Blonde Faith Review

Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley is the tenth book in the Easy Rawlins series. A book from the series, Devil in a Blue Dress, was made into a movie with Denzel Washington. However, no movie can convey the anguish and despair that Mosley's prose does. Easy Rawlins has been through so much. As an African-American male in Los Angeles in 1967, he still faces prejudice as he deals with whites in his investigations as a private investigator. While his daughter Feather is better after an illness, the resulting loss of his girlfriend Bonnie dogs Easy throughout the book. Loss is familiar to Easy as his wife and child left long ago, and he has no idea where they are. He looks for old friends Raymond "Mouse" Alexander and Christmas Black before somebody kills them. The military, the Vietnam War, and drugs play a part in Easy's latest investigation.

The end of the book is an exciting cliffhanger, and there is speculation Mosley may end the series. I hope he doesn't because Easy is a rare character. He is real, not a caricature, and although the people he encounters see him as an uneducated black man, his thoughts reveal how intelligent and insightful he is. The reader not only is spellbound by a mystery, but the realism of the 1960s shines through the book as topics such as racism, war, poverty, and sexism pop up. This is the perfect book for readers looking for an intelligent mystery.