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tamgperkins's review against another edition
5.0
Can't go wrong with Walter Mosley. I was so sad at the thought of no Easy Rawlins after Blind Faith. Great characters that you love to root for and a rich, fabulous description of LA. Welcome back Easy!
myriadreads's review against another edition
4.0
I am not a big reader of mysteries, and I would never have picked this up if it had not been recommended by a friend. That said, I loved this book. Easy Rawlins is a private detective and World War II vet living in Watts, Los Angeles. This novel is set in the late '60's. Walter Mosley writes intelligently, but with a voice that is authentic to everyday people. He addresses issues of race within the context of the 1960's a great deal, but represents people as a whole very fairly. The characters and the writing style drew me in right away, and the mystery that developed kept me up reading late into the night. It was so good that I've decided to read all of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, starting with Devil in a Blue Dress.
lgpiper's review against another edition
3.0
Apparently after Blonde Faith(6 years ago), Easy Rawlins didn't die after all. Here's the sequel. There's also one after this, Rose Gold, but the library isn't carrying that one yet.
Anyway, Easy Rawlins gets involved with finding and then protecting a young man who got implicated in the theft of a boat load of drug money. He had become involved inadvertantly because he met a hippy who kissed him and passed over a tab of acid from her tongue. It's rather convoluted. Interesting description of hippy life in those days, I guess. Actually, the book takes place in 1967, and I wasn't really aware of hippies myself until 1968. Perhaps they took a bit of time to get from California to Boston.
Interesting that while I was reading this, the police in Ferguson, MO shot and killed a young, unarmed black man for no apparent reason other than that he was black, which in their eyes made him suspicious. It seems that the attitudes of 1960s cops and those of today haven't changed all that much. To be young and black in America still makes one a suspicious character. One of the reasons I've taken to reading Mosley is because he tells me what it's like to be black in America. There's quite a lot about which those of us ensconced in our white suburbs have no clue. It's sad really, because it means we make bad choices regarding public policy. We believe things that aren't true, and then "fix" the problems of our fantasies, rather than those of actual realities. We'd be in a better place in America if the congress critters spent more time reading Mosley than they apparently do in reading the sophomoric diatribes of Ayn Rand.
Anyway, Easy Rawlins gets involved with finding and then protecting a young man who got implicated in the theft of a boat load of drug money. He had become involved inadvertantly because he met a hippy who kissed him and passed over a tab of acid from her tongue. It's rather convoluted. Interesting description of hippy life in those days, I guess. Actually, the book takes place in 1967, and I wasn't really aware of hippies myself until 1968. Perhaps they took a bit of time to get from California to Boston.
Interesting that while I was reading this, the police in Ferguson, MO shot and killed a young, unarmed black man for no apparent reason other than that he was black, which in their eyes made him suspicious. It seems that the attitudes of 1960s cops and those of today haven't changed all that much. To be young and black in America still makes one a suspicious character. One of the reasons I've taken to reading Mosley is because he tells me what it's like to be black in America. There's quite a lot about which those of us ensconced in our white suburbs have no clue. It's sad really, because it means we make bad choices regarding public policy. We believe things that aren't true, and then "fix" the problems of our fantasies, rather than those of actual realities. We'd be in a better place in America if the congress critters spent more time reading Mosley than they apparently do in reading the sophomoric diatribes of Ayn Rand.
readincolour's review against another edition
4.0
When he went over a cliff in Blonde Faith, most readers thought they'd never seen Easy Rawlins again. It's been quite awhile since we last heard about Easy, so our fears were founded. Never fear, six years later, Mosley has brought Easy back to his legion of fans and he's better than ever.
While we may have thought Easy was a goner, his best friend, the quick-tempered and quick thinking Mouse, knew Easy was still alive. And thanks to the wisdom of Mama Jo, he knew just where to find him. (Speaking of Mouse, Don Cheadle played the role so well in Devil in a Blue Dress, that I forgot Mouse was supposed to be a "light-skinned and light-eyed" man.) And now that Easy is somewhat recovered, Mouse has his next case lined up.
Evander "Little Green" Noon has gone missing. Neither his name nor his family is familiar to Easy, but Mouse is all het up about finding this manchild, so Easy gets up from his sick bed to do just that. In a side of Los Angeles that we've not seen in previous Easy Rawlins' books, Walter Mosley introduces readers to the hippie culture on the Sunset Strip. Along with the hippies comes the world of acid droppers and drug dealers, parts of the ever evolving 1960s. It's a city and culture that Easy doesn't recognize, but brings him to the realization that the world he knows is changing much faster than he thought and he needs to change to keep up with it.
