From Amazon.co.uk
Walter Mosley's
Fearless Jones inaugurates a new crime series set in 1950s Los Angeles. But can Jones match Mosley's engaging long-term hero Easy Rawlins? On the evidence of this first book, the answer is resoundingly in the affirmative, even if the new series takes a little time to establish the new protagonist. And this is probably because the central character here is not so much the eponymous Fearless Jones as Paris Minton, the owner of a small second-hand bookstore. Minton is savagely beaten up and his store burned to the ground for mysterious reasons. A beautiful woman is involved, and the beleaguered Minton asks for the aid of his friend, the resourceful Fearless Jones. As Jones painstakingly investigates the woman's past, a very dark mystery begins to unravel. The crime aspects here are delivered with total panache, but Mosley would never be happy without adding that level of socio-political commentary he is so adept at, and the place of black men in 1950s LA (with few rights and little money) is a potent theme. Easy Rawlins is still Mosley's main man, but Fearless Jones gives every appearance of possessing similar longevity. --
Barry Forshaw
From Publishers Weekly
HAbandoning the voice of his premier creation, Easy Rawlins, Mosley mines a new shaft of 1950s Los Angeles with a hero who combines the principles of Easy with the deadliness of Ray "Mouse" Alexander. The result is a violent, heroic and classic piece of noir fiction. Narrator Paris Minton is an appealing figure an easygoing black man for whom the written word is salvation and whose nameless used bookstore in Watts is paradise. Then the beautiful Elana Love enters his store and brings with her more trouble than Paris has ever seen enough trouble that Paris knows his only hope is his friend Fearless Jones. A former soldier, Jones is a riveting new creation. He's a man of both principle and action with an innate sense of justice and as his name makes clear, he's afraid of nothing. The novel rips along with a hunt for the girl and a race among competing factions to find a missing bond that's the key to a fortune. For the black characters it's a desperate struggle to stay alive in a white world where the deck is stacked. One sly reference tells the reader we're still in the same world and time inhabited by Easy Rawlins, and that Fearless and Mouse are equally "bad." But Fearless is also a knight-errant and hopefully destined for further adventures as fine as this one. (June 5)Forecast: With a 20-city author tour and major advertising, Mosley's first thriller since 1996's A Little Yellow Dog is sure to generate lots of interest and sales.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
