Known to Evil

Known to Evil is the fourth Walter Mosley novel that I’ve reviewed this year, so you know that I like his writing. This is the second book in his Leonid McGill series of mysteries, and for the first time, I find myself a bit disappointed. McGill is a semi-reformed Mafia hit man, and as he works to solve the murder of Wanda Soa and the disappearance of Tara Lear, it ends up as a novel about a group of sociopaths, and McGill looks good in comparison to the others.

I’ll put this one in the category of airplane books: good enough to entertain you on a cross country flight, but not so riveting that it would either keep you from a nap or would not bother you if you left it on the plane, unfinished. There’s more Mosley in my future, but not Leonid McGill.

The Long Fall

Leonid McGill is a private detective in New York, and it’s a PI from Albany, Ambrose Thurman, who hires him to find four guys. All he had to go on was their street names from more than 20 years earlier: B-Brain, Big Jim, Toolie, and Jumper. McGill had a long history of doing really dirty work, often for the Mafia, but in the last few years, he had grown a conscience. He was only willing to track these men after being assured by Thurman that no harm would come to any of them. McGill was able to track the men down, but when they started to be murdered, he was angered. Then, Thurman was killed, clearly as an attempt by his client to cover tracks. This was a good and fast read, excellent entertainment.

Walter Mosley is a most prolific author who you might know from the movie Devil in a Blue Dress starring Denzel Washington. That movie was from the first of his 13 mystery novels about Easy Rawlings, a black PI in LA. In this book, The Long Fall, Mosley included numerous interesting characters including McGill’s son, Twill of whom his father described, “For all his superior qualities, was a natural-born criminal.” McGill’s estranged wife Katrina moved back in with him when her wealthy lover was indicted for securities fraud. There is no love in this relationship and McGill Katrina will be out of there as soon as she can land another wealthy guy. Of course, McGill was really in love with his landlord, Aura Antoinette Ullman. This is the first in his five-novel series about McGill, and I plan to quickly move onto the second book, Known to Evil.

Devil in a Blue Dress

Walter Mosley is another prolific and talented author who I’ve not read and reviewed before. Midwest Dave reviewed one of his books in 9/15, but I missed that review. Then, this book was strongly recommended by another friend. Thanks Robbie. Maybe I should stop being amazed when I run across such authors since it seems to happen so often. Devil in a Blue Dress was Mosley’s first novel, written in 1990, and it was a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington. It’s written as a current day crime novel, which looks back at African-American life in Los Angeles in the post-war 1940s. Mosley introduces his sleuth, Easy Rawlins, who then becomes the protagonist in 12 subsequent novels. Mosley has written 40 other books, some nonfiction, and five of those novels have been made into movies. Wow! I can see why Dave was raving about him, and I already have downloaded another of his novels.

There was a post war exodus of African-Americans to Los Angeles, especially from Texas and Louisiana. But, while the weather in California was like heaven to them, life in LA was not easy and many often felt it was too overwhelming. Numbers of them fled back home, and doing so was not far from Rawlins’ mind. But, he had just bought a small house which he was supporting with his labor at an aircraft factory. But then he got fired because he failed to kowtow to his white boss. Racism was alive and strong in L.A., and you had to know how to play the game. The house was his pride and joy, and he was not about to just give it away. Faced with his mortgage payments, Rawlins accepted $100 to help a white man find a woman, Daphne Monet – who had been seen wearing a blue dress. It seemed like a simple thing, and thus begins the noir story of murder and desperation. I thought the plot got rather convoluted at the end, but I’m hooked on Mosley.

And Sometimes I Wonder about You by Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley has published about 50 books in his career but And Sometimes I Wonder about You is my first.  His protagonist, Leonid McGill is a private investigator in New York City with a flashback style.  He is the hard-boiled, tough guy detective type like a Ross MacDonald or Raymond Chandler character but set in modern times.

 

Leonid has had a rough life.  His father was a communist who abandoned him, his wife who he cares for but does not love is suicidal, his mistress has pulled away from him in guilt, and his stepson who is in business with him is taking unnecessary risks to prove himself.  Plus Leonid is involved in a passionate sexual relationship with a client.  Yet Leonid is a vehement defender of the underdog.  A former thug, he has a rocky relationship with the police but often finds himself settling scores for clients where police cannot intervene.  He is short in stature but as a former boxer can physically over power larger and younger foe and is willing to do whatever it takes to do so.  All this makes Leonid hard to like but impossible to ignore… his sense of morality seems complex and conflicting at times… makes me crave to know more.

As a fan of detective fiction, I don’t know how I’ve missed Walter Mosley.  In And Sometimes I Wonder about You (a quote in reference to Leonid’s depressed wife), Mosley’s characters are fascinating and his plot complex.  He reminds us that heroes aren’t squeaky clean but are human and heroes nonetheless.  I’m inspired to explore more of Walter Mosley’s work… there are many to choose from.