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Easy Rawlins #14
Charcoal Joe
Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve.
Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.
Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.
From the Hardcover edition.
Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.
Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.
From the Hardcover edition.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 14, 2016
490 people are currently reading
2559 people want to read
About the author
Walter Mosley
203 books3,894 followersWalter Mosley (b. 1952) is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins, as well as numerous other works, from literary fiction and science fiction to a young adult novel and political monographs. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the Nation, among other publications. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives in New York City.
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November 20, 2016
I have read the entire series, and we are now on the 14th one. It is one of my all time favourites and you could think that by this stage that the quality has slipped. Not one bit, Easy Rawlins is bruised and battered, and at an age when many black men in this era would have been dead, he has proved to be a miraculous survivor. This is detective fiction that transcends its genre to provide us with a remarkable insight of this historical period and what it is be black in a racist USA. There is a social and political commentary underpinned with a bone deep philosophical depth acquired through the myriad of experiences and battles that the characters experience. Whilst I would like to be able to look back in time and view it through the prism of a better present, I can only view with horror what is actually happening and ask are we destined to repeat the mistakes of yesterday?
It begins with Easy unusually feeling that he is in a good place. He has a new detective agency with the remarkable Saul and Whisper. His personal life looks set to be all that he wants it to be but is dealt a death blow leaving a mountain of pain. A visit to Mama JoJo results in him drinking one of her special magical teas that eases life substantially so that he can bear the present. Mouse asks Easy a humdinger of a favour, saying that the notorious Charcoal Joe wants him to exonerate a black physicist, Dr Seymour Braithwaite, who has been arrested for the murder of Pete Boughman and John 'Ducky' Brown. Seymour was discovered at the scene of the crime. Pete turns out to be a money launderer and John is a hitman. The police are aware that Seymour is innocent but will still prosecute him if they fail to find the true culprit. It is all down to Easy to find the evidence that will clear him. Easy walks in a LA where the police abuse their powers when it comes to blacks and whites tend to view him with suspicion, hate and fear. It is barely surprising that Easy wants on the odd occasion to hit back. Finding his life in danger, he uncovers that the murders are about triple crosses and about huge sums of money and diamonds. There are numerous ruthless parties who want to lay their hands on the loot that include the Mafia and Easy is going to need all his street smarts to negotiate a case that could blow up in his face at any time.
This is an intricately plotted and complex story. The writing has both a simplicity and complexity that keeps the reader absorbed in the novel. The historical representation of a society divided by race is done superbly and has echoes in the present. Walter Mosley proves to be an important contemporary commentator on the world we live in, and he delivers this through the vehicle of crime fiction and the extraordinary character of Easy Rawlins. Looking forward to his next book!
It begins with Easy unusually feeling that he is in a good place. He has a new detective agency with the remarkable Saul and Whisper. His personal life looks set to be all that he wants it to be but is dealt a death blow leaving a mountain of pain. A visit to Mama JoJo results in him drinking one of her special magical teas that eases life substantially so that he can bear the present. Mouse asks Easy a humdinger of a favour, saying that the notorious Charcoal Joe wants him to exonerate a black physicist, Dr Seymour Braithwaite, who has been arrested for the murder of Pete Boughman and John 'Ducky' Brown. Seymour was discovered at the scene of the crime. Pete turns out to be a money launderer and John is a hitman. The police are aware that Seymour is innocent but will still prosecute him if they fail to find the true culprit. It is all down to Easy to find the evidence that will clear him. Easy walks in a LA where the police abuse their powers when it comes to blacks and whites tend to view him with suspicion, hate and fear. It is barely surprising that Easy wants on the odd occasion to hit back. Finding his life in danger, he uncovers that the murders are about triple crosses and about huge sums of money and diamonds. There are numerous ruthless parties who want to lay their hands on the loot that include the Mafia and Easy is going to need all his street smarts to negotiate a case that could blow up in his face at any time.
This is an intricately plotted and complex story. The writing has both a simplicity and complexity that keeps the reader absorbed in the novel. The historical representation of a society divided by race is done superbly and has echoes in the present. Walter Mosley proves to be an important contemporary commentator on the world we live in, and he delivers this through the vehicle of crime fiction and the extraordinary character of Easy Rawlins. Looking forward to his next book!
June 29, 2016
I had not previously read an Easy Rawlins book, I didn't have a problem with it though with this book. Easy's character is easy to like and I've always wanted to try him out so I jumped in.
Easy is about to marry the woman that is his current love. Ms. Bonnie, he is all ready to head over to her house when she gets back to town and get down on his knee. Life seems to never work out like Easy wants though.
He ends up getting a visit from his old time 'friend' Mouse.
