A Red Death: An Easy Rawlins Mystery

“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.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.

This book has taught me so many things. I have never been black. I’ve never been poor. I’ve never been downtrodden. I’ve never felt like murdering anyone. I’ve never felt such incredible sexual love as I found in this book. This book has been well worth reading.

Good character development with plenty of plot twists and suspense.. really captures the 50’s as i imagine it.. the pace is quick and precise… love all the books

For those unfamiliar with Mosley and Easy Rawlins, think of an African-American Sam Spade with less 40s snappy dialogue and more Shaft-like cool and you'll be close to the mark. Set in late 1940s/early 1950s LA, Easy Rawlins is a street-smart WWII vet with roots in the Great Migration - wary of white men, cops and all the institutions of power that have marginalized Black people for so long - and as a result is the person residents of working-class south central go to when they need help.The plot in _A Red Death_ involves both the professional and the personal in a classic noir-trope: Rawlins' murderous (and unstable) best friend,Mouse, has driven his wife away ... into the arms of Rawlins, a dangerous situation that could turn nasty at any moment. His personal life is compounded by the apparent suicide (or was it murder?) of a tenant in one of Rawlins' apartment buildings - a death that has drawn the attention of both the IRS and the FBI to Rawlins, who is anxious to steer clear of both.Mosley deftly takes readers on a modern-feeling noir mystery as Easy Rawlins seeks to find what happened to his tenant while simultaneously trying to avoid being manipulated and played by the feds and avoid being murdered by his best friend. A light read, but very entertaining.

Easy Rawlins is killing-mad. He's likely to go to jail and lose all his property. He's being prosecuted by the IRS for back taxes, and his only hope of getting out of this mess is to do some snooping for the FBI.At this point in his career, Easy owns three apartment buildings, bought with stolen money that fell into his lap in an earlier book. But he hides his wealth and pretends to be the janitor. A black entrepreneur in LA in 1953 can't do business quite like a white man.While Easy helps the FBI get the goods on suspected Reds (or pretends to), he keeps stumbling upon corpses. Naturally the cops find that suspicious. If Easy doesn't go to jail for tax fraud, he'll go for murder. The only way out of this mess is to find the killer himself.The bewildering complications of the plot form a nice backdrop for nerve-racking fight scenes, amusing love scenes and spectacular drinking bouts. Betrayal between friends and lovers abounds, but most of it is forgiven by the time Easy ties up all the loose ends of his multiple investigations.Easy's best friend Mouse shows up just when needed. With his short fuse and his taste for blood, Mouse is an uneasy friend for Easy, but he comes in handy when things get desperate.I'm reading the Easy Rawlins books in order, and liking them more every time. The melodious prose and wry humor give deep pleasure. And the moral ambiguities Easy has to deal with invite our compassion, not just for blacks, but for the human predicament. Easy reflects, to his dismay, "I was on everybody's side but my own." That's precisely what makes him a hero.

This second in the series of Easy Rawlins books has been a pleasure to read! I first heard of Walter Mosley when I took a writing class from him on Masterclass. I fell in love with his philosophy and then started reading his books and fell in love with them, too. I’ll read them all.

I've enjoyed this series, read a few out of order, but pieced it together later.

While post-war L.A. has always fascinated me, Walter Mosley shows me a different side of the city through his Easy Rawlins novels. Life for Easy is complex. Yes, there's always a case to solve, people are killed, relationships established. But it's the story telling that is most satisfying for me. The people, the places, the rhythm all ring authentic to the times. Read them in order. Each novel is a snapshot of the era. I've read the first three and can't wait for the fourth as Easy moves through the 40s and 50s into the more turbulent 60s. Having live through most of it, I can tell they ring true.

The second installment in the Easy Rawlins series and this book takes the development of the main character a whole lot further, with Rawlins attempting to discover why the IRS is after him for unpaid tax whilst, at the same time, attempting to run down a supposedly communist agitator. Brilliantly plotted and well written, this book almost makes you smell what it must have been like to be black and poor in early 1950's LA, with the overt racist attitude of the police and the IRS on one side and the struggle to exist with some dignity on the other. Rawlins has created a very character in Easy Rawlins and, with Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander, these are two men seemingly at odds with the norms of white society. This book is a treat for any serious fan of the genre.

Rearly very disappointing, having been recommended his work by others

Like the first book, great setting, characters, dialogue.The story however just doesn’t really hang together for me.So much confusing coming and going, then all seems to inexplicably be sorted and neat, which is even mor perplexing.Possibly a re-read would make it 5* as the way it portrays the historical blight, of a a time not that distant, is very well done.Certainly worth reading if like me, intend to read the books in sequence.