- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (Oct 10 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0316734594
- ISBN-13: 978-0316734592
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #525,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Set in 1967, Mosley's brilliant 10th Easy Rawlins thriller finds the middle-aged Easy still fighting some of the same battles he fought in his first outing, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), as an angry young WWII vet trying to make his home in postwar Los Angeles. His family has grown from none to many over the years, and now Easy is dealing with the loss of the love of his life, Bonnie, and his decision to make her leave him. Despite Easy's vulnerability and anguish, he's a staunch friend and a fierce protector of those he loves. Easy's two most dangerous friends, Raymond Mouse Alexander and Christmas Black, have both disappeared and both are being hunted. Easy must find them before those who want to destroy them do. Mosley knows his territory as intimately as a lover knows his beloved, and Easy's tortuous progression from man-child to man may have reached its climax in this searing and moving novel. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Mosley, a smart and daring writer, has tried his hand at everything from political essays to erotica, but his most anticipated books are those featuring the sleuth that made him famous: Easy Rawlins. In the tenth series installment, it's 1967 and Easy is emotionally on edge after learning that his true love, Bonnie Shay, plans to marry an African prince. A search for Christmas Black, a "village-killing" soldier and the adoptive father of an eight-year-old Vietnamese girl, and for the dangerous Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, Easy's oldest friend, provides distraction (and some relief, in the form of willing women), but Easy's need to reconcile his role in his relationship's end seems to trump even mayhem and murder. One of the remarkable traits of this series has been its portrayal of the sleuth not as a loner but as a man intricately connected with family and community. For Easy, who ages and changes with each book, the past is always present. For once, however, this web of connection tangles the storytelling. Amidst the frequent historical vignettes and righteous asides, we want Easy to scramble free and act. When he finally does, the conflagration feels almost pro forma. And, as with Cinnamon Kiss (2005), there's less connection to the historical moment. Here it's Vietnam, as Easy penetrates an army drug-smuggling ring unaccompanied by Mosley's usual penetrating insights. But if this extraordinary series is beginning to drift, there are indications that suggest Mosely may be thinking about wrapping it up. Graff, Keir
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love Hurts,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Blonde Faith (Paperback)
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." That's what they say. I'm not sure that Easy Rawlins would agree in this tenth installment in the series.Easy found out in Cinnamon Kiss that Bonnie had betrayed him sexually to help get treatment to save Feather's life (his adopted daughter). Easy couldn't handle the knowledge and cut off relations with Bonnie by sending her away. As Blonde Faith opens, Easy is not so easily living without her. Easy has a private detective job in 1967 to find and talk to a teenage runaway. He succeeds in taking her off the streets after some pretty aggressive action with her "protector." Returning home, Easy finds that eight-year-old Easter Dawn has been left without explanation by the dangerous Christmas Black. Easy decides to find Christmas to figure out what's going on. A call to Etta Mae lets Easy know that Mouse is wanted for murder by the police and that Mouse is also missing. Etta Mae asks Easy to find him. With a loaded plate that causes heartache, Easy also learns that Bonnie is about to marry her African prince. Although Easy shouldn't care, he does. From there, Easy is an emotional basket case who lives mostly by instinct rather than by wit. That's too bad because some dangerous characters are at play. The trail to Christmas and Mouse leads Easy across some very beautiful and accommodating women. Can they distract him from his grief? The beauty of this book is the nuanced way that Walter Mosley captures the subtle changes in white-black relations of those days as some white people are made more suspicious and resentful in the post-riot years while others genuinely want to ignore color in favor of doing the right thing. Easy is gifted with an ability to identify the orientation of others from a mile away, and he takes full advantage of both those he can and cannot trust. But sometimes, he's still too trusting. This book shows a different side of Easy, a man being pushed to the edge. If you want the scared superhero Easy, you may not enjoy seeing him act more like a normal, fallible person. Like many of the best novels, this one raises more questions than it answers. If you don't like choices like "the lady or the tiger," you'll be less fond of this book than I was. I was particularly impressed by how well Mr. Mosley developed the theme of "love hurts" throughout the story and for so many of its characters. The book's main weakness is a tendency to make many of the new characters into either angels or devils. People are a little more similar than that. As a result, this is more like reading an epic than a mystery novel.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love Hurts,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 112,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Blonde Faith (Hardcover)