Mouse has a job for the private detective. He needs him to clear a black young man for a murder of two white men for a pretty shady guy named Charcoal Joe. The young man is smart and is really innocent but being black makes it easier for the murder cases to be closed.
Easy takes on the case and knows he is probably setting himself up for trouble but he has to pay the bills.
This book could have been sooooo much better. I think I will go back and read some of the earlier Easy Rawlins books because I can see how entertaining he can be. With this book though? About midway of the book so many different and new characters were getting added that eventually I lost interest in even seeing how it all played out. It was just too much. I did finish it but I really just did not care. I had no clue how to keep up with which character was which.
Quit giving me that look Easy.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
Easy is about to marry the woman that is his current love. Ms. Bonnie, he is all ready to head over to her house when she gets back to town and get down on his knee. Life seems to never work out like Easy wants though.
He ends up getting a visit from his old time 'friend' Mouse.
Mouse has a job for the private detective. He needs him to clear a black young man for a murder of two white men for a pretty shady guy named Charcoal Joe. The young man is smart and is really innocent but being black makes it easier for the murder cases to be closed.
Easy takes on the case and knows he is probably setting himself up for trouble but he has to pay the bills.
This book could have been sooooo much better. I think I will go back and read some of the earlier Easy Rawlins books because I can see how entertaining he can be. With this book though? About midway of the book so many different and new characters were getting added that eventually I lost interest in even seeing how it all played out. It was just too much. I did finish it but I really just did not care. I had no clue how to keep up with which character was which.
Quit giving me that look Easy.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
October 31, 2021
In this 14th book in the 'Easy Rawlins' series, the private detective is hired to clear the name of a man accused of murder. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Easy Rawlins is riding pretty high. With a windfall from a previous case Easy has opened a private detective agency in Los Angeles with his two partners, Whisper and Saul.
Easy's also about to propose to his girlfriend Bonnie. Things don't go that well with Bonnie but Easy - getting busy with a case - pushes that to the back of his mind.
Easy's new case comes via his lifelong friend Mouse Alexander, a stone cold killer who's always had Easy's back.
It seems that a 22-year-old black post-doc with a Ph.D. in physics, Seymour Braithwaite, has been arrested for murdering two white men - Peter Boughman and Ducky.
Mouse explains that criminal mastermind (and very scary guy) Charcoal Joe, currently in prison, is interested in Seymour's welfare. Charcoal Joe wants Easy to clear the boy's name.
Of course Easy says yes and soon realizes that, unless he finds out who really killed Peter and Ducky, the authorities will pin the crimes on Seymour.
Easy has to be careful while conducting his investigations - and living life in general - because he's a black man in 1968 Los Angeles. When Easy goes to a diner for a bite to eat, the waitress - for no good reason - calls the cops. When Easy encounters police, either at a traffic stop or while doing his job, the cops are hostile and condescending....making it clear they'd as soon arrest him/beat him up/shoot him as look at him. In some ways this is reminiscent of things happening in the country today.
As Easy tries to prove Seymour's innocence he comes across a wide array of colorful characters including Seymour's foster mother and her cantankerous estranged husband;
Various gangsters and criminals;
A pretty jewelry store clerk;
A racist prison guard;
A sexy female prison administrator......
…..and an obnoxious male prison administrator;
A prostitute;
Fearless Jones - Easy's good friend who never lost a fight; and more.
Walter Mosley's descriptions of these characters are exceptionally vivid (i.e. skin color, hairstyle, clothing, behavior) and Easy's interactions with them make up a substantial part of the story.
Easy soon discovers that millions of dollars in cash and diamonds are at the heart of the murders, and some people will stop at nothing to get them.
Thus Easy almost gets killed, lots of people die, and bad guys are running around all over the place. For me the abundance of criminals - and their complicated hijinks - were too confusing. I didn't understand what was going on...and some of what I did understand was contrived and unlikely (i.e. a mysterious journal in a foreign language; Feynman's Physics Lectures).
This would be the kiss of death for most mysteries but this book is as much about the characters as the plot...so it gets a (small) pass.
Easy himself is a compelling guy: smart and well-spoken; a wonderful dad who dotes on his school-age daughter Feather; a decent cook; a man whose friends would (literally) kill for him; a fellow who's nice-looking, well-dressed and irresistible to women; etc. (Easy's effect on women bothers me. It's what I call 'male fantasy writing' - when almost every woman the protagonist meets whips off her clothes and has sex with him...or at least snuggles up and kisses him. LOL)
I always enjoy Easy Rawlins books, though this isn't among the best I've read. Still, the story is engaging and I'd recommend the book to mystery readers, especially fans of the series.
