Matt Royal Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Matt Royal Mystery Books

Matt Royal is the lead character in the Matt Royal series of detective crime fiction by H. Terrell Griffin, the American lawyer turned award-winning author of crime thrillers and mystery. Because of his legal background, Griffin writes the Matt Royal series of novels from both a legal and thriller perspective. Throughout the novels, he portrays his excellent knowledge of the law through putting the lead character in situations where he employs his legal and military skills to move the story forward. The lead character in the novels is Matt Royal, a former soldier that fought in the Vietnam War before he came back home to practice as a lawyer. While he had made a good living for himself as a lawyer, he is now down on his luck having quit the law. The first novel of the Matt Royal series was the 2005 published “The Longboat Blues”, which attained much commercial success and critical acclaim. Given the great reception of the first novel in the series, the author went on to publish several more titles in the still ongoing series, which have been just as popular. As a board certified lawyer with nearly four decades of experience, the author mixes in his trial experience in portraying the life of a lawyer as well as the intrigues, adventure, and danger of detective work. The narratives are full of suspenseful action in fast-paced plots full of twists and turns, that highlight the skills of a master storyteller that is a combination of Robert Ludlum and John Grisham.

Matt Royal the lead character is a man that likes to call himself a retired attorney though he actually had to drop out of the legal game. He had dropped out of the law as he felt that he could not reconcile himself to the concept of justice in practice and enactment as it was practiced. He had also lost his life and family to his job since he was too much involved in practicing law, that he had neglected his wife and children for years. After years of neglecting his wife, she finally got tired of it all and one day asked for a divorce leaving him frustrated and alone. He had betrayed the most important partner and friend in his life, while he was unsatisfied with the profession that he loved. He leaves the legal profession where he had been one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the State of Florida and heads south to try to find himself. Heading to the Florida southwest coast, he does not find himself instead becoming a destitute drunk. The events in the novels start a year later when he lands a legal injustice case that invigorates his desire to go back to the law. He finally gets his life back on track, gets sober and financially secure, and is on a path to become the man he is destined to be. However, his new quest for justice sees him deal with a variety of adventurous and dangerous cases. Nonetheless, given his previous experience with the Special Forces, Matt is a man who can more than take care of himself in such situations.

The Matt Royal series of novels is set in a small town Florida setting, where Matt Royal the lead and the supporting cast make a living. They are the working class citizens of small town America, who are juxtaposed against the corrupt and cold villains of corporate America. Over the course of the series, the author writes about Matt Royal as a man who fights for justice, to quell the disquiet he has had with the justice system. However, from the third novel onward, he shifts gears and includes international terrorism and international political intrigue that takes Matt beyond the confines of Florida. However, even as the events in the series sometimes take the characters to Europe, the Middle East, and eastern seaboard cities such as Boston, they are very much related to the corruption and rot in Florida and the American government. Through the novels, the author not only provides thrilling legal narratives but also deals with moral and ethical questions. Some issues include issues such as the morality of torture for information extraction or killing in self-defense. Griffin weaves tales of murder, politics, domestic abuse, identity theft, drugs, mysterious disappearances, and cons games that offer the ultimate suspense and thrill.

“Longboat Blues” the first novel of the Matt Royal series is sizzling mystery set in the South Coast of Florida. Logan Hamilton finds himself in jail after the body of his girlfriend is discovered stabbed multiple times on the balcony of his Gulf of Mexico condominium. Luckily for Logan, he is friends with a burned out trial lawyer named Mathew Royal, who agrees to come to his aid in investigating the mysterious murder. Logan has gotten the worst of the draw, as his prosecutor is a hard-nosed prosecutor who has made a name for herself for never losing such cases. Facing the death penalty, Matt traverses South Florida, Chicago, and Iowa to find evidence to save his friend. It all ends in a climactic trial where the secrets that Matt reveals stun the island paradise and the US, with its implications reverberating across the globe. The novel is a great thriller of a ride that moves from the Mid-West to the South Florida cities, the Egmont Keys, and Longboat. Full of intrigue, mystery, and interesting characters, it makes for some great reading.

“Murder Key” the second novel in the Matt Royal series opens to Matt being the victim of a murder attempt. He has been going about his life of fishing, sun, and beer, and is bewildered that there is someone out there seeking his life. He now needs to find out not only who wants him dead but also why. Teaming up with Jock Algren and Logan Hamilton his best friends, they embark on a journey that sees them traverse the Florida everglades, the labor camps, the mines, and the Mexican beaches. They find themselves embroiled in intricate web of death, drugs, and illegal immigration. Even as Matt does his best to stay alive, his romance with his lawyer lover is on the rocks and he is powerless to do anything about it. The mystery tingles and flows as the ugliness of crime is juxtaposed with the extravagance and beauty of the American and Mexican islands that Matt calls home.