Walter mosley book series8/25/2023 ![]() What’s perhaps most remarkable about Blood Grove-as with all Easy Rawlins novels-is Mosley’s undiminished gift for embedding the poignant messaging of the protest novel in hard-boiled crime fiction without ever sacrificing punch or pace. ![]() Perhaps foremost among them-alongside Mosley’s unflinching and ever-insightful take on what it means to walk through life in America wearing black skin-is his acute portrayal of mid-century Black Los Angeles as a product of the Great Migration, and the institutionalized violence, deprivation, and degradation that necessitated it. Thirty-one years since the publication of Devil in a Blue Dress and Easy Rawlins’ arrival as an indelible presence in American fiction, familiar elements of his ongoing story remain prominent and powerful. t its outset, Blood Grove stops and sputters, virtually unable to get rolling, until Easy temporarily trades the Rolls for a seemingly more race- and class-appropriate ’58 Pontiac that allows him to move relatively freely about the city. In this latest work, Mosley continues to mine undiscovered dimensions and shades of meaning from Easy’s adventures, reflecting depths of the character that no single, or perhaps even short series of novels would be likely to reveal. It is a strong entry in a robust series and an even stronger entry into the genre that further solidifies Rawlins as an enduring figure, one who has survived and thrived in a world that sees him as less than the hero he is. From his witty remarks while staring down the barrel of a gun to being genuinely starstruck when a member of the Rat Pack makes a cameo, to his unapologetic love for his daughter, Blood Grove is not so bleak and burdened to the point of unapproachability. Despite the painful history lessons he faces along the way, Rawlins’s journey is not without joy. The words uttered by Mosley through Rawlins are a reminder that there will always be social justice work to be done and that not many will leave unscathed by the trauma – and he manages to do it without a soapbox. At a time when cities around the world are speaking out against the unjust treatment of Black and Brown people, particularly by police, Mosley astutely invokes the imagery of segregation during World War II and the some hundred cities burning during the unrest that ensued after King’s assassination. This novel is more than a simple mystery meant for entertainment it and its serial predecessors advocate for the Black hero in literature and in life. Through Rawlins, who operates from his corner of Los Angeles, Mosley speaks to the nation’s current ills, to the effect that Blood Grove feels more like Rawlins seeing into the future than Mosley writing about the past. Mosley’s authorial superpower remains his razor-sharp perception. Mosley continues advancing the mystery genre with his novel Blood Grove.
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