You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/
August 23, 2023
I quite enjoyed this book. Charcoal Joe was a criminal into many dark crimes. He also had a heart though for his child and his woman. This book has lots of twists and turns and is hard to put down once picked up. I highly recommend this book to all.
June 23, 2016
Guess I am a bit of an outlier on this one. I love the Ezekiel (Easy) Porterhouse Rawlins character: he is dependable, hard working, unbiased, with a strong, unwavering moral compass despite the unbalanced L.A. world in which he lives. He has friends in all walks of life. Just as his life is settling down, with a new detective agency with two partners, and about to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, in comes his best friend Ray Alexander (Mouse.) Mouse wants Easy to help free a young black scholar from jail, arrested for being at the scene of a double murder, at the request of an aging jailed gangster, Charcoal Joe. Of course, things get very messy as Easy investigates: family, lovers, crooks, cops, etc. My problem with this book was it was way too complicated and there were too many characters to follow. Back to basics with #15, I hope.
August 30, 2016
Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlings used to be a custodian for the Los Angeles public schools. He would trade “favor for favor” as he honed his skills as an investigator. This book carries Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlings several years into his “resurrection.” If I hadn’t read all of the Rawlings saga I might be more enthusiastic about Mosley’s current effort.
We are now in the late 1960s and, of course, in Los Angeles. Easy has just found the resources to start up his own detective agency with two partners. His friend, Raymond (*Mouse) approaches him with a request to prove a young black professor innocent of the murder of two criminals with whom he was found by the Los Angeles police. We learn in short order that the man requesting the help through Raymond is a shady character known as Charcoal Joe.
The book is filled with characters and subplots far in excess of any clear storyline. Mosley’s love of language and intimate knowledge of Los Angeles in the Sixties is wasted in a bloated book that meanders from recipes to seductions to bad guys ranging from punks to the Mafia. Over the years, Mosely has had a lot to say about poverty, racism and abuse of poor black citizens by police that should be protecting them. When he shifted from L.A. to NYC for his Leonid McGill series, he was able to add some important observations of the criminal class and domestic life within the context of a taut plot. I don’t know why he decided he needed to return to Los Angeles and resurrect Easy. So far, he is well below the bar that he previously set.
We are now in the late 1960s and, of course, in Los Angeles. Easy has just found the resources to start up his own detective agency with two partners. His friend, Raymond (*Mouse) approaches him with a request to prove a young black professor innocent of the murder of two criminals with whom he was found by the Los Angeles police. We learn in short order that the man requesting the help through Raymond is a shady character known as Charcoal Joe.
The book is filled with characters and subplots far in excess of any clear storyline. Mosley’s love of language and intimate knowledge of Los Angeles in the Sixties is wasted in a bloated book that meanders from recipes to seductions to bad guys ranging from punks to the Mafia. Over the years, Mosely has had a lot to say about poverty, racism and abuse of poor black citizens by police that should be protecting them. When he shifted from L.A. to NYC for his Leonid McGill series, he was able to add some important observations of the criminal class and domestic life within the context of a taut plot. I don’t know why he decided he needed to return to Los Angeles and resurrect Easy. So far, he is well below the bar that he previously set.
August 22, 2016
Utterly absorbing, Charcoal Joe yanks you back to LA in 1968, not long after the Watts riots, and it hurls you into the world of Easy Rawlins, a black man at a difficult time, a private investigator passing the prime of his life.
It’s been a while since I’ve read any Easy and I’d wondered if Mosley could’ve kept his edge. Truth is, right now, the author’s incisive observations on skin colour and tensions between the public and police couldn’t possibly be any more relevant. Mosley give us bitterly believable glimpses of the racial fractures which still divide American society today.
And then he wraps that message in outstanding crime noir. Murder. A false accusation. Good men who are also violent men. Violent men who are not. Gangsters on the rise and on the wane. Beautiful women. Broken hearts. Liars, cheats, cowards and the febrile heartbeat of a tainted city.
It's all written with wit and verve in a sparse prose which sums up the human experience in deceptively simple sentences: ‘There was something almost ceremonial about these gestures. First the money, then the woman; after all that, I could go out somewhere to die.’
If I had to fault Charcoal Joe, I’d say that there’s too many layers in the convoluted plot. Even immersed in the story for two solid days, I still couldn’t quite pin down all its intricacies. Similarly, some references to Easy’s history which I’ve missed went way over my head.
Even so, I didn’t feel that skipping several of the Rawlins books seriously detracted from my enjoyment of this one – it’s stand-out crime fiction of the highest calibre.
9/10
There's a longer version of this review over at:-
http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
It’s been a while since I’ve read any Easy and I’d wondered if Mosley could’ve kept his edge. Truth is, right now, the author’s incisive observations on skin colour and tensions between the public and police couldn’t possibly be any more relevant. Mosley give us bitterly believable glimpses of the racial fractures which still divide American society today.
