Blackbird, Farewell (CJ Floyd Series #7)

Publishers Weekly

Damion Madrid, the godson of Denver bail bondsman CJ Floyd, takes center stage in Greer's solid eighth CJ Floyd novel (after 2007's The Mongoose Deception). Best friends Madrid and Shandell Bird led Colorado State's basketball team to the NCAA finals, where they lost to UCLA. When Bird, the NBA's second overall draft choice, is gunned down along with a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Madrid determines to find out who and why. With advice from CJ's partner, Flora Jean Benson, and protection (at CJ's request) from hit man Pinkie Niedemeyer and old mobster Mario Satoni, Madrid discovers much he never knew about Bird. Bird's incipient wealth attracted plenty of hangers-on, including a noted sports psychologist, bookies, fixers and pushers. Madrid stumbles a bit, but acquits himself well after entering a dangerous world where sportsmanship plays no part and you better be able to trust the person who's covering your back. Author tour. (Oct.)

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Library Journal

After signing a multimillion-dollar contract to play basketball for the Denver Nuggets, Shandell "Blackbird" Bird is shot to death. His best friend, Damion Madrid, decides to investigate since his godfather, CJ Floyd, is in Hawaii on his honeymoon. Damion gets help from Flora Jean Benson, the former military intelligence agent now running the bail bond company started by Floyd. Damion has two weeks before medical school starts, and he is determined to discover who killed his friend. 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 for mystery and African American fiction collections.

—Jo Ann Vicarel

School Library Journal

Adult/High School

Damion Madrid is a 22-year-old college basketball player freshly graduated from Colorado State University, and the last summer vacation before he becomes a medical student is no bed of roses. His best friend and teammate, Shandell Bird, aka Blackbird, a first-round NBA draft pick by the Denver Nuggets, is found dead on a neighborhood court beside a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter. The son of a defense attorney, Damion decides to take up the case himself and begins investigating parts of Blackbird's life he never knew existed. Although this is a murder mystery, it is also a coming-of-age story, as Damion realizes that he can never possibly know everything about the people in his life. He discovers that people he trusted, including the college basketball team's trainer and Connie Eastland, Blackbird's girlfriend, may have more knowledge about the murder than Damion would like to admit. While teens looking for pure sports stories may prefer Tim Tharp's Knights of the Hill Country (Knopf, 2006) or John Foley's Hoops of Steel (Flux, 2007), those transitioning into more complex novels would respond well to this title's sports references and the discussion of what it means to be another man's friend. Readers who are enthusiastic about this book may be interested in the novels in Greer's "C J Floyd" series (Frog), although Damion plays a much smaller role in them.-Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA

Kirkus Reviews

Greer benches series hero CJ Floyd (The Mongoose Deception, 2007, etc.), who's sorely missed in this slow-moving tale of murder and big-time basketball. Bail bondsman CJ Floyd, whose smarts, toughness and gravitas have served Denver so well, isn't about to be drawn back from his Hawaiian honeymoon, though clearly Damion Madrid, his godson and protege, is in over his head. Damion's friend, and everybody's All-American, Shandell "Blackbird" Bird, has been snuffed out as he stood at the very edge of a brilliant new career. Having signed a multimillion-dollar NBA contract, Blackbird was weeks away from joining the Denver Nuggets when a sniper's bullet ended the dream he'd cherished since fourth grade. So Damion has to know why. And who. Since his godfather isn't available, he turns to ex-Marine Flora Jean Benson, CJ's partner, for badly needed sleuthing help. There's no dearth of suspects: the beautiful, blonde, hard-shelled girlfriend whose six-foot-one meal ticket was showing signs of disenchantment; the on-again-off-again dad whose fondness for Blackbird bloomed suspiciously late; and a surfeit of others. It turns out that Blackbird had as many dark secrets as fancy floor moves. Greer fills his tale with red, white and black herrings, but he takes a long time to get where he's going, and he disappoints when he finally gets there. A low-scoring game.