader by sheer number. Similar sounding names and overlapping character quirks and backgrounds can sometimes make it difficult to tell them apart, and only add to the confusion.

Another minor flaw with the narrative is the author’s unskillful way of explaining back story. Past events, character backgrounds, and expositional material are often thrust into descriptive passages and supposedly casual dialogue in big meaty fistfuls, making them tough to chew and hard to digest. Greer has a very complex and multi-layered story to tell, and there is so much needed background that he can sometimes seem desperate to unload it all.

These flaws, while unavoidable, are minor nonetheless, and are easily overlooked as Damion’s investigation draws you further into a world that neither he nor the reader ever though existed. This latest entry in the CJ Floyd series may not be the best, but it is far from the worst, and definitely worth a look. show less