And then he wraps that message in outstanding crime noir. Murder. A false accusation. Good men who are also violent men. Violent men who are not. Gangsters on the rise and on the wane. Beautiful women. Broken hearts. Liars, cheats, cowards and the febrile heartbeat of a tainted city.
It's all written with wit and verve in a sparse prose which sums up the human experience in deceptively simple sentences: ‘There was something almost ceremonial about these gestures. First the money, then the woman; after all that, I could go out somewhere to die.’
If I had to fault Charcoal Joe, I’d say that there’s too many layers in the convoluted plot. Even immersed in the story for two solid days, I still couldn’t quite pin down all its intricacies. Similarly, some references to Easy’s history which I’ve missed went way over my head.
Even so, I didn’t feel that skipping several of the Rawlins books seriously detracted from my enjoyment of this one – it’s stand-out crime fiction of the highest calibre.
9/10
There's a longer version of this review over at:-
http://www.murdermayhemandmore.net
September 26, 2020
I love these Easy Rawlins detective novels. The only thing better would be in Mosley crossed-over the characters from one of his other great series...wait...HE DID! Fearless Jones teams up with Easy in Charcoal Joe and I couldn't be happier!
We're on #14 now, so there's a whole lot of backstory to get through. That can be tiresome to the newcomer, so I would suggest starting earlier in the series, if you can.
We're on #14 now, so there's a whole lot of backstory to get through. That can be tiresome to the newcomer, so I would suggest starting earlier in the series, if you can.
June 10, 2020
great thriller, clever and witty writer. what should be said more. Mosley is quite unique in his plots which in the end look so simple but not when you roam the book. he is sensual, he brings or cry out life of black people in L.A in the 60's and and is so human. great read
July 18, 2016
“Black men in America had learned centuries ago that the devil not only offered the best deals – he was the only game in our part of town.” In this latest installment of the Easy Rawlins series, Easy is hired by the dangerous, forever criminally-minded Mouse. If you think that’s bad news, things just got a whole lot worse. Charcoal Joe might just be even badder than Mouse. Indeed he is the type of man that can make most men wince at the sound of his name. “Joe has been in turn what they call a prodigy, an undertaker, thief, artist, grim reaper, card counter, riddle-maker like you wouldn’t believe, rich as Midas, and as close to a fallen angel that a mortal man can get.” Creating unforgettable characters is one of Mosley’s fortes, so it was quite a delight to not only be introduced to Charcoal Joe but also be reacquainted with the likes of Fearless Jones and Bad Boy Brawly Brown.
June 25, 2016
The book description is quite revealing, so no need to rehash the plot in this review. I'll just tell you that you get what you expect from an Easy Rawlins mystery. A host of players, a fast moving plot, some great sentences of wisdom and colorful characterizations. Well done.
April 5, 2024
As the Easy Rawlins series moves on, we’re seeing books that are more “Easy and Friends Save the Day.” Which I like. Mosley has given his Marlowe some much needed maturity and focus. Thus, the family/friend elements are often more interesting than the mystery, though that’s fine too.
September 15, 2016
Mosley dazzles with memorable characters and an unflinching witty well-observed look at 1960s Los Angeles. The fourteenth novel in the Easy Rawlins series is as much a joy to read as the first book. I so appreciate how each storyline has a fresh feel wrapped around thought-provoking prose as the characters manage the ethics of the world they live in, as temptations come in many forms. As Easy tries to solve one of the most devious cases of his career, it is his personal life that will reach out and touch reader’s heart. Once again another harrowing and moving drama of life on the edge makes this addictive series a must read for me. I cannot wait to see where Mosley takes me next.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
June 26, 2016
Walter Mosley you've been very good to me. I treasure your first six Easy Rawlins mysteries. Visions of Denzel as Easy and Don Cheadle as Mouse are the continuity that help me relish the series. But now you're looking back into the distance at 50 and you need to be a little more graceful. Even Denzel is showing grey, man you've got to quit thinking yourself such a stud and focus more on being a fierce but benevolent grandfather. You're a hell of a man. Stop leading with your stick. When I become consciously aware that I may just be reading hetero male soft porn slicked up packaged with a mystery I think of leaving you for good. Please, I hope I don't have to Spillane.
June 26, 2020
i am following my standing practice of giving walter mosley 5 stars unless something egregious gets in the way.
August 10, 2020
I must admit, it’s been many moons since I’ve read an Easy Rawlins mystery. With the writing style of Mosley, one thing is for certain—reading an Easy mystery takes a certain rhythm, and once you move with the beat of the words, the dance is breathtaking!
Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins has matured as a character, as well as in his current life standing. He’s in a good place and for good reason. He’s finally going to take the plunge and propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay—a woman who sets his soul and being on fire. Not only is his love life in order, he and his two cronies have set up a new detective agency, WRENS-L. It’s a combination of his and his partners’ names. Very clever indeed. But, of course, as Easy knows all too well, life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan it.
When Mouse, a childhood friend, comes knocking on his door, firecrackers, smoke and red flags went to popping and waving, which was a sure sign that Easy should have just looked the other way, but this was Mouse coming to him with a proposition that Easy couldn’t afford to walk away from.
As in the true fashion of Easy and this being the 1960s Los Angeles, once he begins to investigate a young man named Seymour’s alleged murder wrap, everything Easy thought he knew turns a bit upside down. Not only is his own life put on hold, he had to interrupt his daughter, Feather’s life, in order to guarantee that she and he would live to see another day. So what does a man in Easy’s position do? He calls upon a man he trusts more than himself, Fearless. Fearless provides not only hired muscle to handle all the sinister characters Easy comes across; he is a true confidante for Easy to talk to. The more Easy delves into all the shady people trying to ruin Seymour’s young hopeful chances, the more Easy is left feeling uneasy.
When the dust settles, there will be dead bodies, diamonds, millions of dollars and mystery left at the doorstep for you, the reader, to open and discover. What did a nineteen-year old have to gain by murdering two mob men in a Malibu beach house? And furthermore, did he do it? If you’re not familiar with Easy Rawlins, you’ll soon discover that “Trouble” is his middle name. Or shall I say, “Trouble” has a way of winding its way straight to Easy’s path.
This is the fourteenth novel in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. It was boldly written with all the shady and colorful characters that Mosley has eloquently devised and developed throughout the years. I love Easy, Fearless and Mouse. There were even a few new characters introduced that were a true delight to read. Mosley is one of those writers that gives the reader a lot of description, but as he does, your mind’s eye begins to see the movie reel advance, frame by frame and you can’t put the book down afraid of breaking up the visual scene. As with A Devil in a Blue Dress, I’d love to see Charcoal Joe turned into a motion picture film.
The Sexy Nerd gives Charcoal Joe five stars and beyond the galaxies. A fantastic, exciting adventure that grabs hold of you from the first page until the last. I know one thing; I’m looking forward to backtracking in the series and catching up with Easy. I see a lot has changed since I last read him. Mosley is a brilliant writer and commands his readers to think and take notice. Mosley never disappoints. Reacquaint yourself with the colorful characters in the Easy Rawlins series. I’m so glad I did. Happy Reading!
Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins has matured as a character, as well as in his current life standing. He’s in a good place and for good reason. He’s finally going to take the plunge and propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay—a woman who sets his soul and being on fire. Not only is his love life in order, he and his two cronies have set up a new detective agency, WRENS-L. It’s a combination of his and his partners’ names. Very clever indeed. But, of course, as Easy knows all too well, life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan it.
When Mouse, a childhood friend, comes knocking on his door, firecrackers, smoke and red flags went to popping and waving, which was a sure sign that Easy should have just looked the other way, but this was Mouse coming to him with a proposition that Easy couldn’t afford to walk away from.
As in the true fashion of Easy and this being the 1960s Los Angeles, once he begins to investigate a young man named Seymour’s alleged murder wrap, everything Easy thought he knew turns a bit upside down. Not only is his own life put on hold, he had to interrupt his daughter, Feather’s life, in order to guarantee that she and he would live to see another day. So what does a man in Easy’s position do? He calls upon a man he trusts more than himself, Fearless. Fearless provides not only hired muscle to handle all the sinister characters Easy comes across; he is a true confidante for Easy to talk to. The more Easy delves into all the shady people trying to ruin Seymour’s young hopeful chances, the more Easy is left feeling uneasy.
When the dust settles, there will be dead bodies, diamonds, millions of dollars and mystery left at the doorstep for you, the reader, to open and discover. What did a nineteen-year old have to gain by murdering two mob men in a Malibu beach house? And furthermore, did he do it? If you’re not familiar with Easy Rawlins, you’ll soon discover that “Trouble” is his middle name. Or shall I say, “Trouble” has a way of winding its way straight to Easy’s path.
This is the fourteenth novel in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. It was boldly written with all the shady and colorful characters that Mosley has eloquently devised and developed throughout the years. I love Easy, Fearless and Mouse. There were even a few new characters introduced that were a true delight to read. Mosley is one of those writers that gives the reader a lot of description, but as he does, your mind’s eye begins to see the movie reel advance, frame by frame and you can’t put the book down afraid of breaking up the visual scene. As with A Devil in a Blue Dress, I’d love to see Charcoal Joe turned into a motion picture film.
