Genre: Book
Grade: A-
Notable People: Walter Mosley
Title: Blood Grove
Review: this 2021 take on Mosley’s fabulous and long running Easy Rawlins series brings us to Watts- torn LA of 1969. If you started early in this series, you know that Easy came to LA in the late 40s as a war struck GI, as the town was in its relative infancy and the boys were coming home to find a better life westward. Easy is in his late 40s now, and has his own private dick agency. The story is, as always, a complicated and convoluted whopper of tale, with endless red herrings. Mosley sis one of those writers whose chosen genre is mostly irrelevant; he is one of America’s best regardless of subject. As the Easy series has developed it had focused more and more on the American Black experience, and this one holds nothing back in describing the degree of racism, even at the time of the flowering of our country. At times, the book seems more about race than a mystery novel or character study, but it is hard not to see that as still relevant. Mosley has had the same adjunct characters for years and they are magnificent…study up on Mouse Alexander, possibly the most loyal sociopath in history. Mosley’s colors are a treat to behold.