Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Novel
by Walter Mosley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Walter MosleyEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-01
ISBN: 0446612715
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Vision
Book Reviews of Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Novel
Book Review: A First For Mosley...FIVE STARS from ME!
Summary: 5 Stars
Watts, California in the middle 1960's. Racial unrest is at an all-time high. Innocents suffer the blame of the guilty. So begins the newest piece by Walter Mosley - a searing cat-and-mouse chase built around the bastard children of War...
Riots.
Total fiction built around a true blight on history, "Little Scarlet" is about the mysterious murder of a black woman and the police won't do anything about it. When more women show up dead under similar circumstances, enter Easy Rawlins, part-time amatuer detective, full-time Sojourner Truth School janitor. Any reader familiar with Easy's past exploits will find a totally different man from his first entry, "Devil In A Blue Dress." The former womanizer and unemployed binge drinker is pretty much settled down with his adopted daughter and son, making a family with his main squeeze Bonnie. His only vice is smoking and he's the head janitor at the school he works for. From time to time he plays detective in the form of "doing favors for people who repay him in favors." Likeable cop Det. Suggs comes knocking and asks Easy to do a little investigating about the murders. With the police too worried about their own bad reputations in the enraged black neighborhoods, Easy is not only left with the task of solving a very intricate murder plot, but he also has to deal with the melting pot of Negro anger. Stores are up in flames, people are fighting in the streets and someone is committing murder after murder. With only a few close friends and a sort of "immunity letter" signed by the police to watch his back, off he goes into the hazardous, dark domain of 1960's Los Angeles. Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mosley really kicks butt with this one. I have long criticized his penchant for throwing numerous characters at us at tornado speed, making them far too difficult to identify with or even remember at crucial points. This time out, Det. Suggs, the alluring Juanda, poor Geneva, et al., were easy to feel out and keep track of. It was a really pleasant change for a Mosley novel.
Another nice twist was Easy's figuring out who the killer was in the middle of the book. Normally, we are shown a few generous red herrings and sparse truths that hold their ground until all is revealed in the last few pages of your average Rawlins mystery. Not even Sherlock Holmes would be able to figure out where he was going with these books until the "this is what happened and who is guilty of it" segment at the end.
Don't get me wrong, I love Mosley's writing, but it was nice to just watch Easy know who he was chasing for once. He really has grown as a character over the years, as have many of the supporting characters. His homicidal sidekick Mouse is forever the nutcase but I was a bit annoyed that we were offered no feasible explanation as to why he is alive, having been allegedly killed in "White Butterfly" and presumed dead all through "Bad Boy Brawly Brown." Long-time stable Mofass has finally met his maker and Easy's son Jesus has quit school and become quite the self-made sailor. Lots of times it's a treat to read these mysteries just to see what all the characters have been doing between novels. Also, the inclusion of Paris Minton from the "Fearless Jones" books was very stylish as he chats with Easy while sitting outside his bookstore, ready to fend off any would-be vandals. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this well-made masterpiece.
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