The Sexy Nerd gives Charcoal Joe five stars and beyond the galaxies. A fantastic, exciting adventure that grabs hold of you from the first page until the last. I know one thing; I’m looking forward to backtracking in the series and catching up with Easy. I see a lot has changed since I last read him. Mosley is a brilliant writer and commands his readers to think and take notice. Mosley never disappoints. Reacquaint yourself with the colorful characters in the Easy Rawlins series. I’m so glad I did. Happy Reading!
June 11, 2016
Those of you who’ve followed our reviews for very long know that I’m a huge Walter Mosley fan, and that I love his Easy Rawlins series, so I was delighted to get Charcoal Joe. There’s a reason Mr. Mosley’s consistently an award-winning and bestselling author…he’s an amazing storyteller.
The Easy Rawlins series beautifully portrays what parts of Los Angeles were like during each story’s decade, prevalent racial attitudes during those times, and the nuances of what each decade in the series was like. It’s almost like walking into a time capsule every time I pick one of these novels up. I think I would read them for those qualities alone – and yet, the mysteries are equally as masterful. They’re the kind that keep me reading late into the night because I can’t bear to put them down. I can’t wait to share this one with you at http://popcornreads.com/?p=9139.
The Easy Rawlins series beautifully portrays what parts of Los Angeles were like during each story’s decade, prevalent racial attitudes during those times, and the nuances of what each decade in the series was like. It’s almost like walking into a time capsule every time I pick one of these novels up. I think I would read them for those qualities alone – and yet, the mysteries are equally as masterful. They’re the kind that keep me reading late into the night because I can’t bear to put them down. I can’t wait to share this one with you at http://popcornreads.com/?p=9139.
June 1, 2016
Nobody creates atmosphere
like Walter Mosley.
The L.A. that his Easy Rawlins
inhabits is so real you can touch it.
Easy continues to struggle to solve his case.
Make some money and survive
in an L.A. that is not always
hospitable to a Black ex GI
Private Investigator.
Lots of authors TRY to emulate
the greats like Hammett and Chandler
Mosley does.
like Walter Mosley.
The L.A. that his Easy Rawlins
inhabits is so real you can touch it.
Easy continues to struggle to solve his case.
Make some money and survive
in an L.A. that is not always
hospitable to a Black ex GI
Private Investigator.
Lots of authors TRY to emulate
the greats like Hammett and Chandler
Mosley does.
July 10, 2016
Mosley has created other memorable characters (Socrates Fortlow, Fearless Jones, Leonid McGill), but fortunately for readers like me, he keeps coming back to Easy Rawlins.
This one is vintage Easy Rawlins. A page-turner with a plot more complex than most writers could fit into 300 pages, and an ongoing commentary about life as a black man in late 20th century LA.
This one is vintage Easy Rawlins. A page-turner with a plot more complex than most writers could fit into 300 pages, and an ongoing commentary about life as a black man in late 20th century LA.
July 25, 2016
The review box says, "What did you think?"
I think I have reached the point that I can't keep up with all of the characters in an Easy Rawlins mystery. If not for Fearless Jones, Jackson Blue, Mama Jo, Bonnie and Feather, I would be totally off the rails.
And I still don't know who got all the money.
I think I have reached the point that I can't keep up with all of the characters in an Easy Rawlins mystery. If not for Fearless Jones, Jackson Blue, Mama Jo, Bonnie and Feather, I would be totally off the rails.
And I still don't know who got all the money.
July 4, 2016
3.5 stars. Not my favorite Easy book but still worth reading. So many characters and goings on--I got a little lost sometimes. But Easy is always wonderful and I look forward to new books by Mosley more than almost any other author.
June 14, 2016
You put Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones together? I'm all in! Plus appearances by Mouse and Bad Boy Brawly Brown? Shoooooooooooot
November 19, 2018
The latest Easy Rawlins book was thoroughly enjoyable. Rawlins is such an interesting character. The books take place in a near past - it's 1970 in this book. LA is still highly segregated, there are no cell phones or personal computers. Needing change for phone booths is essential. Rawlins is asked to help find a young black genius physicist innocent. While he was looking for his mother, he chance upon a body. The police burst in and arrested him with very little evidence other than that he is a young black man. He's lived a sheltered life. He knows he hasn't done anything so why is he under arrest. A very dangerous man known as Charcoal Joe is currently in prison for a short sentence. Through a friend of Easy's, he offers him $18,000 to prove the young man innocent. The Rawlings books, like Mosley's other books, are meditations on racism and what it's like to live as a black man in a hostile white world. One example: Easy goes to a diner in a white neighborhood. A waitress calls the police. Sound familiar? Some things never change. Still, Easy goes on about his business. Murder, torture, mayhem and more happen in this book. At the end only a few are left standing. Luckily, Easy is one of them!
