"A prequel to the CJ Floyd mystery series"--Jacket.

CJ Floyd is 22 years old, but he seems much older somehow and certainly more disillusioned than his peers in early-1970s Denver. He finds an emotional anchor and kindred soul in Wiley Ames, a World War II amputee and antique dealer. When Wiley is murdered and his case unsolved, CJ vows to find the killer; in the meantime, he throws himself into his uncle Ikes bail-bond business, if only to push his painful memories into the shadows. Five years later one of Ames most treasured antiques surfaces at a Denver flea market. Its the thread Floyd needs to unravel the murder.