I'm not quite sure if this novel qualifies entirely as a mystery novel because there are so many layers that permeate the book, envelop the senses and relate to the reader about another world that sits on the fringes of everyday African-American reality. There is within thsi book something that can only be compared to the U.S. discovering a Nazi secret decoding book. There is a cadence, a language, a knowledge that is carried within Africanist people, thrugh the neighborhoods, the folks that live in them that is apparent here. That's very, very hard to translate adequately on to paper, to reveal that code, bare it to the light of publication and yet in many ways still keep it private. Easy Rawlins is more complicated than simply being a good man. He's a bit of a tortured man, wanting his best friends woman and child as his own, risking death to be with them and then still remaining loyal to his insane friend Mouse and telling him where they are. Problem #1. Problem #2 Another insane man, an IRS man who is after Easy for not paying his taxes and who challenges Easy as at face value, the color of his skin not realizing that Easy will kill him, wants to kill him and is only stopped by a meeting with Problem #3---an insane FBI agent who wants Eays to infiltrate a Baptyist church to root out communists. Of course Easy knows that communism is the scapegoat for the ol' okey-doke but he's in a terrible spot and getting more and more desperate. Usually half way through a book you can see where it's going, who has to die, who the killer is, even why the killer did something but Mosley turns this around into something that chugs the mystery along but makes it secondary to whatever is goign on in Easy's life. Every thing has a freenzy, a desperation in Easy's life---love, sex, money but he's trapped by what color he is and where he's comfortable. I read this book in a night and felt a nice comfort in its' embrace, its' soft language and hard people. People who drift in and out of the story, some mattering, some not but all the same all of them are watching Easy, some with love, most not. I don't know if this can be seen as the best book from a series and I don't even know if a series can be seen from these books---they stand on their own but shoudl be read one right after the other. I'm jumping all over the Easy map now but the one thing I can say is that I met Mr. Mosley, I wa swalking with a friend and he wa sstanding by a tree in the Village, and right before we got close enough to speak with shared a glance, a look that communicated so much, as much as Easy does in and more about what it is to be an African-American man simply being, how trouble gonna come for you and your choices are face it, run, kill it or be killed. Not too many books teach aabout manhood, African-American manhood so deftly. Buy the book, send it to a friend, not all of them will get it but then tell them that this is why African-American strangers nod, say hello to each other---we all know the code.
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About the author
Top reviews from Canada
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- Reviewed in Canada on November 14, 2000
- Reviewed in Canada on September 14, 2003
Top reviews from other countries
- K. ToddReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2012
it don't come easy
Verified Purchase - Frank DonnellyReviewed in the United States on November 28, 2022
A Really Good And, For Me, Different Noir Detective Story
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“A Red Death” is a very good second “Easy Rawlins” detective novel authored by Walter Mosley. It is set in California in the 1950s. It is of medium length. It is a clearly written but slightly complicated mystery that did demand my full attention. I read and listened simultaneously. I liked it very much.Frank DonnellyA Really Good And, For Me, Different Noir Detective Story
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2022
The protagonist, Easy Rawlins, is a mostly decent fellow with a conscience. He is a World War II combat veteran and an African American functioning in a society that often turns a blind eye to racial discrimination. The novel has a distinctive noir feel to it, but is unique in that most of the American Noir that I have read from the 1950s involves white detectives. This novel comes at a noir mystery from a different angle, that of African American characters and society. I am really intrigued by the difference.
As stated above, this is a second Easy Rawlins mystery. The first is “Devil in A Blue Dress”. I had previously read that novel and also listened to the audiobook. While “A Red Death” is a standalone novel, there are some references and characters which appear in the first novel. I am really glad that I read Devil in A Blue Dress first. I also really like both audiobook narrations.
In summary I really like both Walter Mosley novels that I have thus far read. In terms of modern detective stories I have been looking for another American mystery author as I finish up Sue Grafton’s mystery novels which I have been reading in order of publication. At this point I believe I have settled on Walter Mosley. As I do with Sue Grafton I intend to read one every other month or so. Thank You for taking the time to read this review.
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- doc petersonReviewed in the United States on March 28, 2017
Gritty noir fiction with a decidedly modern feel
Verified Purchase - ZaxReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2019
Ultimately Unsatisfying
Verified Purchase - Donald R. BellReviewed in the United States on May 19, 2025
Get ready for the ride you won’t forget.
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