October 12, 2017
So loved Fearless Jones being in this read....Fearless is my favorite Walter Mosley character and that made this read special for Mi.
March 30, 2016
This is the 14th Easy Rollins mystery. It takes place in the mid 60s when there was a lot of unrest in Los Angeles and blacks like Easy were subjected to discrimination from whites all over the US.
Easy and 2 other operatives have opened a detective agency in Los Angeles. Each of the detectives has special skills and are the best at what they do. Easy's talents include being on good terms with many underworld characters, some corporate executives as well as a high ranking police official.
Easy was able to move smoothly from the ghettos to the board room. He was able to use the Black slang of his neighbors as well as more educated speech when speaking to whites.
Mouse, one of Easy's underworld friends, asks him get Seymour, the brilliant young foster son of a woman, exonerated for 2 murders that the boy is accused of committing. Easy soon learns that the person who is paying him is a dangerous older man known as Charcoal Joe. Easy is given the job primarily because of his police connections.
Easy also learns that the dead men were engaged in money laundering and had a large sum of money in their possession when they killed. So Easy has to follow the money to find the murderers and exonerate the young man.
The story continues with more deception, murders and violence. What makes Mosley books so interesting is that the Easy character can smoothly transition from backwoods jargon to proper English without losing his black identity. Mosley also intersperses terms like simile, metaphors and denouement into the story. It is no surprise that he has won many awards including a Grammy and the O.Henry Award.
Easy and 2 other operatives have opened a detective agency in Los Angeles. Each of the detectives has special skills and are the best at what they do. Easy's talents include being on good terms with many underworld characters, some corporate executives as well as a high ranking police official.
Easy was able to move smoothly from the ghettos to the board room. He was able to use the Black slang of his neighbors as well as more educated speech when speaking to whites.
Mouse, one of Easy's underworld friends, asks him get Seymour, the brilliant young foster son of a woman, exonerated for 2 murders that the boy is accused of committing. Easy soon learns that the person who is paying him is a dangerous older man known as Charcoal Joe. Easy is given the job primarily because of his police connections.
Easy also learns that the dead men were engaged in money laundering and had a large sum of money in their possession when they killed. So Easy has to follow the money to find the murderers and exonerate the young man.
The story continues with more deception, murders and violence. What makes Mosley books so interesting is that the Easy character can smoothly transition from backwoods jargon to proper English without losing his black identity. Mosley also intersperses terms like simile, metaphors and denouement into the story. It is no surprise that he has won many awards including a Grammy and the O.Henry Award.
July 2, 2016
With Ezekiel “Easy”Rawlins this author has created one of the most popular characters known to crime fiction. In some 14 tales Walter Mosley has kept up the excitement as Easy gets in and out of hot water in 1968 Los Angeles.
As Charcoal Joe begins for once it looks like Easy is enjoying a quietus while running WRENS-L, a detective agency whose partners including Easy are Saul Lynx and Whisper Natly. Plus, Easy is about to propose to his ever girl Bonnie Shay....until he finds out she’s rehooked up with another. Perhaps that clouded his judgment, but whatever the case he’s agreed to help Charcoal Joe.
The son of one of Joe’s many associates, Dr. Seymour Brathwaite, a 22-tear-old physicist, was found at the scene of a double murder and is now enjoying the hospitality of the LAPD. Joe wants Easy to find evidence to clear Seymour. As there’s never a dull moment in Easy’s life Jasmine Palmas-Hardy (once Seymour’s foster mother) offers Easy $18,000 to bail Seymour out. Seems a bit odd, doesn’t it? But that’s not the end of unexplainables - two thugs who have attacked Easy and his friend Fearless Jones go to meet their maker, there are several other murders, and more felonies than we can count.
With non-stop action, carefully drawn ancillary characters, and best of all Easy in full force Charcoal Joe is a must for all fans of the series and the unfortunate few who haven’t yet experienced the power of Walter Mosley’s pen. Michael Boatman’s narration is finely tuned as he not only delivers the tale but expertly introduces the thugs, ladies of the night and police officers who walk the LA’s streets.
Enjoy!
