 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Easy
Rawlins - amateur sleuth by way of helping
troubled friends
Paris Minton - used bookstore owner in 1950s Socrates Fortlow - ex-convict and hero All are black men living in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California "Fearless Jones"
For the previous three months, Paris was the happiest man in LA spending his days reading in his swivel chair and making enough money to stay ahead of his bills. Then a "picture perfect damsel in distress" by the name of Elana Love comes into his store looking for help from a Reverend Grove of the Messenger of the Divine Ministry. At the news that the ministry left the neighborhood one night under the cover of darkness, she swoons and Paris takes her into his curtained off back room/living quarters for water. No sooner than he does this, ex-convict Leon Douglas comes into the store demanding to know "wherethegurl?" When Paris won't answer, this "volcano crushed down into just about man size," slaps him until he loses consciousness. When Paris is sleeping off the beating, the woman comes out of hiding. When Paris realizes that he's going to have to give up on the notion that she's simply going to go back out the way she came in, he offers her (and the trouble she came in with) a ride out of there. For the first time he understands how you can be doing nothing and trouble finds you, just as his friend Fearless always insists. In short order, Elana Love takes his money, gun and car. And his beloved bookstore is burned to the ground. So Paris cashes out his savings to get Fearless out of jail. He needs help from someone who isn't afraid of anything and who has a strong instinct for making things right because "burning down my store was just the same as shooting me, and somebody would have to make restitution for that crime." The one thing that seems to hold some truth out of all Elana Love's lies and duplicity is that, while in jail with Leon Douglas, a man named Sol Tannebaum gave a bond for her to hold until each man was out of jail. So now we have Paris and Fearless, two black men with no money, no home, no car and only the clothing on their back looking for a white man's bond, crossing back and forth between LA's white neighborhoods and black. As the two protagonists follow the leads things get scary fast. In 1950s LA, it is clear that these men have few rights and little recourse when under attack. As in his previous novels, Mosley has his characters walk the fine line of race in America. With Fearless Jones, he has a man that's proud to be a World War II veteran in a country that would just as soon take away his rights than to thank him for his duty. From the start you see how ready the police are to accuse Paris Minton of stealing the books he sells. But what makes Mosley's novels work is that he isn't militant about showing a black versus white world; he shows there are good and bad people of all races and nationalities. Mosley gives a full appreciation of time and place which then provides the context and circumstances by which race and nationality are affected. Nothing is excused but neither is it ignored. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Anyone who has enjoyed Mosley's previous mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins or Socrates Fortlow will like this one as much. This noir style novel is written in first person narrative with Paris Minton telling the story and providing observations with Mosley's usual perceptive humor. For example, Paris and Fearless are discussing how Elena uses "bein' a woman to fight her way through." When Paris asks if this is the first time Fearless realized that a woman uses sex to get what she wants, he say "'Course not. But I never thought of it like fightin'. I never thought that a kiss could be like a loaded gun." It is dialogues such as this that carries the reader along the fast paced and ever deepening plot. Fearless Jones is one more must must read from a writer I hold in the highest regard. (Reviewed 06-10-01) Amazon readers rating: from
27 reviews |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bibliography (with links to Amazon.com):Paris Minton and Fearless Jones Mysteries:
Socrates Fortlow novels:
Other novels:
Nonfiction:
Movies from books:
(back to top) Book Marks:
More on Walter Mosley at MostlyFiction.com:
(back to top) About the Author:
Mosley lives in New York City with his wife Joy Kellman, a dancer. |
©1998-2003 MostlyFiction.com |
Walter
Mosley, born in 1952, grew up in Los Angeles and has been at various times
in his life a potter, a computer programmer, and a poet. His books have
been translated into twenty languages. Devil in a Blue Dress received
the 1990 Shamus Award for "Best First P.I. Novel" from the Private
Eye Writers of America and was also made into a movie starring Denzel
Washington. His collection of short stories featuring Socrates Fortlow,
a 60 year-old philosophical ex-convict, in Always Outnumbered, Always
Outgunned, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He has been the president
of the Mystery Writers of America and a member of the executive board
of the PEN American Center and Founder of its Open Book Committee and
on the board of directors of the National Book Awards. In 2002, Walter
Mosley won a Grammy for "Best Liner Notes" for a Richard Pryor
box set. 
