The Mongoose Deception

By Robert Greer

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.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: mysteriouspress.com
• Release date: Jan 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781788540841

Reviews for The Mongoose Deception

[kevinjoseph_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Billed as the seventh mystery in the CJ Floyd series, The Mongoose Deception reveals itself to be more of a crime novel or conspiracy thriller than a traditional whodunit. Floyd doesn’t make his first appearance until page seventy-seven, by which time the reader has become quite intimate with Louisiana delinquent Antoine Ducane and a slew of 1963-vintage mafia figures from around the country who are busy executing a conspiracy to assassinate JFK.Floyd, who earns his living through the unlikely combination of bail bondsman services and antiques dealing, gets pulled into these decades-old events through his antiques partner and former mafia kingpin, Mario Santoni, who fears that he’s being served up by his mafia brethren as a fall-guy for the assassination. The mafia guys, some of whom are retired octogenarians yet still retain their violent tendencies, are running scared now that the long-interred body of patsy Antoine Ducane has been unearthed from a Colorado tunnel.In addition to juggling a large cast of mafia dons, hit men, and other shadowy figures (including an enigmatic JFK conspiracy investigator), Robert Greer ambitiously layers in subplots involving Ducane’s mother and former girlfriend as well as an earnest young basketball star and his defense lawyer mom. Greer writes well and succeeds in constructing an intersecting plot of epic proportions, but I found myself bogged down by minutia and dialogue that often failed to advance the story. The multitude of mafia guys also tended to blur together, as many were given only bit parts and few were bestowed with distinguishing character traits. I also felt as if the novel lacked a compelling central character; neither Floyd nor any of his cohorts were given enough stage time to forge a strong bond with me.Robert Greer possesses talent and an interesting protagonist. In my view, future CJ Floyd offerings would benefit from a more focused, Floyd-centric structure.