October 19, 2022
I am not exactly a connoisseur of Easy Rawlings but I might be getting there. He does have a strange mix of ethics and morality much like many of the current fictional detectives and crime busters. Women seem to fall for him. And he does seem to operate somewhat on a method of exchanging favors. His emotional state is somewhat flat regardless of what happens to him. In this book he is dumped by the love of his life and almost killed. But he just continues to chug along regardless. I guess all of that is what makes this a fictional account but nevertheless relatively enjoyable. It also might be a white person‘s way of understanding a little bit about black culture. Easy is very outspoken about his walking through the world as a black man and how his skin color has an impact on everything in his life. This particular story is evidently set in the late 1960s and it makes minor tangential references to that period of time. And the number of naked women he manages to encounter in this reasonably short book is supposedly somehow connected to that era. He has a 13-year-old daughter who is the author tries to use as a way of humanizing him. However she spends most of the book in the care of other people temporarily while her father is out in a variety of dangerous situations. There are a significant number of dead bodies scattered throughout which seem to have a minimal impact on his emotional functioning. And of course he solves a number of criminal mysteries and as every detective seems to do, He always has a wad of cash in his pocket ready to dispense to people who cooperate and inform him.
July 26, 2016
Easy never finds himself in an easy predicament. Whenever he has a bad feeling about this case, he's never wrong.
The story starts out with Easy on cloud nine and an engagement ring in his pocket. Then he finds out his girlfriend has married another man. To help him deal with the pain, he goes to Moma Jo and she gives him one of her concoctions. Now the real story begins.
2 men are found murdered in a home owned by Charcoal Joe, another ruthless killer. Seymour (his biological son; unknown to others) is arrested for the murder because he was found standing over the bodies. Now, Charcoal Joe and his paramour, Jasmine, wants Seymour's name cleared.
There are so many paths within this story that led to the deaths of others. At least seven people were killed because of two million dollars and diamonds. Thieves, killers and prostitutes make not strange bedfellows but dangerous ones as well.
Walter Mosley delivers an intricate twist that keeps you lost in the story only to lay it out as if it was staring you right in the face; similar to "Murder She Wrote or Law & Order."
The story starts out with Easy on cloud nine and an engagement ring in his pocket. Then he finds out his girlfriend has married another man. To help him deal with the pain, he goes to Moma Jo and she gives him one of her concoctions. Now the real story begins.
2 men are found murdered in a home owned by Charcoal Joe, another ruthless killer. Seymour (his biological son; unknown to others) is arrested for the murder because he was found standing over the bodies. Now, Charcoal Joe and his paramour, Jasmine, wants Seymour's name cleared.
There are so many paths within this story that led to the deaths of others. At least seven people were killed because of two million dollars and diamonds. Thieves, killers and prostitutes make not strange bedfellows but dangerous ones as well.
Walter Mosley delivers an intricate twist that keeps you lost in the story only to lay it out as if it was staring you right in the face; similar to "Murder She Wrote or Law & Order."
March 31, 2016
Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley- This is the fourteenth Easy Rawlins mystery by Walter Mosley, and much like the previous outings, it is exciting, mysterious, confusing, and profound. As usual, racism and the shadow so many people live under is always a determining factor of everyday life in Mosley's mysteries. How a black private detective maneuvers through the 1960's black and white worlds is of paramount importance to the story. In this case, Rawlins is tasked by a friend to help prove a young man innocent of a crime, which seems simple enough, but nothing in the dark underbelly of LA is simple. Before he knows it, people are lying to him, using him, and trying to kill him. Of course there is much more going on than he was told, and like peeling an onion, he discovers the truth one layer at a time. Mosley's books, be they about Easy Rawlins or Fearless Jones, or any number of shady characters, are entertaining and addicting stories told with such poetic prose and historical clarity, it would be a shame to miss this.
June 15, 2016
Yeah, read it in one day. Because that's how Easy Rawlins books work. You start and can't stop.
Once again, we have a complex character, dealing with very colorful (no pun intended) people who are doing very bad things. One thing that I think will stick with me here is the fact that Easy comes up against a very capable foe, a "Mouse before there was a Mouse", and is told that, while he is one man, his legion of friends and associates (and Mouse, of course) is with him as well. In a very memorable scene, he is told just WHY he's the most feared man in Southern Cali, and the list of people he has connections with, that he's done work for, that he's traded favors with is so vast and so intimidating that he's not being touched. And this surprises him, because he wasn't thinking hat way.
All in all, a very enjoyable book as usual, and Mosley's mixing of action with life experiences and down-home wisdom resonates as it always has.
Once again, we have a complex character, dealing with very colorful (no pun intended) people who are doing very bad things. One thing that I think will stick with me here is the fact that Easy comes up against a very capable foe, a "Mouse before there was a Mouse", and is told that, while he is one man, his legion of friends and associates (and Mouse, of course) is with him as well. In a very memorable scene, he is told just WHY he's the most feared man in Southern Cali, and the list of people he has connections with, that he's done work for, that he's traded favors with is so vast and so intimidating that he's not being touched. And this surprises him, because he wasn't thinking hat way.
All in all, a very enjoyable book as usual, and Mosley's mixing of action with life experiences and down-home wisdom resonates as it always has.
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