Too Convoluted&Unlikely
The fifth book in Mosley's Easy Rawlins series finds Easy in 1963, working as a maintenance supervisor for a public school in the Watts area of Los Angeles. For two years he's been living clean, having given up the "street life" and heavy drinking to work a straight job, while taking care of the two children he's taken in. Much is made of his desire to live a low-key, normal life, and yet... when a corpse turns up on the grounds of his school, he instinctively lies to the police, when telling the truth would likely have kept him out of the whole mess. Granted, it's well established in the series that the police are rarely (if ever) to be trusted, and there's always been a tension in the series about the allure of the "street life", however, when balanced against the moaning and groaning about wanting to lead a quiet life and raise his kids, it just doesn't make sense.

Instead, Easy lies--not to protect himself--but on behalf of a beautiful teacher he has a ten minute hookup with and who happens to be the corpse's wife, and even then, there's no clear reason for the lie. Soon, a second corpse shows up, and the lead investigator intuits that Easy's hiding something. Given several chances to come clean, Easy instead opts to plunge back into the streets to try and solve the multiple murders himself, which of course only puts him in a more compromising situation. Yes, it's made abundantly clear why a black man would not want to get involved with the police no matter what in 1963 (and not much has changed in 40 years), but wouldn't the savvy Easy of the previous four books would surely recognize that in this instance, simply being truthful is more likely to placate the police than his surly evasiveness?

From the start, the plot is wildly convoluted, and it grows ever more improbable. Almost as improbable as the transformation of his hell-raising, crazy friend Mouse, who at this point has also settled down with a wife and kid. Yes, one expects characters to transform over the course of a series, but in Mouse's case, the transformation is so utterly at odds with his stated nature that it seems entirely unreasonable. In any event, Easy runs back and forth all over LA, trying to solve the murders for the police he's trying to stay one step ahead of. The pieces of the puzzle are very complicated, and include a series of thefts from the school district, a herion smuggling operation, and of course, a few lovely ladies. The one thing that really keeps the book interesting is Mosley's vivid supporting characters, from low-lifes to bureaucrats, white, Hispanic, Asian, they all come alive on the page. Ultimately, though, one of the weaker books in the series.

A couple hours later there's a dead man in the school yard, the teacher has disappeared and Easy's stuck with a yapping mutt while the police fit him - a black man with a shady past and an attitude - for murder.

Rawlins is a man of few words, keeping most of his dialogue interior. Mrs. Turner is beautiful, alluring, available.

"'Call me Idabell,' she said.
Call me fool."

Easy has his weaknesses but understands them. He's proud and as the bodies mount up, he evades the cops and pursues his own investigation - as much for the excitement as to save his own skin.

Mosley's style is all personality - strong, eloquent, streetwise, stubborn, vivid and determined. Easy tracks his quarry with savvy and cynicism - if he doesn't get the murderer, the cops will get him.

Mosley's latest is a tightly plotted, fast-paced and thoughtful read. Pure pleasure.

All he had to do was tell the truth from the start. Someone who had such a sordid past, and had since managed to straighten out their life, would just keep their eyes down, and be as honest with the police as possible.

At the begining, he keeps repeating that he doesn't want the police to get too interested in him, since he didn't get his job by honest means, and he doesn't want them to find out.

Turns out, he got his job the same way 85% of Americans get their job; A friend put in a good word for him. How he got this new friend was a bit unscrupulous, but their is no amount of investigating that would have uncovered that.

Even so, if he didn't want the police getting too interested, why did he keep putting himself in places and with people that were linked with the crimes.

The whole plot was just way too ridiculous for me to let go and enjoy the story, which, by the way, I thought was written with too choppy a style of writting anyway.

BTW, has anyone else noticed, at least three of the five star ratings are identicle to the word?

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