By: Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr.
Publisher: Soaring High Publishing
Publication Date: September 23, 2026
ISBN: 978-1959354543
Reviewed by: Ephantus Muriuki
Review Date: October 29, 2026
The Griffin Knight Crime Files: Books 0.5-2 (The Griffin Knight Universe) by Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. gives us Griffin Knight, a detective who at first is a brash, hotshot detective in Always Bet on Death, a mystery set in Long Island.
Griffin comes in from Chicago where he was handling drug dealers and petty criminals. After joining the Long Island homicide desk, he's at first reckless, quick to antagonize suspects, and is pretty convinced he can handle anything on his own. But the sheer weight of the cases awaiting him makes you quickly worry about him, not because he can't handle them, but simply because you know he might get himself killed before he can figure out how someone keeps a $60,000 bottle of Scotch in their office. You can practically hear him thinking, "This is going to be a long career."
In Do Nothing, he is more seasoned and more strategic. He can connect with the people around him, not just work alongside them. He is reading crime scenes, not just reacting to them. We see him noticing the room, feeling the unspoken anger of the crime tech crew, and understanding that something is different this time. Unlike in Always Bet on Death where he was too focused on proving himself, here, he's thinking about the kind of detective he wants to be, which is why he doesn't look at evidence in isolation. He compares it across time, and in so doing, achieves what Long Island PD couldn't, in seven years.
In Colossal Injustice, which is set in Seattle, he swims to the deeper end of the pool as a civilian with no authority, with no Trenton Barnes as backup, and with no legal jurisdiction or standing. The system he believes in in New York doesn't work here. In fact, the law here is just a tool for the people who own it, people like Sapphire, the owner and CEO of Colossus, who has judges, cops and politicians on her payroll. But Knight is never intimidated by that. He keeps on moving, even when he doesn't know whether the next move could bring him face-to-face with the muzzle of a gun ready to splatter his brains across the pavement.
This collection tells one continuous story; it is a trilogy of a transformation, where you see a character grow not just in skill, but also in belief. Bundling these three stories into one also lets you see the erosion of his idealism in real time. That's a rare treat akin to watching a sculptor chip away at a block of marble over weeks instead of just seeing the finished statue. You are literally there for every strike of the chisel and every piece that falls away, even as you understand exactly what was carved out, and what was left behind. The structure handles the reader like an egg, fragile at first, then hardening, before inevitably cracking under the weight of what the protagonist learns.
Each of his stories move at a different speed. The first one is fast, pulling you in quickly, the second one slows down, marinates you in doubt and evidence, low and slow, before the third one turns up the heat. As a result, you are served an experience you didn't ask for in the best way, pleasant at first, then uncomfortably warm, right before you realized you've been converted into a sleuth who's suddenly hot on the trail of something they can't put down.
Quill says: The Griffin Knight Crime Files: Books 0.5-2 (The Griffin Knight Universe) by Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. ticks every box of a crime thriller that keeps its audience guessing throughout. It's twisty and keeps the reader tripped up for a good measure, even as they question whether they were reading the clues right, or simply seeing what they wanted to see. Shakespeare once wrote, "Nothing is but what is not." That's exactly why it isn't a difficult collection to keep up with: it's one that just needs you to keep turning the pages, because when nothing is what it seems, the only way to find out what's real is to keep reading.
For more information about The Griffin Knight Crime Files: Books 0.5-2 (The Griffin Knight Universe), please visit the author's website at: iammahjr.com/
