I’ve got a three book omnibus of Walter Mosley’s first three novels and on the back of enjoying this one I’m looking forward to spending time with the next two books. Though written in the 1990s about the late 1940s these books really conjure up a similar feeling to Chandler or Hammett’s writing to me. I’m not an expert or even well read on either of those writers though I guess. That’s definitely how this book felt to me though. The first person writing is lean and there’s enough intrigue and mayhem for a pulp novel here.

Our hero is Easy Rawlins, a twenty-something redundant factory worker who comes to life in East LA. I don’t really know enough to comment on whether the black working class hero is realistic or not but he’s definitely a different type of guy to Philip Marlowe. I thought the plot got a bit complicated in parts with all the falling bodies but that was the sort of book this was. To have had a low body count would have been to have changed the book entirely.

I liked this book but it’s really comments from other people that this is one of the best series around that makes me want to keep reading.