Reviews

Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley

matissaflono's review

funny informative mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

johnnyb1954's review against another edition

3.0

This picks up right after the end of The Little Yellow Dog - it's as if chapter 1 of Brawly Brown is just the next chapter of Yellow Dog, you just turned the page. This is a new story, of course - a new set of bad guys, cops and people who just have the bad luck to be drawn into it. The story is also a vehicle for Mosley to touch on the existence of groups like the Black Panthers. He briefly covers how the groups include those who truly have noble objectives and those who have other motives - as well as how Police and other officials try to subvert them. The book is very good - I gave it 3 stars because I didn't think it was quite as good as the previous one. But it's really 3.75.

davidjeri60's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

jakewritesbooks's review against another edition

4.0

(3.5) Another quality addition to the Easy Rawlins series. It has a little too much going on plot-wise for such a short book but is still a good mystery read. For all the love that Chandler and his imitators get, I still think Walter Mosley does the best job at portraying Los Angeles of anyone who writes LA-based crime novels.

mrjess_bhs's review against another edition

3.75

A good entry, but like Easy in the book, the series feels the loss of a staple character from the other entries. I also don’t really like how the “First Men” are portrayed as they are a clear parallel to the Black Panthers and are portrayed at best as naive and more commonly inept and corrupt. Sure Mosley gives a wink to those who wanted to do good, but it felt paternalistic. The ending is perhaps too abrupt and doesn’t wrap up like the previous volumes but I can see Mosley is trying something different things out in this volume. Still a fun and quick read.

youngj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing sad tense medium-paced

3.75

This is a solid read but one of the few where I didn't fully get the mechanics of everything going on, but I did get the emotional heft when more of Bad Bory Brawly's past is revealed. If I think about the rest of the plot more I think it gets clearer. Also, I should've read this immediately after A Little Yellow Dog but instead read in order of release and picked up Gone Fishin'. Doing that ground the momentum to a halt. I love Gone Fishin' and own it now in paperback (no Kindle version as I've read most of these on eBook since the start of the 2020 Pandemic), but now I wish I'd bought it and then read it later in the series, especially since it's a stand-alone prequel anyways.

TL:DR - Some of the story is a little confusing but some of that's my fault but no big deal. The various emotional beats are satisfying to read, and the racial commentary on Black radical and political groups was welcome. I especially enjoy reading the growing dynamics between Easy and his son, Jesus. A solid Rawlins-mystery that I overall enjoyed unraveling. I'm also excited as I'm now halfway through the series.

locpressedbooks_'s review

4.0

Easy, going about his normal life, still trying to get over the death of his best friend Mouse when a friend of his calls and asks for a favor. This is the moment when Easy should have taken a hard pass on the favor, but being who he is, doing something for someone else perked him up a bit. Now still grieving the loss of his friend, Easy is asked to find Brawly Brown. His mama is looking for him, but he doesn't seem to want to be found. Easy has heard that he has started running with this local group called the First Men or the Urban Revolutionary Party.

"Their voices might have seemed angry to someone who didn't know the gruff bark of the American Negro's soul. Those men and woman were far beyond anger, though. They were expressing a desire for love and revenge and for something that didn't exist - had never existed. That's why they were there. They were going to create freedom to of the sow's ear called America. The believed in the spirit of the Constitution and not the direction of the cash register." (p. 44, Mosley)

Sounds like something familiar huh? That is what really drew me into this story. Being as this is an Easy Rawlins story, you know it's never just as simple as it starts out being. Cop raids, dead bodies, a cache of weapons, 3am phone calls, family secrets, the works. All while Easy is trying to keep his home life safe and on normal progression. I loved it.

Edit/In addition: Of course this book is dripping with race relations and what would be deemed as a "terrorist" group outlook/activities from police eyes, and what it means to be a black man in 1964, rising a family, owning your own home and car. Its crazy the correlation from the police/government activities in a book of fiction have to the daily lives of black folks in 2017 . I think that's what I really love about Mosley's work. It stands the test of time and it can really hit home.

jerseyfemme's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really loved this one. Walter Mosley can write a story so compelling! I am just loving this ride along the Easy Rawlins series. 

bdplume's review against another edition

4.0

This was my least favorite of the Rawlins mysteries. That said, it still gets 4 stars.

readermonica's review against another edition

4.0

Another enjoyable installment in a wonderful series.

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