As in past Rawlins' stories, Mosley's black characters are almost always part of the Great Migration. Most of us know that southern blacks migrated to places like Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis in search of factory jobs between 1910 and 1970, a great number of them migrated to California, with most coming from Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. As large and sprawling as Los Angeles is, these migrants stayed connected, creating their own unique communities. Mosley plays upon this and reminds us of it it when Mouse and Easy call upon friends like Mama Jo from Louisiana or Martin Martins from Mississippi to assist them in finding the son of another migrant.
I remember being upset with Walter Mosley when I read Blonde Faith, essentially killing off Easy. I've read his other books in the meantime, but I've never been as fascinated with characters like Leonid McGill. And if there was one character other than Easy that I've always wanted him to bring back, it's Socrates Fortlow from Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Though I understood that as an author he might have been bored with the Rawlins character and wanted to work on other characters and pursue other things, I felt like there was still life left in the series. Apparently Mosley has decided there is too and has already written a follow up to Little Green called Rose Gold. I'm already anticipating Easy's next adventure.
While we may have thought Easy was a goner, his best friend, the quick-tempered and quick thinking Mouse, knew Easy was still alive. And thanks to the wisdom of Mama Jo, he knew just where to find him. (Speaking of Mouse, Don Cheadle played the role so well in Devil in a Blue Dress, that I forgot Mouse was supposed to be a "light-skinned and light-eyed" man.) And now that Easy is somewhat recovered, Mouse has his next case lined up.
Evander "Little Green" Noon has gone missing. Neither his name nor his family is familiar to Easy, but Mouse is all het up about finding this manchild, so Easy gets up from his sick bed to do just that. In a side of Los Angeles that we've not seen in previous Easy Rawlins' books, Walter Mosley introduces readers to the hippie culture on the Sunset Strip. Along with the hippies comes the world of acid droppers and drug dealers, parts of the ever evolving 1960s. It's a city and culture that Easy doesn't recognize, but brings him to the realization that the world he knows is changing much faster than he thought and he needs to change to keep up with it.
As in past Rawlins' stories, Mosley's black characters are almost always part of the Great Migration. Most of us know that southern blacks migrated to places like Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis in search of factory jobs between 1910 and 1970, a great number of them migrated to California, with most coming from Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. As large and sprawling as Los Angeles is, these migrants stayed connected, creating their own unique communities. Mosley plays upon this and reminds us of it it when Mouse and Easy call upon friends like Mama Jo from Louisiana or Martin Martins from Mississippi to assist them in finding the son of another migrant.
I remember being upset with Walter Mosley when I read Blonde Faith, essentially killing off Easy. I've read his other books in the meantime, but I've never been as fascinated with characters like Leonid McGill. And if there was one character other than Easy that I've always wanted him to bring back, it's Socrates Fortlow from Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Though I understood that as an author he might have been bored with the Rawlins character and wanted to work on other characters and pursue other things, I felt like there was still life left in the series. Apparently Mosley has decided there is too and has already written a follow up to Little Green called Rose Gold. I'm already anticipating Easy's next adventure.
liberrydude's review against another edition
4.0
Easy has risen from the dead. Last time we saw him he was going off a cliff into the ocean and it appeared the series was over. He was declared dead since the police couldn't find a body. Mouse found his body hidden on a shelf in a cliff, brings him home, and he's nursed back to while being in a coma. No sooner does he wake up than Mouse asks him for a favor. What are friends for? Easy is not too steady on his feet and is still weak in body but not spirit, however with some homeopathic gator blood from friends he proceeds to find a missing teenage boy. This hunt leads him all over LA dealing with hippies, gangsters, and some past acquaintances surprised to see him alive. What I love about this series is not so much the plots but the social commentary and the interactions Easy has with his family and just folks on the street he meets at random. I got lost in the plot at one point with several characters in some sort of conspiracy to find the missing boy. Naturally money is involved as well as drugs. Easy is a righteous man. He's a good man, but you don't want to get in his way or mess with him when he's on a mission.
baxtervallens's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
alisa4books's review against another edition
4.0
Another entirely readable, page-turning Easy Rawlins story. A few convoluted storylines make this not my favorite in the series but I will not complain if Mosley keeps writing at this level for the rest of his days.