Blond Faith - Walter Mosley

Walter Mosley has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I was first drawn to him by a review of Devil in a Blue Dress in the LA Times in 1990. This was the first Easy Rawlins novel, set in LA, it traced the adventures of a young black man trying to make his way after his return from World War II. Mosley's writing has many of the classic detective novel traits, but what appealed to me was the setting: south central LA in the 50's; and he insight into life as a black person at the time. He paints a vivid picture of the life many blacks lived after migrating west from their southern homes post WWII to find work, and they hoped, to escape racism.

Easy is originally from the fifth ward in Houston. While the parallels to my migration from the Memorial area of Houston to 1990's Beverly Hills adjacent are minor at best, they at least allowed me familiarity with the street names.

With Blonde Faith, the 10th in the Easy Rawlins series, we are now in 1967 post Watt's Riot LA (one of Mosley's previous books in the series, Little Scarlet, takes place during the 1965 riots - a great read). There have been a lot of changes in Easy Rawlins life over the years and it helps to know the history of all the characters, as they are all back for Blonde Faith. Per usual, you get a murder mystery wrapped in a social commentary on the times. I can't say this novel stands out as one of the best in the series, but it is page turner and if you take the time to read the previous books in the novel, you will be sated and left hanging for the next installment.