Of Swords and Parasols

Mosley’s second Easy Rawlins book is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Set several years after Devil In A Blue Dress, A Red Death features Easy about to lose everything to an accusation of tax fraud when he’s offered an out by the FBI if he agrees to spy on a Jew suspected of being a Communist. Meanwhile, his old almost-flame, Etta, has left her husband, Mouse, who is also Easy’s best friend, and turned to Easy for sanctuary. Which may be a worse situation than a tenant of Easy’s who appears to have committed suicide, but the police suspect may have been murdered by Easy.

To me, this felt like a sequel that hadn’t quite been intended. Devil In A Blue Dress, while leaving itself open for sequels, very much was an independent, conclusive tale. Easy had a character arc that ran full circle, and had no apparent narrative need for further exploration. Which is not to say that there isn’t plenty more to write (and read) about him that’s quite worthwhile, but it did create a need to solidify a direction, and much of the book seems, to me, to be Mosley deciding what he wants to do with the series.

Mosley’s voice, however, remains very engaging and easy to read. His narrative default is the underdog, but not as the beaten underdog. He’s also a very strong character writer, with even bit characters feeling more fleshed out and interesting than many characters in other works that have technically been better developed. As a result, I spent much of the book not liking what characters were doing (largely for their own good) but unable to even be truly annoyed at them for it, when similar things have made me stop liking characters in the past.

Most noir starts with a beautiful, mysterious woman walking into a jaded detective’s office. This starts with a white man in 1948 walking into a black bar and hiring Easy Rawlins, a war veteran who recently lost his job and is chafing under the social mores of the time, to find a white woman who recently disappeared on him. The case seems simple enough-find the woman, tell the man where to find her, get his money, and go home-but Easy finds himself getting involved in a series of double crosses and murders, until he has to get to the bottom of things or end up in jail himself.

Easy is an easy character to like, and his world weariness comes with the awareness that many of the problems he faces are caused by the color of his skin. He can take any level of hatred or mistreatment people throw at him, but he can’t take the disrespect he gets by default. In complete honesty, I couldn’t keep track of who killed and/or betrayed who and why, and I’m not even sure they were all revealed. I don’t really care that I couldn’t either. Mosley takes all the conventions of noir and filters them through the lens of someone getting every short stick society has, with amazingly effective results.