Reading Mosley mysteries always a pleasure

  I miss Easy Rawlins.
  The black private investigator and World War II veteran was the protagonist in Walter Mosley’s 11-book mystery series that was set in Los Angeles in the mid-20th century. The best-selling series ended a few years ago in “Blonde Faith,” with the apparent death of Rawlins. I really enjoyed reading about Rawlins adventures in a rough-and-tumble, inner-city world that was foreign to me.
  Critics, retailers and book lovers everywhere were wondering what new path was Mosley going to clear next. Some thought he might expand his Paris Minton or Fearless Jones characters, each of whom have their own novels.
  But Mosley has done something different — create a new character and put him in a contemporary setting. That character is Leonid Trotter McGill, a private investigator and former boxer who deals with seedy characters and a suspect police department in modern-day New York City.
  He comes from a troubled background (his deceased father was an ardent communist), and he has his own family problems. He runs in the same circles as the bad guys (Hush is a wicked assassin) but sometimes works with the cops to help solve cases. He is an unorthodox investigator, and he likes to “go rogue” and do things himself, sometimes to his detriment.
  In “The Long Fall,” McGill is approached by an anonymous client through a middleman. The client’s son died tragically a year ago, and on the first anniversary of the boy’s death, the client wants to find four of the son’s friends to include them in a memorial service. All four have records as juvenile offenders. He finds three and discovers that the other is dead. He turns over the names to the client. The case is seemingly over. But when the other three suddenly turn up dead, McGill is thrown into a mystery that may be too hot for him to handle.
  Mosley’s first-person prose is rough but dynamic. There are lots of twists and turns and occasional violent episodes. He has a great sense of the streets and makes readers feel that they’re actually there with McGill, who has some noir-ish flavor to him.
  “And even though the pain in my head and hip was excruciating, I lay there laughing at myself,” writes Mosley after McGill fell in his
bathroom. “I had forgotten that Death was watching from all sides; that it comes at you from the place you least expect.
  “And so even though a gangster had me in his crosshairs, I still had a life to live just like every other doomed soul walking this earth, wondering if he could make it across the street.”
  Whoever the lead character is, reading Mosley is always a pleasure. He’s still one of the best mystery writers today.
  “The Long Fall” was released in hardcover last year, and I don’t know how I missed it. Anyway, it was just released in paperback and the next installment of the series, “Known to Evil,” comes out in March. This series has the potential to be just as good as Easy Rawlins.
  I can’t wait.