OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile
Narrator JD Jackson portrays the level-headed private detective Easy Rawlins, who has set out to solve a number of mysteries that revolve around the missing Rosemary Goldsmith, daughter of a rich weapons producer. Jackson’s narration is steady and maintains depth when he speaks as other characters. While the story takes place in the late 1960s, from time to time, Jackson’s tone has a contemporary sound that adds to the detective’s relatability. Easy’s a caring guy, but he’s also a survivor. Jackson brings out both of these qualities in his narration. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 07/07/2014
Set in L.A. during the height of the Vietnam War, Mosley’s impressive 13th Easy Rawlins mystery (after 2013’s Little Green) finds Roger Frisk, special assistant to the police chief, calling on Easy with a job. Rosemary Goldsmith, a student at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the daughter of munitions giant Foster Goldsmith, is missing, perhaps kidnapped. Frisk wants Easy to track down black boxer and political activist Robert Mantle, with whom Rosemary was recently seen in Los Angeles. Easy, “the man to go to if they want their finger on the jugular of the colored community,” accepts the carrot and stick offer only to discover that FBI agents and the State Department are also involved. Along the way, Easy’s trademark ability to trade favors has him helping disgraced cop Melvin Suggs, locating a stolen mixed-race child, and solving a marital problem for his pal Jackson Blue. Easy’s experiences and insights perfectly mirror the turbulent ’60s. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"Set in L.A. during the height of the Vietnam War, Mosley’s impressive 13th Easy Rawlins mystery (after 2013’s Little Green) finds Roger Frisk, special assistant to the police chief, calling on Easy with a job... Easy’s experiences and insights perfectly mirror the turbulent ’60s."
—Publishers Weely, starred
"Mosley has few peers when it comes to crafting sentences, and he's woven some beauties into this swift-moving yet philosophical story that does more for illustrating an iconic perioud than hours of documentary film could. This Easy Rawlins novel harks back to the great early days of the series."
—Booklist, starred
"...The most quotable of all contemporary detectives stirs up enough trouble for scene after memorable scene."
—Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal
04/15/2014
Easy Rawlins is tapped by the FBI when a revolutionary cell kidnaps Rosemary Gold, daughter of a weapons manufacturer, and threatens to give her an awful, public death if its demands aren't met. Yes, think Patty Hearst; Easy's 13th outing.
OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile
Narrator JD Jackson portrays the level-headed private detective Easy Rawlins, who has set out to solve a number of mysteries that revolve around the missing Rosemary Goldsmith, daughter of a rich weapons producer. Jackson’s narration is steady and maintains depth when he speaks as other characters. While the story takes place in the late 1960s, from time to time, Jackson’s tone has a contemporary sound that adds to the detective’s relatability. Easy’s a caring guy, but he’s also a survivor. Jackson brings out both of these qualities in his narration. T.E.C. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-07-15
Easy Rawlins, who once spanned years between volumes, takes his third case of 1967. Or rather, his third batch of cases. What are the odds that the LAPD would not only press Easy (Little Green, 2013, etc.) to take a job, but offer to pay him for it? But that's exactly what Roger Frisk, special assistant to the chief of police, does. If Easy will look for international weapons manufacturer Foster Goldsmith's daughter, Rosemary, who's gone missing from UC Santa Barbara, Frisk will pay him $6,000, with a bonus of $2,500 if he actually finds her. Smelling a rat but agreeing to take the case, Easy soon realizes the police are much less interested in Rosemary than in retired boxer Battling Bob Mantle, the companion who may have kidnapped her. Easy is quickly up to his neck in other LAPD officers, FBI agents and State Department officials, united only in their demand that he drop the case on security grounds. In the course of his investigations, Easy incurs numerous debts that he can pay off only by working other jobs. His trusted police contact, Detective Melvin Suggs, wants Easy to find Mary Donovan, who passed counterfeit money and stole Suggs' heart. His ex-lover EttaMae Alexander's white friend Alana Altman wants Easy to find her boy Alton, who she suspects may have been kidnapped by her late husband's African-American relatives. Local crime lord Art Sugar suggests that Easy pass everything he learns about Bob Mantle on to him first. You have to feel bad for underemployed UCLA MBA Percy Bidwell, who insists that Easy introduce him to investment banker Jason Middleton but doesn't have anything to trade for the favor. Along the way to the untidy resolution, the most quotable of all contemporary detectives ("I knew I was in trouble because I was being told a fairy tale by a cop") stirs up enough trouble for scene after memorable scene. Mosley may not write great endings, but it's hard to top his middles.
