The Devil's Hatband (CJ Floyd Mystery Series)

When the daughter of a black federal judge gets carried away with her militant environmentalism, Denver bail bondsman and sometime bounty hunter CJ Floyd is hired to retrieve her and the important documents she possesses. But when CJ finds her, she's been strangled with the devil's hatband—a length of barbed wire—the symbol of the cattle industry she wants to destroy. The body count mounts as CJ's search for the murderer makes him a target for environmentalist crazies, gangbangers, police, and even a deadly, genetically engineered virus. This is a first novel, and the first in a series, and it's a worthy debut.