Scan barcode
wordsofcedrick's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Easy Rawlins character is in need of a tv series. The stories have diverse and complicated characters.
franschulman9's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
elijah_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
nobodyatall's review against another edition
2.0
I’d heard that Walter Mosley is an amazing author. But I couldn’t be bothered finishing this. It was okay, I suppose, just wasn’t enough for me. It’s very rare that I enjoy a detective novel though.
mrjess_bhs's review
5.0
Luke Cage brought me here! When Luke Cage first aired, he was reading this book, and I wanted to pick it up, but felt compelled to read the 11 Easy Rawlins book before I did, but I finally got it. This has Easy in his best form: charming ladies, solving mysteries, serving as a slightly more morally upright suppresser to Mouse’s casually murderous nature, and showing that when you take care of people, you get taken care of.
nonna7's review against another edition
5.0
Easy Rawlings is back after surviving what would have been a fatal accident for most men in the last book in the series, Blonde Faith. It's 1967 in Watts, Los Angeles. For someone who not have read previous books in the series - and I haven't read them all - it can be hard to understand the character. He is a WWII veteran who is a private detective at a time when there weren't many black private detectives. He is a violent man in a violent world and a loving man in a loving world. Moseley's works are always about racism and how it affects everyone no matter who they are. They are dark, often filled with a bit of Caribbean voodoo. In this case, it's Mama Jo who mixes a magic elixir that allows Easy to leave his sick bed prematurely. Thanks to his friend, Mouse, Easy was rescued from death after his car plunged down a cliff. Now he's awake from a long coma, and Mouse needs his help. Everyone agrees he needs to rest, but Mouse needs him. A young man runs off with a bag of drug money during an LSD haze. Now the people want their money back and will do whatever it takes. We meet the many people who know and respect Easy and are willing to help him get the job done - from Mama Jo and her potions to the CEO of a French firm. I love Moseley's writing. Reviewers have picked apart his last few books. Perhaps it's just that he's from a different generation. I know that I'll be reading his stuff for as long as he's willing to write it.
ewbanh's review
5.0
Another excellent Easy Rawlins mystery. Easy is older in this book, and recovering from a near-fatal car accident. The mystery is fun, but the best parts of the books are Rawlins' story of recovery and Mosely's social commentary.
marystevens's review against another edition
4.0
The latest Easy Rawlings crime book and one of the best. Easy is a black private detective in 1960's Los Angeles. This time he has nearly died in a car crash and has just come out of a two month coma when his best friend, the bad man Ray Alexander (Mouse), wants him to find Mouse's friend's son who has disappeared. Easy's search leads him to hippie communes and vengeful drug lords before he finds the boy. Easy is sustained by Mama Jo's elixir, Gator Blood, as he goes through his adventures.
jakewritesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
One of my all-time favorite movies is Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Featuring Elliot Gould in a great star turn as Phillip Marlowe who is deposited in the 1970s as a fish-out-of-water cynical private eye, Altman does a fantastic job of contrasting the post-war male angst of the 50s with the post-60s hypershift in American culture. And oh yeah, there’s a mystery to solve.
Chronologically, there’s no gap between Little Green and Cinnamon Kiss, Mosley’s previous Easy Rawlins book. The former picks up a few months after where the latter left off, with Easy recovering from a car crash (the means of which I won’t spoil if you have yet to read Cinammon Kiss). But in terms of publication, they’re worlds apart. Little Green was published six years after its prequel and I have to imagine Mosley was deliberating in that time whether or not he wanted to continue the series.
I’m glad he chose to continue it because this is definitely one of the best books in the series and it functions as a soft reboot. Easy’s recovery only happens in a matter of months but the Rip Van Winkle effect that Altman uses in his movie functions here. 1969 Los Angeles is a far different cry from its postwar setting in Devil in a Blue Dress, where we first meet Easy. Even as Mosley has brought him along in America’s timeline, up to the Watts riots of 1964 and beyond, I continue to think of Easy existing in the same time span as Phillip Marlowe.
But Easy has always been a survivor so it makes sense that Mosley would want to take him in this direction if he wanted to continue to tell these stories. Although Easy is only in his late-40s, it feels like he’s lived a lifetime between combat in the second World War and surviving the streets of Los Angeles, which are basically run apartheid-style by white supremacy. So while it took a few pages to get into the changes, I ultimately dug what Mosley was doing.
I realize I’ve said little about the mystery itself but it is a good one. Because Mosley wants to acclimate Easy to the change in times, he’s able to streamline a simple story that’s less convoluted than some of his other plots. It makes it easy (heh) for the reader to get into. I liked this one a lot; it breathed new life into a series that was showing its tread and now I’m excited to continue.
Chronologically, there’s no gap between Little Green and Cinnamon Kiss, Mosley’s previous Easy Rawlins book. The former picks up a few months after where the latter left off, with Easy recovering from a car crash (the means of which I won’t spoil if you have yet to read Cinammon Kiss). But in terms of publication, they’re worlds apart. Little Green was published six years after its prequel and I have to imagine Mosley was deliberating in that time whether or not he wanted to continue the series.
I’m glad he chose to continue it because this is definitely one of the best books in the series and it functions as a soft reboot. Easy’s recovery only happens in a matter of months but the Rip Van Winkle effect that Altman uses in his movie functions here. 1969 Los Angeles is a far different cry from its postwar setting in Devil in a Blue Dress, where we first meet Easy. Even as Mosley has brought him along in America’s timeline, up to the Watts riots of 1964 and beyond, I continue to think of Easy existing in the same time span as Phillip Marlowe.
But Easy has always been a survivor so it makes sense that Mosley would want to take him in this direction if he wanted to continue to tell these stories. Although Easy is only in his late-40s, it feels like he’s lived a lifetime between combat in the second World War and surviving the streets of Los Angeles, which are basically run apartheid-style by white supremacy. So while it took a few pages to get into the changes, I ultimately dug what Mosley was doing.
I realize I’ve said little about the mystery itself but it is a good one. Because Mosley wants to acclimate Easy to the change in times, he’s able to streamline a simple story that’s less convoluted than some of his other plots. It makes it easy (heh) for the reader to get into. I liked this one a lot; it breathed new life into a series that was showing its tread and now I’m excited to continue.
jerseyfemme's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0