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." That's what they say. I'm not sure that Easy Rawlins would agree in this tenth installment in the series.Easy found out in Cinnamon Kiss that Bonnie had betrayed him sexually to help get treatment to save Feather's life (his adopted daughter). Easy couldn't handle the knowledge and cut off relations with Bonnie by sending her away. As Blonde Faith opens, Easy is not so easily living without her. Easy has a private detective job in 1967 to find and talk to a teenage runaway. He succeeds in taking her off the streets after some pretty aggressive action with her "protector." Returning home, Easy finds that eight-year-old Easter Dawn has been left without explanation by the dangerous Christmas Black. Easy decides to find Christmas to figure out what's going on. A call to Etta Mae lets Easy know that Mouse is wanted for murder by the police and that Mouse is also missing. Etta Mae asks Easy to find him. With a loaded plate that causes heartache, Easy also learns that Bonnie is about to marry her African prince. Although Easy shouldn't care, he does. From there, Easy is an emotional basket case who lives mostly by instinct rather than by wit. That's too bad because some dangerous characters are at play. The trail to Christmas and Mouse leads Easy across some very beautiful and accommodating women. Can they distract him from his grief? The beauty of this book is the nuanced way that Walter Mosley captures the subtle changes in white-black relations of those days as some white people are made more suspicious and resentful in the post-riot years while others genuinely want to ignore color in favor of doing the right thing. Easy is gifted with an ability to identify the orientation of others from a mile away, and he takes full advantage of both those he can and cannot trust. But sometimes, he's still too trusting. This book shows a different side of Easy, a man being pushed to the edge. If you want the scared superhero Easy, you may not enjoy seeing him act more like a normal, fallible person. Like many of the best novels, this one raises more questions than it answers. If you don't like choices like "the lady or the tiger," you'll be less fond of this book than I was. I was particularly impressed by how well Mr. Mosley developed the theme of "love hurts" throughout the story and for so many of its characters. The book's main weakness is a tendency to make many of the new characters into either angels or devils. People are a little more similar than that. As a result, this is more like reading an epic than a mystery novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (52 customer reviews) 33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
4.5 ...But Who Will Save Easy Rawlins?,
By Chantay W. "BookLover4Life" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Blonde Faith (Hardcover)
Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley is the eleventh book in the Easy Rawlins mystery series and it is the book to read!At the start of Blonde Faith, we find Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, private eye, lost so to speak. What is a man to do when he has lost the love of his life to a prince? When Easy learned his former long-time girlfriend Bonnie had an affair with a prince, he pushed her away from his life and kicked her out of their home without fully resolving their situation. Now that Easy has learned Bonnie is to be married to the prince, Easy has to deal with his lingering feelings for her. He wants her back but his pride will not let him communicate his feelings for her. Now, if the emotional strain of his situation was not enough, Easter Dawn, child of Christmas Black, is placed into his care with no explanation of what to do with the child or what is going on. To add to that, his best friend of many years, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, is wanted for murder by the police and they really want justice against the long-time killer who got away so many other times. So begins the journey of Easy Rawlins, off to save those in need but in the end, who will save Easy? Walter Mosley makes number eleven shine with a sparkle that only he can create through prose. Blonde Faith is an intense mystery written magnificently. What readers will enjoy about this book the most, on top of Easy Rawlins doing what he does best, is the fact that there is such an emotional connection to Easy. There is a sense of the reader wanting him to focus on himself primarily more so than saving someone else. Easy is given chance after chance to save others and he will die trying to do this but when it comes to saving himself from emotional woes and getting back the woman he loves, he hesitates. Perhaps, it has to do with him not placing himself first, at least sometimes or when it is most needed. The ending of Blonde Faith was masterfully written and will definitely leave readers dangling in suspense for more! This book is recommended to fans of mystery novels, fans of the Easy Rawlins series, and fans who love to read good damn books. Reviewer, Chantay W. APOOO BookClub 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too Good,
By Richard Schulman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Blonde Faith (Hardcover)
I stopped reading Blonde Faith because I do not want to finish it.It is so good I am cherishing the last 50 pages. I have read all of Mr. Mosley's Easy Rawlins series and this one is absolutely the best. Mr. Mosley is coming to terms with a culture that has no regard for human dignity particularily anyone that is different than those who are in power. Combine that with the devastating difficulties in understanding what love is. The plot is moved along by Mouse's daring personna and his illegal activities against the establishment. Mouse is Robin Hood to Easy's confusion on who Easy is. The struggle to find and know himself within this crazy culture makes Easy an easy character to empathize with. The eternal quest to know why we act the way we do. Most of us are not going to rob a bank or be a detective but it's comforting and exciting to know that we all share the same distress. Mr Mosley honesty is startling and freeing. Now lets get into the l970's. Self realization is a continual story. 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not his best, but not far off . . .,
By J. L. Utter - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blonde Faith (Hardcover)
The story is a little unfocused, but Walter Mosley is such a good writer that it's still a cut above 90% of anything else in this genre. While I can't say if his is an accurate depiction of black life in L.A. at the time, it sure "feels" accurate. I've always felt that Mr. Mosley has granted me a window into the black experience, and I'm grateful for that.I also want to say that there are passages in his work that are so profound and elegantly stated that they leave me awestruck. The only other writer I can say that about is James Lee Burke, and that's pretty good company. |
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