With Ezekiel “Easy”Rawlins this author has created one of the most popular characters known to crime fiction. In some 14 tales Walter Mosley has kept up the excitement as Easy gets in and out of hot water in 1968 Los Angeles.
As Charcoal Joe begins for once it looks like Easy is enjoying a quietus while running WRENS-L, a detective agency whose partners including Easy are Saul Lynx and Whisper Natly. Plus, Easy is about to propose to his ever girl Bonnie Shay....until he finds out she’s rehooked up with another. Perhaps that clouded his judgment, but whatever the case he’s agreed to help Charcoal Joe.
The son of one of Joe’s many associates, Dr. Seymour Brathwaite, a 22-tear-old physicist, was found at the scene of a double murder and is now enjoying the hospitality of the LAPD. Joe wants Easy to find evidence to clear Seymour. As there’s never a dull moment in Easy’s life Jasmine Palmas-Hardy (once Seymour’s foster mother) offers Easy $18,000 to bail Seymour out. Seems a bit odd, doesn’t it? But that’s not the end of unexplainables - two thugs who have attacked Easy and his friend Fearless Jones go to meet their maker, there are several other murders, and more felonies than we can count.
With non-stop action, carefully drawn ancillary characters, and best of all Easy in full force Charcoal Joe is a must for all fans of the series and the unfortunate few who haven’t yet experienced the power of Walter Mosley’s pen. Michael Boatman’s narration is finely tuned as he not only delivers the tale but expertly introduces the thugs, ladies of the night and police officers who walk the LA’s streets.
Enjoy!
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