A Red Death

A Red Death is Walter Mosley's second novel in his ongoing series of Easy Rawlins mysteries. I had read the first one, Devil in a Blue Dress, that was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and a later one in the series, Little Scarlet, that was the One Book One City selection for L.A. back in 2005. A Red Death take place in early 1950's Los Angeles, mostly in the Watts area. The title alludes to both the fear of communism at the time and the graphic descriptions of the murders.

The book begins rather slowly and picks up halfway through. I've read some mysteries that were mostly slow but then got very fast and exciting at the end with an unexpected twist or two. This isn't one of those mysteries. The story does have its subtle clues in at the beginning and has some build up but it never hits the reader over the head with action. The final resolution to the mystery, though still unexpected, isn't much more than the sum of its parts.

Plot development is not Mosley's strength and he wisely focuses more on character development, what really makes his writing good. The protagonist/detective, Easy Rawlins, is not a faultless or heroic figure. He spends stolen money, his best friend is a cold-blooded killer, he lies to his friends and cheats them. He also has some feelings of inferiority, especially when events become too puzzling. He'll share his theory with his thoughts (the book is written in the first person from his point of view) and be so sure of it you think he's right but then he turns out to be wrong. Most of the characters are just as imperfect if not moreso. The only more virtuous characters are also the prime suspects.

Overall, the book is readable and a page turner, just not a very fast one. What keeps it going isn't the wanting to know the resolution, but wanting to find out what kind of fix Easy will get into and how he'll get through it.