Down the River unto the Sea (Edgar Award Winner)

by Walter Mosley

Overview

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year: bestselling author Walter Mosley "is back with a whole new character to love...As gorgeous a novel as anything he's ever written" (Washington Post). 

Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why. 

On a quest for the justice he was denied, King agrees to help a radical black journalist accused of killing two on-duty police officers. Their cases intertwine across the years and expose a pattern of corruption and brutality wielded against the black men, women, and children whose lives the law destroyed. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King's client's and his own. 

"A wild ride that delivers hard-boiled satisfaction while toying with our prejudices and preconceptions." —Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316509633
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	85,395
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Walter Mosley is one of America's most celebrated and beloved writers. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, he has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA's Lifetime Achievement Award, and several NAACP Image Awards. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His short fiction has appeared in a wide array of publications, including The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Playboy, and his nonfiction has been published in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and The Nation. He is the author of Down the River unto the Sea. He lives in New York City.

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

Editorial Reviews

"Walter Mosley is back with a whole new character to love. . . . As gorgeous a novel as anything he's ever written. And with Joe King Oliver I'm betting, and hoping, he's given us a character we haven't see the last of."—Richard Lipez, Washington Post

"Gritty . . . The plot soars . . . Few mystery writers can examine issues of race—how it divides and binds people—as clearly and unflinchingly as Walter Mosley."—Oline Cogdill, Associated Press

"Great stuff . . . The vibrant characters and pulsating dialogue are primo Mosley."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"A wild ride that delivers hard-boiled satisfaction while toying with our prejudices and preconceptions . . . The darker and uglier the story gets, the more Joe King Oliver comes alive. . . . The journey is fun and joyful. . . . A fitting work for a world riddled with dark contradiction."—Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

"Remarkable . . . Walter Mosley's latest novel [is] all the more relevant in Black Lives Matter era."—Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

"Down the River Unto the Sea is a well-constructed crime novel, urgent in its plotting and carefully observed in the behaviors and the voices of its supporting cast. Mosley makes it all look simple, creating in Joe King Oliver another fascinatingly flawed detective brimming with potential."—Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle

"This is one of those books that leaves you a little breathless—not only while you're reading, but once the back cover's closed, too. For anyone who loves hard-bitten PI thrillers, reading Down the River unto the Sea couldn't be more right."—Teri Schlichenmeyer, Miami Times

"Juicy"—NPR

"Rekindles some of the remarkable energy that drove the early Rawlins novels. . . . Mosley writes with great power here about themes that have permeated his work: institutional racism, political corruption, and the ways that both of these issues affect not only society at large but also the inner lives of individual men and women. And he has created a new hero in Joe Oliver with the depth and vulnerability to sustain what readers will hope becomes a new series. . . . It's the perfect moment for Mosley to unveil an exciting new hero and a series set in the present and confronting the issues that drive today's headlines."—Booklist (starred review)

"[An] excellent standalone . . . The novel's dedication—to Malcolm, Medgar, and Martin—underlines the difference that one man can make in the fight for justice."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A heady stew of racial politics and seedy characters that Mosley's fans are sure to eat up."—AARP

"It's Mosley's signature style—rough-hewn, rhythmic, and lyrical—that makes you ready and eager for whatever he's serving up. . . . Let the good times roll."—Kirkus Reviews

"Mosley's poetic descriptions of not only New York City but his character's deepest souls elevate the story to beauty. Although the characters, large and small, are all compelling, in the end it is King's story to tell, as he struggles to decide how much he's willing to risk to get the truth."—Strand Magazine

"Mosley's newest standalone has the markings of a classic hard-boiled New York novel... It's also a poignant page-turner whose larger themes—corruption, institutional racism, and the horrors of solitary confinement—speak to some of today's most pressing issues."—Charles Perry, LitHub

"[An] engaging standalone . . . Mosley fans will welcome another imaginative page-turning from a mystery grand master."—Library Journal

From the Publisher

★ 11/13/2017
Former NYPD detective Joe King Oliver, now the owner-operator of King Detective Service, investigates two cases of gross injustice in this excellent standalone from MWA Grand Master Mosley (Charcoal Joe and 13 other Easy Rawlins novels). Thirteen years earlier, Oliver was convicted on bogus assault charges, which ended his police career and his marriage. He spent nine months in jail before the charges were dropped and he was released without explanation. Oliver now learns that a crooked cop was behind the frame. Meanwhile, he is approached by Willa Portman, an intern for the lawyer representing Leonard Compton, a militant journalist who’s on death row for the murder of two policemen three years earlier. Portman says the killings were self-defense. Oliver, who faces a corrupt world with unflinching honesty and ruthlessness, enlists the aid of Melquarth Frost, a hardened career criminal, to even the odds in both cases. The novel’s dedication—to Malcolm, Medgar, and Martin—underlines the difference that one man can make in the fight for justice. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2017
In Mosley's (Charcoal Joe) engaging stand-alone, Joe King Oliver, a once stellar detective for the NYPD, now runs his own agency in Brooklyn, confronting crooked cops, deceitful bankers, and cowardly lawyers. He diligently seeks justice both for his client, a black civil rights activist accused of killing two dirty policemen, and also for himself, as he struggles to understand why his fellow officers framed him for assaulting a crafty car thief. After serving ten years in solitary at Rikers Island, Oliver lives a quiet life with his daughter Aja-Denise, when a note from a woman the police used to frame him triggers his search to determine who on the force wanted to destroy him. Assisted by Melquarth Frost, a brilliant sociopath, Oliver stalks an underworld of crime and deceit, while shielding his daughter from the filth. VERDICT Mosley fans will welcome another imaginative page-turner from a mystery grand master. [See Prepub Alert, 8/28/17.]—Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA

Library Journal

2017-10-31
Mosley (Charcoal Joe, 2016, etc.) begins what looks to be a new series with a protagonist whose territory covers New York City's outer boroughs—and, yes, that means Staten Island, too.Joe King Oliver was an ace investigator with the NYPD until his roving eye helped him get framed for sexual assault. "Trouble ambushed me with my pants down and my nose open," as he explains to an acquaintance. He is kicked off the force and thrown into Riker's Island, where he faces the kind of demeaning and vicious attacks a jailed cop would expect from inmates until a stretch in solitary confinement and an abrupt release save his life. Eleven years later, King (as some of his friends call him) is making a living as a private eye based on Brooklyn's Montague Street when his mundane existence is jolted by two events: a letter from a woman admitting she was coerced into setting him up years before and a case involving a radical black activist who's been sentenced to death for killing two corrupt, abusive officers. King sees serendipity in the convergence of these two cases, believing that if he could exonerate the activist, it'd be a way of finally exorcising his rueful memories. His dual inquiries carry him from glittering Wall Street offices to seedy alleyways all over the city, and he encounters double-dealing lawyers, shady cops, drug addicts, hired killers, and prostitutes along the way. The only people King can count on are his loyal and precocious 17-year-old daughter, Aja-Denise, and an equally loyal but tightly wound career criminal named Melquarth "Mel" Frost, whose capacity for violence will remind Mosley devotees of Mouse, the homicidal thug who either helps or hinders Easy Rawlins in the author's first and best-known series. Indeed, so many aspects of this novel are reminiscent of other Mosley books that it tempts one to wonder whether he's stretching his resources a little thin. But ultimately it's Mosley's signature style—rough-hewn, rhythmic, and lyrical—that makes you ready and eager for whatever he's serving up.It's getting to be a bigger blues band on Mosley's stage, with Joe King Oliver now sitting in with Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill. But as long as it sounds sweet and smoky, let the good times roll.

Kirkus Reviews