Big Johnson

Meet the Smallest Giant in New Orleans.


They say you should write what you know. After thirty years observing human behavior from the inside of federal prison, I’ve seen every kind of player, hustler, and lost soul the world has to offer.


That’s why I had to write, Big Johnson. Let me introduce you:


“My mammy who was a sporten lady, named me Lyndon Bains Johnson because that honky President got the Civil Rights Act passed. But everyone calls me Big Johnson, mainly because I’m only three feet tall, with a normal sized penis for a black man. Which because of my diminutive size makes it seem huge. I live in the French Quarter of New Orleans with my pet racoon, Waldo. I am a former pimp and gentleman of leisure but now have a new career. I’m a private detective and bounty hunter for Tony “Fats’ Arguello Bail Bonds. I have a particular talent; probably because of my former profession, of locating lost hoes. All the pimps in the Big Easy come to me when one of their ladies comes up missing.”


In a city like New Orleans, people don't just "disappear." They get taken by the shadows. And when the NOPD won't walk into those shadows, they call the man who knows exactly how to navigate them.


I made sure this story is as raw and real as the streets it’s set on. This isn't your standard detective novel. This is a journey through the Big Easy as seen from three feet off the ground.


“Big Johnson is the most original voice to hit the crime genre in decades. Raw, unapologetic, and fiercely funny, Griffith delivers a New Orleans that feels as humid and dangerous as a loaded gun.”


“Move over, Philip Marlowe. There’s a new detective on Rampart Street. Big Johnson is a masterclass in street-level noir.”


"Griffith captures the soul of the French Quarter—the smell of chicory, mixed with Absinthe, and the neon-soaked shadows where the lost go to hide. A cinematic tour de force that demands to be read in one sitting.”