Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve.Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case … from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.
Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.
more
A noir type story set in L.A. just after WWII, written by Walter Mosley one of the Grand Master Award winners from the Mystery Writers of America. Ezekial Rawlins known as Easy Rawlins is a WWII veteran and hard-boiled black private investigator. Mosley does a wonderful job of projecting the mood and temperament of that era in Los Angeles, California.
The author’s first in the Easy Rawlins series was Devil in a Blue Dress made into a movie starring Denzil Washington. Walter Mosley also won the 2019 Edgar Allen Poe award for the best novel, Down the River Unto the Sea, as well as numerous other awards for his fiction writing.
I recommend this novel, this series, and this author.
David Bishop, mystery author
Mosley never disappoints. Another great Easy Rawlins installment.
Walter Mosley brings us a world white people rarely knew — what it was like to be black in the 40s in LA.
Few current author can explain the modern American reality like Walter Mosely. I am not saying the current Afro American reality, I mean it is the American reality.
Notorious Los Angeles PI Easy Rawlins has just formed a new detective agency with a couple of partners when he is contacted by his friend Mouse. Rufus Tyler AKA Charcoal Joe is in jail and a friend’s son, Seymour Braithwaite, has been arrested for a murder he didn’t commit. Tyler hires Easy to clear Braithwaite. What ensues is another of Mosley’s layered stories. As Easy begins working the case, he encounters the noirish realm of 1960s LA crime. Women seduce him, and for some reason a bunch of white guys want to kill him. Meanwhile, something is off with Charcoal Joe. Filled with colorful characters and layers of tantalyzing situations, this is another great read by a master craftsman! Thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for a review copy of this book.
Everything by Mosley is great, I have read all of them.
This Easy Rawlins mystery (CHARCOAL JOE) is classic Walter Mosley! No one can turn a phrase like Easy as he banters with friends and foes alike, while solving problems that make their way to his P.I. door. Unlucky in love, but extremely lucky with family and friends, Easy tackles this latest adventure with wit, determination, skill, and an uncanny knack for foiling the plans of his adversaries. While I enjoyed reading this novel, I couldn’t help but to miss the dramatic intonations that the late actor Paul Winfield used to bring to the audible versions. He made Easy, Mouse, et al come alive with his incredible narration, and the world of audio books is sorely lacking without him. RIP, Brother Winfield, and keep churning out those wonderful antics of Easy Rawlins, Mr. Mosley!
Walter Mosley is in great form and this book is a marvelous addition to his long running series.
i read lots of mystery books but this one is different from the usual formula. i urge you to give it a try, i’m on my third Mosely book now.
Classic Mosley
Enjoyed it