Top 7 Books About Bounty Hunters
By Cindy Fazzi
September 25, 2023
Some of the most unforgettable characters in literature are outsiders. Think of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
In law enforcement, there’s no outsider greater than the bounty hunter. Unlike a sheriff or a cop, the bounty hunter is not elected or sworn into office. Bounty hunters are not “official” in that sense, but they get in harm’s way as much as officers. For this reason, I love bounty hunters, both as a writer and a reader.
In my debut thriller Multo (meaning ghost in Tagalog), a Filipino American bounty hunter named Domingo looks for the only quarry that has ever eluded him. His target: a biracial Filipina who can disappear like a ghost. Domingo is twice an outsider for being a brown immigrant and a bounty hunter who deports criminal undocumented immigrants. He’s the best in the business precisely because he’s different.
As a reader, I recommend these fiction and nonfiction books about bounty hunters to anyone interested in the bounty hunting trope or the profession.
The Bounty Hunters by Elmore Leonard
I’m not a big fan of the Western genre excerpt for Elmore Leonard’s debut novel, published in 1953. Dave Flynn, a former military officer turned bounty hunter, is being paid four dollars a day to guide a young lieutenant named R.D. Bowers. Their mission is to hunt down the Apache renegade Soldado Viejo, who’s hiding out in Mexico. This is at the top of my list because it’s a classic on three levels—as a Western novel, a bounty hunter trope, and a Leonard work. If you know Leonard only for his quirky crime fiction, you’re missing out. Discover his fine Westerns starting with this gritty novel.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
I’m also not a fan of science fiction except for this memorable book, which inspired the Blade Runner films. Rick Deckard works for the San Francisco Police Department as a bounty hunter chasing fugitive androids. The novel was published in 1968, but the story is set in 2021. Dick imagined a future where the sun no longer shines on Earth and a mysterious dust has killed millions of people. People drive hovercars, use androids as servants, and a mood organ to cure depression and rage. Real animals are rare and exorbitant, so Deckard can only afford electric sheep. Given that 2021 was so recent, I’m grateful that Dick was wrong about a dying Earth and murderous androids. It doesn’t make his novel any less compelling. There was no way he could have guessed that in 2023, the Roomba is the closest to servant androids we’ve ever gotten.
Fortune and Glory by Janet Evanovich
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series blazed a trail when it was introduced in 1994. The bounty hunter trope has always been about white men. Stephanie, a white, female bounty hunter with an attitude, was the first of her kind. In Fortune and Glory, Stephanie goes on a treasure hunt with her kooky Grandma Mazur whose new husband dies on their wedding night. He leaves Grandma a set of keys to a safe containing a mysterious treasure, but nobody knows where it is. There are six clues to the safe’s location spread among six guys, but half of them are dead. This is book number 27, and like the others in the series, it’s set in Trenton, New Jersey, and features a cast of wacky characters. Book number 30 is coming out in October.
Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Luke Jensen is a Confederate soldier whose fellow soldiers steal the gold that they were supposed to smuggle out and protect from the Yankees. Worse, his comrades leave him for dead. Luke becomes a bounty hunter by accident. He kills some bad guys who turn out to be fugitive criminals with a thousand dollars on each of their heads. This series portrays the classic bounty hunter hero in a Western setting, full of gunslinging and action.
Broken by Don Winslow
As in Don Winslow’s best-selling novels, this collection of six short stories about crime and redemption is gritty and fast-paced. In Sunset, Duke Kasmajian owns the largest bail-bonds agency in San Diego. He assigns Boone Daniels to apprehend Terry Maddux, a famous surfer who skipped bail. Terry versus Boone makes for a perfect match because Boone happens to be a surfer turned bounty hunter. The ending shows that while bounty hunting is mostly a badass job, it’s not devoid of compassion.
Sangre Road by David Tromblay
It’s 1995. Moses Kincaid, a Ho-Chunk military veteran, has taken up bounty hunting. He’s hot on the heels of a fugitive in Oklahoma. Moe encounters bikers, a host of colorful characters, and a waitress whom he falls for. At less than 200 pages, this is a lean, low-key, and no-nonsense novel that’s also a road-trip story. Sardonic Moe is a breath of fresh air in the bounty hunter universe.
Bail Enforcer: The Advanced Bounty Hunter by Bob Burton
If you’re curious how truthful novels and movies are in portraying bounty hunting, read this book. It’s the real deal, spelling out the nuts and bolts of the job. Even the U.S. Department of Justice uses this seminal book as a training manual. Bob Burton, who died in 2016, was instrumental in elevating bail enforcement. He founded the National Association of Bail Enforcement Agents in 1986 to foster professional training and certification. The group has since merged with the National Association of Fugitive Recovery Agents (NAFRA).