David Putnam Books In Order

Publication Order of Bruno Johnson Books

Publication Order of Bad Bill Books

Publication Order of Dave Beckett Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

David Putnam is a bestselling American writer of crime fiction, thriller, and mystery novels. He is particularly famous for writing the Bruno Johnson series. He has also started a new series called Bad Bill and has penned a standalone novel called The Bun Boy of Baker. Author Putnam hails from a law enforcement family. Before trying his luck in the field of writing, he was associated with the various segments of law enforcement. They include working in narcotics, serving on the violent crimes team sponsored by the FBI, and being a US Marshall. The latter required him to pursue bank robbers and murder suspects in Nevada, California, and Arizona. Putnam has done a couple of tours with the SWAT team of the San Bernardino County Sheriff. Additionally, he has the experience of working with internal affairs and criminal intelligence. Putnam has supervised patrol, a detective bureau, and corrections.

While he was posted in Hawaii, Putnam served as the Attorney General’s Special Agent as he was a real-life Hawaii Five-O member. He was tasked with investigating white-collar crimes and smuggling. Currently, Putnam resides in Southern California along with his beautiful wife named Mary. He is enjoying his retirement from law enforcement and now works as a full-time writer. In his spare time, Putnam likes to grow organic avocados and look after his two dogs. Author Putnam says that he has been writing since 1989. He used to constantly during his law enforcement career as well.

After completing 38 manuscripts, Putnam succeeded in selling the 34th manuscript. During the initial days of his writing career, Putnam used to try his hand at everything, including mystery, sci-fi, police procedural, young adult, etc. He had hired four agents and had faced over 150 rejections, but never had the mood to quit. Then Bruno Johnson happened and it changed the course of his career for good. Putnam has described Bruno Johnson as an ex-con, ex-cop who indulges in rescuing children. He is based in South Central Los Angeles. There were many restrictions on him and many rules and regulations when Bruno was a cop. So, he could carry out the rescue activities effectively. Bruno Johnson is shown as an African-American and is inspired by a real-life friend of author Putnam, who worked with him in the patrolling department in Los Angeles.

The Bruno Johnson series written by author David Putnam began in 2014 and comprised of 7 books up to 2020. Each book of this series features the main protagonist in the role of Bruno Johnson. A native of Los Angeles, Bruno is depicted as a former cop and former con. He takes up tasks to save and rescue children from acts of abuse and violent crimes. Other essential characters created by Putnam for this series include Marie, Jonas Mabry, Barbara Wicks, Ned Kiefer, The Darkman, Olivia, Louis Barkow, etc. Marie is initially depicted as Bruno’s girlfriend and later becomes his wife. Olivia’s character comes in the latter part of the series and is seen as the daughter of Bruno and Marie Johnson.

The series begins by introducing Bruno Johnson as a tough street cop. He is a member of the elite task force to fight violent crime. When a personal tragedy strikes him, Bruno’s life gets derailed. He is forced to break the law. As Bruno becomes an ex-con, he begins to experience a difficult life on parole. The cops hassle him repeatedly and his former partner named Barbara Wicks bullies him into assisting him in fighting high profile crime unofficially. The only person who is good to Bruno is Marie. The two of them dedicate themselves to rescue abused children. They even create an underground railroad for disposable and neglected kids. Different kinds of difficulties come in his path as the series progresses further.

A popular book written in the series is entitled ‘The Replacements’. It was released by the Oceanview Publishing in 2015. This book opens by showing that ex-convict, ex-detective Bruno Johnson hides himself from the FBI by taking shelter in Costa Rica. He works at a bar to support 8 abused children that he rescued illegally. When Bruno’s former colleague and police chief Barbara Wicks arrives at the bar, he is completely shocked. As he fears getting arrested by her, she asks him to relax and requests his help in saving two kidnapped children. Bruno learns that the kidnapper is Jonas Mabry, whom he had saved when he was a small child. Knowing that Bruno has been roped into the case, Jonas Mabry demands the former convict to risk his life for him and collect the one million dollar ransom. Bruno doesn’t fear to risk his life or getting arrested for his past crimes in California and is willing to do whatever it takes to save the kids. His newlywed wife Marie is also by his side in this task.

Another exciting book of this series is known as ‘The Squandered’. It was also published by Oceanview Publishing in 2016. In this novel’s story, Bruno is asked to come to California by his terminally ill dad to help his incarcerated and estranged brother in rescuing his kidnapped grandchildren. Bruno has an emotional attachment to his father and cannot deny his request. But, Marie is not willing to let him go to the United States alone and face the risk of arrest. Both Marie and Bruno return to their home country as fugitives to face imminent arrest as well as confront drug dealers, government agents, and ruthless kidnappers. The government wants to arrest them as soon as possible in order to prevent a hidden secret from getting revealed.

When Bruno Johnson and his wife get discovered in Los Angeles, they encounter mayhem than and realize that they are in deep trouble. Later, Bruno comes to know that his brother inadvertently crossed paths with dangerous criminals, inside the prison as well as outside. Also, a number of law enforcement agencies are trying to locate a missing load of cocaine worth 9 million dollars. As a result, the criminals kidnapped the grandchildren of Bruno’s brother. The brutality, emotional stress, and chase test the relationship between Bruno and Marie and force them to decide what they want to forgive and what they are not willing to forget.