Charcoal Joe (Easy Rawlins Series #13)

by Walter Mosley

Overview

In this latest installment of the Easy Rawlins series from beloved and bestselling author Walter Mosley, the L.A. private eye has his hands full with the investigation of a racially charged murder.

Easy Rawlins has started a new detective agency with two trusted partners and has a diamond ring in his pocket for his longtime girlfriend Bonnie Shay. Finally, Easy's life seems to be heading towards something that looks like normalcy, but, inevitably, a case gets in the way. Easy's friend Mouse calls in a favor—he wants Easy to meet with Rufus Tyler, an aging convict whom everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe's friend's son, Seymour, has been charged with the murder of two white men. Joe is convinced the young man is innocent and wants Easy to prove it no matter what the cost. But seeing as how Seymour was found standing over the dead bodies, and considering the racially charged nature of the crime, that will surely prove to be a tall order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804172103
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Easy Rawlins Series , #13
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	123,162
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the author of fifty books, most notably fourteen Easy Rawlins mysteries, the first of which, Devil in a Blue Dress, was made into an acclaimed film starring Denzel Washington. Always Outnumbered, adapted from his first Socrates Fortlow novel, was an HBO film starring Laurence Fishburne. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy Award, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He has just been named the 2016 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. A Los Angeles native and a graduate of Goddard College, he holds an MFA from the City College of New York and now lives in Brooklyn.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 12, 1952

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A., Johnson State College

Website:

http://www.waltermosley.com

Read an Excerpt

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Excerpted from "Charcoal Joe"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Walter Mosley.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

You don’t hop in the car with Easy Rawlins for the destination. You ride shotgun for the trip.” —The Washington Post

“I'd know that voice [in Charcoal Joe] anywhere. It's the seductive drawl and lowdown dirty laugh of Walter Mosley's mellow private eye, Easy Rawlins.”
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

“Incomparable. . . . Easy quickly finds himself in a mess. . . . But as ever, [he] finds a way to rise above such circumstances”
— Chicago Tribune
 
“These memorable characters are strong, shrewd, purposeful and humorous.” —Los Angeles Sentinel

“Much like Raymond Chandler did in his portrait of Southern California for his fictional private eye Philip Marlowe, or Dashiell Hammett did with Sam Spade, Mr. Mosley takes readers into the worlds of everyone from psychopathic criminals to business magnates, along with the minor players such as con men, tipsters, career criminals and cops.” —Pittsburgh Post Gazette

From the Publisher

I'd know that voice anywhere. It's the seductive drawl and lowdown dirty laugh of Walter Mosley's mellow private eye, Easy Rawlins. And he's talking his way through another case in Charcoal Joe…it's such a joy to hang around with Easy, who is…easy. No furies in his brain, no fires in his gut, just an unquenchable curiosity about people and their personal dramas. Following the meandering plot is beside the point once Mosley starts bringing on his familiar characters for Easy to chat up.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

★ 04/04/2016
Set in 1968, MWA Grand Master Mosley’s excellent 14th Easy Rawlins mystery (after 2014’s Rose Gold) finds the favor-dealing L.A. PI working as a partner in the WRENS-L Detective Agency, which combines his initials with those of his two partners. A dangerous friend of Easy’s, Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, introduces him to Rufus “Charcoal Joe” Tyler, who wants Easy to clear Seymour Brathwaite, a 22-year-old doctor of physics doing postgraduate work at UCLA. Seymour was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting a couple of crooks at a beach house in Malibu. Easy can’t get the whole truth from Charcoal Joe or Seymour, and he soon finds himself embroiled with deadly foes in a quest for missing money and jewels. Easy gets help from such series regulars as police captain Melvin Suggs and Fearless Jones, but Easy does his own heavy lifting in dramatic fashion. As always in this series, racism in all its insidious forms is central. As Easy observes, “Life was like a bruise for us back then, and today too.” This is a must for Easy Rawlins fans and anyone who appreciates fresh, powerful prose. Author tour. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/01/2016
In the 14th series installment, Easy Rawlins buys a share in a detective agency, is ready to propose to his longtime girlfriend, and is set to send his daughter to a good school in a good (white) neighborhood. Then two white men are shot to death in Malibu, and black postgraduate student Seymour Brathwaite is charged. Calling in a favor is Seymour's father, an old acquaintance of Easy's by the name of Charcoal Joe. This past April, Mosley made history by becoming the first African American author to be named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. (LJ 5/15/16)

Library Journal

Narrator Michael Boatman is no stranger to Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mystery series. His comfort with the author's style and the title character's swagger make CHARCOAL JOE a captivating listen. This time out, Easy's asked to clear a young black man accused of killing a white man. Easy knows from the start the case will be an uphill battle, but he's not prepared for the level of danger he steps into. Boatman illuminates all of Mosley's little gems. The author’s wit and sarcasm are enhanced by a narration that envelops the listener in 1960s Los Angeles. Both longtime Mosley fans and new ones will take another drive or walk around the block just to listen a little longer. J.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2016 - AudioFile

2016-03-17
Fasten your seat belts. It's time for another simmering tour of Los Angeles, this time in 1968, with Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins serving once more as the unwilling guide. Things are looking up for Easy. He's running WRENS-L, a licensed detective agency whose name combines his initials with those of his partners, Saul Lynx and Whisper Natly, and he's about to pop the question to his longtime girlfriend, Bonnie Shay. But things don't exactly work out as he expects. Bonnie's back together with tribal prince Joguye Cham, so instead of sending out wedding invitations, Easy reluctantly takes on a job for his boyhood friend Mouse Alexander's equally dangerous friend Rufus Tyler, aka Charcoal Joe. Dr. Seymour Brathwaite, a 22-year-old physicist whose father is one of Joe's many associates, has been found on the scene of a double murder, and the LAPD has him in custody. Joe, "a tombstone just waitin' for a name," who's already enjoying the county's hospitality on unrelated charges, wants Easy to find evidence that will get Seymour released, and it isn't long before Jasmine Palmas-Hardy, who was once Seymour's foster mother, offers Easy $18,000 to bail him out. That's ironic, since Seymour's less menacing than any of the low-level thugs, career criminals, ladies of the night, and police officers thronging the streets of Los Angeles and impeding Easy's path to anything like a simple solution. There'll be three more murders, if you don't count the deaths of two goons who make the mistake of attacking Easy and his capable friend Fearless Jones, and enough minor felonies to land the whole cast in jail forever. Less cluttered than Rose Gold (2014), though that's not saying much. But then you don't read Mosley for the throughline but for his matchless ability to present mosaic worlds in which even the most minor characters arrive burning with their own unquenchable stories.

Kirkus Reviews