Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Novel by Walter Mosley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Novel
Book Review: Historical Fiction Tastily Wrapped
Summary: 5 Stars
Word is that Mr. Mosley has tried to let Easy rest for a while but we readers (as expressed through the editors) demand his reappearance. How can we help but want more Easy?!? As a character he is believable, smart, kinda gritty but wholey honorable.
In "Little Scarltet," however, my enjoyment of the story was more than just the hankerin' for more Easy Rawlins .Because I grew up in South Central L.A,. because I was a burgeoning adolescent at the time of the story's setting, because the events in this story (the '65 Watts Riots) were the ones that began the formation of my view of the socio-political world... and above all because it was well written and entertaining... I LOVED IT!
Mr. Mosley has skillfully driven another of his fiction-vehicles to a place where the reader hits pay dirt. For those who might not otherwise have a clue, here is a cruise through understanding what the '65 Watts Riots were about from more than one perspective. For those of us who traveled the mostly-bitter-sometimes-sweet road, he reminds us of the moral, political and spiritual lessons learned.
The plot drove the telling of all this in an engaging, entertaining manner and left me wanting more Easy Rawlins--sorry Mr. Mosely LOL!
I have enjoyed the Easy Rawlins series enough to have ordered some of his works in other genres and look forward to more of that good Hot-Fudge-Sundae fiction!
Book Review: Going against the grain - Easy lets us down
Summary: 3 Stars
If one has never read or read little of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins, this book might seem better than it is. However, it doesn't really come up to the standards of many of the earlier entries in the series. But I'm going to leave the detailed criticism of that for others. What I want to talk about is the end of the book. I will not give away the ending per se, but I do want to talk about it. So, if you don't want anything to do with that STOP READING NOW.
But if you're still here: One of the satisfactions of reading mystery-thriller books is that often good triumphs over evil and we get to see the confrontation between the hero and the villain and live vicariously through that. In this book, Easy figures out who the killer is and sets out to find him. That's all well and good. Then, the killer ambushes Easy, wounding him so that he has to go to the hospital. Breaking out of the hospital, Easy goes after the killer. But there is no confrontation because when Easy finds him he is already dead, having been killed by someone else in his life. And some may say this is irony, but whether or not it is, I think it cheats the reader out of the satisfaction that takes place when the protagonist and the antagonist have it out directly with each other. So in that sense, I found the ending and the book a major letdown.
My other problem with the ending has to do with a character named Suggs, a police detective. There is no real tie up with him. Maybe not everything needs to be quite so neatly tied up. But again one of the reasons I (and I think a lot of people) read mysteries is because things do get tied up and have satisfying conclusions whereas in real life that is not the case.
Book Review: Compelling and thoughtful. Definitely recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
Watts is burning. Days of rage and violence, looting and fire--and now the police have a nightmare on their hands. The body of a young black woman--whose aunt is telling everyone who listened that a white man raped and murdered her. If that word gets out on the dangerous Los Angeles streets, Watts will explode again. The police don't have the contacts they need in the black community to solve the crime and turn to Easy Rawlins.
Easy doesn't trust the cops. He knows they are more interested in protecting their rears than in finding a killer--that black women are murdered all the time while the cops look the other way. But Easy cares. While Los Angeles still smolders, he sets off on a quixotic quest for a small measure of justice.
Author Walter Mosley makes the dangerous streets of 1965 Los Angeles come alive. Black men and women smolder in resentment while whites tremble in fear and rage. The men who populate Easy Rawlins' world aren't nice--they fight, steal, sleep around, even kill--but they are real and vital.
Using his contacts in the black underworld, and his gift of the gab--as well as a letter from the deputy police chief that barely keeps him from being beaten by scared cops a number of times, Easy finds the white man who saw the dead woman last. But Easy's instincts tell him that this is not a killer--which means that the real killer is somewhere on the burning streets.
LITTLE SCARLET is powerful stuff. Combining a solid mystery, compelling insights into the conflict between races, and Mosley's strengths in exploring what it means to be a man in 20th century black America, SCARLET grabbed me and pulled me along for a dynamite ride. If you enjoy mystery and an author who mixes humor, danger, and tragedy in a compelling blend, you'll be happy you picked up this one.
Book Review: I love Don Cheadle
Summary: 4 Stars
My favorite character is ALWAYS "Mouse" and that's why I enjoyed reading this again.
I hope now that Don Cheadle has proven himself with "HOTEL RWANDA", they will make a new movie focusing on MOUSE so that he can really shine in the part that he was born to play.
Book Review: Real good
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book over a period of a day, and as always it was good!! I have been reading Walter Moseley for over ten years now, since I saw "Black Betty", and got curious enough to read it and have been hooked ever since;Even went and backtracked the books I missed; In this book, though, I believe he gets something that he never thought he would get and I hope that Easy's fans would get this book and read it; One of the most hilarious moments in the book was when this lady came to visit Easy in his office and she said she looked like "Bozo the clown" to hide what she REALLY was; I won't give much away, but let's just say that this lady was the key; Great read; look forward to more of Easy in the future; P.S. and Mouse, child, that sucker died, but he STILL came back. that's alright!!