Walter Mosley

We have to confess we’re not familiar with Mosley’s signature series, the Easy Rawlins line of detective stories, but it’s been a sin of omission. Truth is, we’ve been putting off acquainting ourselves with those books because Mosley had ventured into more high-brow territory with a few intriguing side projects in the 90s. In 1996, he first set the mystery genre aside to focus on a cycle of stories, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned , involving Socrates Fortlow, a disheveled and aging but righteous tenant of inner-city L.A. Then he took on his most ambitious project to date, R.L.’s Dream, a fascinating and fictional account of Robert L. Johnson, the legendary Delta bluesman who allegedly sold his soul to the devil. Actually, it’s only incidentally about Robert Johnson. Rather, it’s a long and thoughtful meditation on what, exactly, the blues is all about, set in a gritty and mostly convincing narrative. We’re told that fans of Easy Rawlins have been biding their time (the last Easy Rawlins mystery came out in 95, a few years before we got hooked), because what Mosley lacks in the way of creating complex three-dimensional characters he makes up for in his expertly constructed mysteries. We can’t wait to sample him at his best, after these years of literary aspiration. What could be easier than sitting back and listening to the man read from Bad Boy Brawly Brown, which will be available July 2? Ruminator Books, (651) 699-0587, ruminator.com


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