FICTION

Charcoal Joe: An Easy Rawlins Mystery

by Walter Mosley
Doubleday. Jun. 2016. 320p. ISBN 9780385539203. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385539210. M
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In his 14th Easy Rawlins mystery (after Rose Gold), Mosley returns to L.A. in the late 1960s, with its racial unrest and discrimination. Easy has opened a detective agency with partners Saul Lynx and Tinsford "Whisper" Natly. A case with lots of racially charged motives lands in Easy's lap when he befriends Rufus Tyler, aka "Charcoal Joe," who knows a top-notch student from Stanford who's been arrested and charged with murdering a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe will pay Easy a generous sum to use his police connections and get the kid exonerated. However, the police found the student beside the victim's body. The story continues with more deception, murders, and violence. Like peeling an onion, Easy uncovers the truth one layer at a time.
VERDICT Mosley's exciting and profound mysteries with their poetic prose and historical clarity fascinate readers because Easy moves so smoothly among different worlds. His latest will please his many fans. [See Prepub Alert, 12/14/15.]
Reviewed by Jerry P. Miller, Cambridge, MA , May 15, 2016
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