Description
From Library Journal Black detective Easy Rawlins aids his dangerous-but-loyal friend Mouse, accused of killing several bar girls in 1958 Los Angeles. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews Watts sometime-detective Easy Rawlins (Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death) is married when Mosley picks up his tale in 1956, but he still hasn't settled down: He's never told his nurses'-aide wife Regina about the property he owns or how he spends his days, and the local law still leans on him for help when they're up against it. This time, a sex killer has taken a break from three low-profile snuffs of black women to murder UCLA coed Robin Garnett, a.k.a. Cyndi Starr, the White Butterfly--a stripper who kept her scandalous public life very private--and the cops want answers they didn't care about before. Easy and his murderous friend Mouse drift through Mosley's trademark bars, brothels, and Chinese laundries in L.A. and S.F. in search of the police suspect, J. T. Saunders--but when the suspect is killed in a bar fight in front of his eyes, Easy smells a setup. As usual, plotting, setting, dialogue, and social comment are all as mannered as Raymond Chandler and--if the manner doesn't put you off--nearly as compelling. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Walter Mosley is the author of four previous mystery novels in the Easy Rawlins series: Devil in a Blue Dress (basis for the acclaimed film starring Denzel Washington), A Red Death , White Butterfly , and Black Betty , a New York Times bestseller. In August 1995 he published his first non-genre novel, RL's Dream , to widespread praise. Mosley is the current president of the Mystery Writers of America, a member of the executive board of the PEN American Center and founder of its Open Book Committee, and is on the board of directors of the National Book Awards. His novels are now published in eighteen countries. He is at work on a book featuring a new character, a philosophical and tough ex-convict named Socrates Fortlow; sections have already appeared in Esquire and GQ. A native of Los Angeles, Mosley lives in New York City. Read more
Features & Highlights
- Andrew Vachss called
- Devil in a Blue Dress
- , Walter Mosley's debut mystery featuring Easy Rawlins, a tough black private detective in L.A.'s Watts section, "the most self-assured, uniquely-voiced first novel I've ever read." The
- Wall Street Journal
- said of its sequel,
- A Red Death
- : "Remarkable...proves Mr. Mosley's debut was no fluke." Readers and critics agree that Walter Mosley is writing novels fit to stand alongside the giants of the L.A. hardboiled tradition.
