David Putnam Books in Order
Explore David Putnam books in order, from Bruno Johnson to Imogene Taylor, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy help on where to start.
Last updated: July 6, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
The Disposables
by David Putnam
2014
After a personal tragedy wrecks his career, former street cop Bruno Johnson lives on parole and outside the law. While helping Marie rescue abused children, he is forced back into a serial-killer case by people who still own pieces of his past.
The Replacements
by David Putnam
2014
Hiding in Costa Rica and raising rescued children, fugitive Bruno is asked back to California to help find two kidnapped girls. The kidnapper is a boy he once saved, which makes the case far more personal.
The Squandered
by David Putnam
2016
When his imprisoned brother's grandchildren are kidnapped, Bruno returns to California from Costa Rica despite the risk of arrest. What starts as a family rescue pulls him and Marie into cocaine money, killers, and old wounds.
Fire at Will
by David Putnam
2017
Veteran deputy Will Donnelly is exiled to Joshua Tree after stealing drug money and giving it to charity in his wife's memory. Haunted by grief and a woman only he can see, he hunts a suspected child abductor.
The Bun Boy of Baker
by David Putnam
2017
In a tiny desert town, a deputy sheriff tries to outrun an old mistake while three very different women arrive carrying revenge, fear, and need. Their lives collide in a rough, darkly comic crime story.
The Vanquished
by David Putnam
2017
A threat from an outlaw motorcycle gang drags Bruno and pregnant Marie from Costa Rica back to Southern California. Revenge, old loyalties, and a stolen military drone turn the trip into chaos.
The Innocents
by David Putnam
2018
Newly made violent-crimes detective Bruno goes undercover inside a narcotics team suspected of murder for hire. On the same day, an ex-girlfriend leaves him with a baby daughter, turning a deadly assignment into a deeply personal one.
The Reckless
by David Putnam
2019
Young deputy Bruno Johnson and his volatile partner are loaned to the FBI to stop a gang of teenage criminals. To end the violence, Bruno must identify the mastermind behind them without getting kids, or himself, killed.
The Heartless
by David Putnam
2020
Bruno leaves violent crimes for a courtroom post so he can be closer to his daughter Olivia. When a jailed killer targets her and a jailbreak tears loose, Bruno is dragged back into a deeply personal manhunt.
The Ruthless
by David Putnam
2021
Bruno is balancing undercover work, a murdered judge, and family chaos when one of his small grandsons disappears. The case pushes him toward the edge, where justice, grief, and revenge start looking dangerously alike.
A Fearsome Moonlight Black
by David Putnam
2022
Dave Beckett joins a Southern California police department believing the good guys and bad guys are easy to spot. The job strips that belief away fast as he is pulled into violence, corruption, and hard-earned experience.
The Sinister
by David Putnam
2022
Recovering in Los Angeles, Bruno plans to return to Costa Rica until an FBI friend begs him to find a kidnapped granddaughter. As the case deepens, Bruno's estranged mother returns and his private life turns even messier.
A Lonesome Blood-Red Sun
by David Putnam
2023
Now a homicide detective nicknamed the Bone Dick, Dave Beckett handles old skeletal cases across the desert. When a dog brings home a bone and the dead man turns out to be someone he knew, the case turns personal.
The Scorned
by David Putnam
2023
Bruno Johnson leaves Costa Rica to bring a young woman home and finds himself in Los Angeles facing a criminal empire built on exploiting women and children. A simple favor turns into a brutal search for a missing baby.
The Blind Devotion of Imogene
by David Putnam
2024
In 1973, seventy-five-year-old Imogene Taylor is on parole for murdering her husband and trying to stay unnoticed. Then a gangster leans on her store, a corpse turns up in a garage, and quiet disappears for good.
The Diabolical
by David Putnam
2024
Living under the radar in Costa Rica, Bruno is forced to help local police after a nightclub shooting kills a friend. If he fails, he could be turned over to U.S. authorities, and someone else may already be hunting him.
Imogene's Grand Fiasco
by David Putnam
2025
Imogene takes a job at a pawn shop and lands in the middle of blackmail, dirty cops, and a plan to rob a bank during the Fourth of July parade. Parole leaves her little room for error, but trouble keeps asking for her help.
The Obsessions of Harvey Usher
by David Putnam
2025
Eighty-year-old Harvey Usher is still mourning his wife when a stranger appears claiming to be married to him. As he tries to prove her lie, buried mob-era secrets and fresh violence come rushing back.
Where should I start?
If you want the main Bruno Johnson arc: The Disposables → The Replacements → The Squandered
If you want younger Bruno on the job: The Innocents → The Reckless → The Heartless → The Ruthless
If you want a different police series: A Fearsome Moonlight Black → A Lonesome Blood-Red Sun
If you want dark comedy with crime: The Blind Devotion of Imogene → Imogene's Grand Fiasco
If you want standalones first: The Bun Boy of Baker → The Obsessions of Harvey Usher
Author bio
David Putnam comes from a law enforcement family, but books were in the picture early too. His father was a deputy sheriff, his mother was a serious reader, and Putnam has said he was reading above his grade level as a kid. He started writing young, including a junior high story about cowboys and aliens that sounds a lot like the kind of wild first draft a future crime novelist would remember forever.
He thought he might be a writer before he fully knew he would be a cop.
Police work arrived fast. Putnam became a sheriff's explorer at 15, a police cadet at 17, and an officer at 20. He started with the Ontario Police Department, then worked for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and later spent more than two decades with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Over the years he worked patrol, narcotics, violent crimes, SWAT, criminal intelligence, internal affairs, and detective bureau supervision.
That career gave him a huge store of material, and he did not let it go to waste.
Putnam has said he began seriously writing in 1989 while sitting surveillance on a meth lab in the Mojave Desert. He wrote his first four novels longhand on legal pads in the front seat of an undercover car. Later, while still working full time in law enforcement, he kept a strict routine of getting up around four in the morning to write before his shift. It took a long time to break through. By his own account, he wrote dozens of manuscripts before one finally sold, and that breakthrough came with The Disposables.
That novel introduced Bruno Johnson, still Putnam's signature character. Bruno is an ex-cop, ex-con, and rescuer of abused children, which lets Putnam bring street violence, family loyalty, and moral anger into the same story. Readers who start with The Disposables, The Replacements, or The Squandered usually find the same appeal, fast plots, hard choices, and a hero who keeps stepping outside the rules for reasons that feel painfully human.
He also likes moving sideways instead of repeating himself.
In books like The Innocents and The Reckless, he rewinds Bruno's life and shows the making of the man. Outside that world, Fire at Will follows veteran deputy Will Donnelly through grief, corruption, and desert mirages. The Dave Beckett novels, starting with A Fearsome Moonlight Black, lean into police work and the long shadow of old cases, while The Blind Devotion of Imogene gives him room for darker humor and a very unusual lead. Then there are standalones like The Bun Boy of Baker and The Obsessions of Harvey Usher, which show he is comfortable shifting tone without losing his grip on crime fiction.
Across all of it, some concerns keep resurfacing. Putnam writes a lot about children in danger, damaged families, cops under pressure, and people who know the system from the inside and no longer trust it very much. His books also tend to care about what happens after the case file closes, what guilt does, what loyalty costs, and how people keep going after they have seen too much.
He is retired from law enforcement now and lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, Mary. He also spent part of his career in Hawaii as a special agent investigating smuggling and white-collar crimes, part of what he has described as a real-life Hawaii Five-O job. These days he writes full time, grows organic California avocados, and shares life with their dogs.
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