Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

I love Walter Mosley, and I’m thrilled that my favorite character he writes about, Easy Rawlins, is back in Charcoal Joe.

Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. And what a transition it is. He plans to get married and opens a new detective agency. But, when his violent boyhood friend, Mouse, asks him to assist a young black man, with a PhD. in physics, who was arrested standing over 2 dead white men, his plans begin to unravel.

Walter Mosley took a break from this great character following Blonde Faith in 2007, suggesting that the series had ended. So, when Little Green appeared in 2013, I was thrilled to follow Easy Rawlins on his next adventure. You can learn more about the path of this great character on the Thrilling Detective web site.

Mosley is extraordinarily deft in describing the black experience in Los Angeles in the 1960s. He pulls no punches, develops fascinating characters and takes the reader into the hardscrabble neighborhoods where life is a struggle in every moment.

I love this series.