★★★☆☆ I'm still struggling with Easy Rawlins

A Red Death

Walter Mosley

I began reading Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries because one of them appeared in the Marvel Netflix series Luke Cage. (Sneer if you like, but I have read better books for much worse reasons.) I didn't much enjoy Devil in a Blue Dress -- in my review, I wrote,

...it is not a terrible well-constructed novel. There's just too much going on: too many characters, too many locations, too much event. It held my interest, but I was lost much of the time.

But Blue Dress was Mosley's debut novel, and I thought it could only get better.

A Red Death is the second book, and it is not measurably better. It still felt like work to read it. The plot doesn't just meander -- it careens drunkenly from one scene to another. And there are so many minor characters. Every time a name appeared, I found myself asking, "Who is this person, now?"

Also, there was one specific thing I disliked. Easy Rawlins is one of those fictional male detectives who is always running into pretty women who are eager to go to bed with him. He indulges, even when doing that is likely to cause him serious difficulty. I don't know why this guy shows up so often in detective fiction (see, for example, Cormoran Strike). but I am tired of him. Grow up, man!

I think I will give Easy one more try. Easy Rawlins book 3 is White Butterfly. If that doesn't entertain me, Easy and I are breaking up. (Yes, I'm shallow, but I read mysteries for fun.)

A Red Death on Amazon

Goodreads review

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