Blonde Faith: Easy Rawlins 11 (The Easy Rawlins Mysteries) - Softcover

Walter Mosley is the author of the Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mysteries and numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction. He was born in Los Angeles and lives in New York. He has won the Anisfield-Wolf prize and numerous other honors, and in 2006 he was invited to deliver the Alain Leroy Locke lectures at Harvard.

Mosley, a smart and daring writer, has tried his hand at everything from political essays to erotica, but his most anticipated books are those featuring the sleuth that made him famous: Easy Rawlins. In the tenth series installment, it's 1967 and Easy is emotionally on edge after learning that his true love, Bonnie Shay, plans to marry an African prince. A search for Christmas Black, a "village-killing" soldier and the adoptive father of an eight-year-old Vietnamese girl, and for the dangerous Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, Easy's oldest friend, provides distraction (and some relief, in the form of willing women), but Easy's need to reconcile his role in his relationship's end seems to trump even mayhem and murder. One of the remarkable traits of this series has been its portrayal of the sleuth not as a loner but as a man intricately connected with family and community. For Easy, who ages and changes with each book, the past is always present. For once, however, this web of connection tangles the storytelling. Amidst the frequent historical vignettes and righteous asides, we want Easy to scramble free and act. When he finally does, the conflagration feels almost pro forma. And, as with Cinnamon Kiss (2005), there's less connection to the historical moment. Here it's Vietnam, as Easy penetrates an army drug-smuggling ring unaccompanied by Mosley's usual penetrating insights. But if this extraordinary series is beginning to drift, there are indications that suggest Mosely may be thinking about wrapping it up. Graff, Keir