Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel

by Walter Mosley Narrated by Dion Graham

Overview

In this highly anticipated sequel from Edgar Award-winning "master of craft and narrative," Walter Mosley,*Joe King Oliver is entangled in a dangerous case when he's asked to investigate whether a white nationalist is being unjustly set up (National Book Foundation).

When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe with an assignment, he's got no choice but to accept, even if the case is a tough one to stomach. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe Quiller's been set up and he needs King to see if the charges hold.

This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller's dealings, to understand Ferris' skin in the game, and to get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez-no regular girl Friday-the machine King's up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.

Mosley once again proves himself a "master of craft and narrative" (National Book Foundation) in this carefully plotted mystery that is at once a classic caper, a family saga and an examination of fealty, pride and how deep debt can go.

A NYTBR Editors' Choice Selection*

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Skitters across the spectrum between orthodox and radical like a polygraph needle wired to a nervy accomplice. . . Fans of his Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill series will not be disappointed, for we remain in the realm of deliciously gritty noir."—Daniel Nieh, New York Times Book Review

"Readers are treated along the way to the evocative prose and astute observations about human nature, race relations and family bonds that have distinguished Mosley's writing for some 30 years."—Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times

“Mosley’s characteristic writing style is on full display, including his love of unusual similes (“The window gazed upon New Jersey but it was a misty day, making the Garden State look like a half-formed idea”). Joe continues to fascinate as a protagonist, and the secondary characters enrich the storywhether they figure into the main action or not...a worthy successor.”
 —Publishers Weekly

“Coiled-spring-of-a-PI King Oliver—a cop until he was unjustly incarcerated on Rikers—is almost relieved when his latest case, involving the Musk-like figure Alfred X. Quiller, drops him into the clutches of a white-supremacist gang. His reasoning: As a Black man, ‘you would always lose against the system,’ but against these punks, he’s ‘got a shot.’ Guess who comes out on top in Walter Mosley’scompelling novel?”—NY Mag

"When a PI novel is written noir and gritty, in the style of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes, but without the tropes that have become cliched, you can bet the author is Walter Mosley. . . Mosley’s writing is so rich, and his characters are not like anyone else’s, anywhere. It’s noir with a social conscience, noir with its thinking cap on."—Washington Post

"There's no writer like Walter Mosley and no protagonists like his creations: Easy Rawlins, Leonid McGill, and now Joe King, returning in a new era noir, facing tough moral choices, and pulling the reader — you — up close and into every fraught moment."—Powell's Books Blog

"Mosley again shows his talent for character building, not only in the many-sided Joe, as vulnerable as he is resilient, but also in a superb supporting cast, including Joe's daughter, Aja, and mercenary Oliya, who could easily front her own series... The second King Oliver novel lives up to the excitement generated by its Edgar-winning predecessor."—Booklist

"Mosley, a modern master of the noir form, brings readers a worthy follow-upto Down the River Unto the Sea. This time, Joe King Oliver is asked for a favor from a friend he can’t refuse, a case that forces him to look into the unsavory connections between white nationalists, Russians, and high finance. Mosley knows exactly how to craft a mystery that keeps you at the edge of your seat all the while forcing you to reckon with sinister forces at the heart of American society."—Dwyer Murphy, Crimereads

Kirkus Reviews

2023-01-25
At the behest of his friend Roger Ferris, a White billionaire, Black ex-cop Joe King Oliver investigates the government's mysterious detainment of a White nationalist.

The 91-year-old Ferris, who lives much of the time with Oliver's strong-willed 93-year-old grandmother, is sure that Alfred Xavier Quiller, poster boy for the alt-right group Men of Action, was set up on charges of murder and selling secrets to the Russians. As odious an individual as Quiller is, Oliver takes on the case as a defender of civil rights. That means returning to Rikers Island, where Quiller is being held—and where Oliver spent three hellish months in solitary after having been framed by dirty cops. The detective, introduced in Down the River Unto the Sea (2018), also has his hands full with the arrest of his ex-wife Monica's husband for his involvement with Russian mobsters in a corporate scheme to sell heating oil as diesel fuel. As knotty as the plot can get, the book is consistently lifted by the intelligence of its characters. Not your everyday zealot, Quiller is a scholar, poet, painter, animal rights activist, and genius inventor—and he's married to a Black woman whose attraction to him in spite of his racism makes her quite the enigma. Mosley is in top form as a social observer: Absolute poverty, muses his protagonist, is being imprisoned: "the experience of being slowly murdered by a state of being." Mosley's reportorial eye is equally sharp in making details count, including the skin tones of his characters. In Oliver's world, it matters that his grandmother is "black as a moonless night on an ancient sea." It also matters that she can get shot in the butt and shrug it off.

A strong second outing by Mosley's new hero.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175071345
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Series:	King Oliver , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged

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