The Fourth Perspective

C. J. Floyd #5

by Robert Greer

CJ Floyd's antique and Western collectibles store is finally open and he's left bail bonding and bounty hunting far behind—or so he thinks. An old book he buys turns out to contain much more than a dry history of 19th-century Montana: tucked inside is a never-before-seen photograph from the Golden Spike ceremony, a seminal event in American history. It's an item collectors would kill to get. And when the book's former owner turns up dead, police peg CJ as the prime suspect. With help from his former partner, Flora Jean Benson, and his cadre of urban cowboys, CJ sets out to find the killer. The investigation draws him into the bizarre world of cutthroat collectors, museum curators, eccentric power brokers, and small-minded academics, all on a vicious treasure hunt for the ultimate jackpot. This fast-moving mystery blends action and intrigue with one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the American West.

Genres: Mystery

392 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2006

About the author

Robert Greer, author of the CJ Floyd mystery series, lives in Denver, where he is a practicing surgical pathologist, research scientist, and Professor of Pathology and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He also edits the High Plains Literary Review, reviews books for National Public Radio, and raises Black Baldy cattle on his ranch near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Series:
* C. J. Floyd

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Former Denver bail bondsman, CJ Floyd is now a dealer in western collectibles. He's over-extended financially, and business is not all that great. To add insult to injury, his old life keeps popping up to interfere with his new one, much to the chagrin of his lover, Mavis. In particular, someone with an old grudge is hunting CJ and neither Mavis nor anyone else is going to know any peace before this business is settled.

An impatient young man sells CJ two old books. CJ wonders about the provenance, but he can't bring himself to pass on a great bargain and a chance to turn up a quick and easy profit. But when the seller is murdered behind CJ's store, the profit turns out to be neither quick nor easy and CJ finds himself up to his neck in a dangerous mystery involving stolen western artifacts and the search for an extremely valuable photograph.

I confess that I had a bit of trouble getting into this book, basically because it required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I could muster. The story is well told, but I never really bonded with the characters and so had difficulty caring about their problems. Still, the Denver setting is well-developed; Greer writes well, and other readers may well find themselves more involved in the story than I.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this series about a Denver bail bondsman and detective. It ought to get the same respect as the Easy Rawlins series. Good tale about the search for a long missing dageurrotype of the driving of the silver spike on the transcontinental railroad.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reading. Robert Greer is a wonderful mystery writer. Kinda predictable but the modern West fascinates me and I appreciate how he blends it w/today.