Bad Boy Brawly Brown

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back!
Review: Easy is Back!

Brawley Brown is missing and Easy Rawlins is hired to find him. It seems so simple but if you know Easy like I know Easy, nothing is ever that simple. So now Easy is back in "Bad Boy Brawley Brown." by Walter E. Mosley.

After the death of Easy's partner and the entrance of a new love interest, Easy is working hard and fighting demons. When his friend John calls him and asks for a favor, Easy is a bit hesitant but agrees because John was a long time friend. He was asked to find John's wife's son, Brawley. It seems simple enough but after Easy finds Brawley's father lying dead in the doorway of his aunt's house it goes down hill from there. Taking place on the streets of Los Angles during the 1960's, Easy finds himself in the midst of a Black Revolution, the mafia, and we all know that the police at that time were no real friends to the "Negro". Easy relies heavily on his quick wit and knowledge of the streets to look for Brawley, leading him to solve crimes that he had no intention of knowing about, and saving his own life in the process.

Bad Boy Brawley Brown shows us an older Easy that still has all of his instincts but is carrying even more burdens. The absence of "Mouse" is evident throughout the book and as a result it seemed to move a bit slower. I still found myself wrapped up in the storyline and Mr. Mosley has a way of adding elements that really give you an idea of the shady kind of people that Easy always deals with. Despite those few exceptions, I have to say over all I enjoyed it. As a person who has read all of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, except for two (and they are sitting right next to me waiting to be read), I am excited that Easy is back.

Kotanya
APOOO Bookclub

Rating:
Summary: Easy is back
Review: Finally, after a long wait, Walter Mosley has given us the next installment in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. And, no surprise, Bad Boy Brawly Brown does not disappoint.

Set among the gang wars and internal race politics of Compton, California, Bad Boy Brawly Brown is the story of a young man caught up in a political movement that becomes something too big for him to handle. The boy, however, happens to be the stepson of Easy's close friend, John.

When Brawly runs off to join the Urban Revolutionary Party (kind of like the Black Panthers), John gets worried and asks Easy to help him out. What follows is a tense, urban thriller where Easy (haunted by the voice of his maybe dead friend Mouse) is trying to save Brawly before he sinks too deeply into the shady underworld of Compton.

Mosley has, yet again, created soem incredibly real characters with complicated, yet believable, problems. One of the best elements of Bad Boy Brawly Brown is the exploration of the father-son relationship between Easy and his son Juice in parallel with John and Brawly. This added character development elevtaes BBBB above the genre mysteries and keeps Mosley at the top of his field.

For anyone who likes some brains with their mysteries, Walter Mosley is the man.

Rating:
Summary: Easy Does It Again!....
Review: Mystery fiction readers already hip to Walter Mosley's penchant for capturing the uniqueness of time and place, will readily recognize variations of a familar theme in his latest Easy Rawlins adventure, Bad Boy Brawly Brown.

Despite a meandering and involved plot, it gains style points by once again allowing the protagonist to exert himself in a way that black men would want to emulate....and that is living a dignified life, where chivalry is not allowed to die, and where helping others who have limited resources get a chance to have problems solved and still have change left over for acceptance in the community! In this case, we find Easy lamenting over the possible demise of his friend and sidekick, Mouse (Raymond Alexander) while waiting for the next drama to unfold. It comes in the form of the all of his cases are determined: Helping a friend with a problem, reluctantly acquiescing, and finally giving in to the need to make things happen. I'm more than biased as I've long been a fan relative to the opening statement of this book review.

What keeps me turning pages is a realistic, believable, and compelling detective who's not adverse to using guile, wit, good and bad luck to take advantage of happenstance. To really understand Easy Rawlins, and see why the books are such Easy reads consider the modus operandi that has become a staple for Mosley: establishing rationale for the heroic while deftly manipulating and exposing a black community through the favors, fears, and friendships Easy trades on. Int this depiction it allows our hero to stand out as an icon underscoring the relevance of a proud, resourceful gumshoe used to getting results.

Bad Boy Brawly Brown uses the backdrop of the civil rights era, circa 1963 taking readers back to Compton, CA during the months leading to the Watts riots. With racial tension at an all time high, Easy seemed to have solved all of life's complexities despite the strife around him..until he's pulled out of respectability by a call for help from his friend, John. John asks to be helped in tracking down Brawly Brown, son of his girlfriend, Alva Torres. It doesn't help matters none when rumor has it that Brawly may have fallen into bad company, either with seasoned thugs who may be holding him for ransom, or with a group of radicals whose strident ideals and angry politics are pointing toward vociferous protest.

In typical Easy fashion, the author introduces subplots and adjunct characters to set the tone and pace for an engaging story. There's an underlining, if not intriguing query attributing to Mouse's true whereabouts that make you think something is missing due to the role of the latter in all the books of this series. Is he still alive? Will it affect Easy's job of locating Brawly? Tune in and read this book, it doesn't disappoint. The Mosely fans will readily see that the Mosley think tank is intact and full of color...the natural cadence of speech and behavioral patterns of a community ring true -- with Easy right in the middle!