Rating: 
Summary: Easy is becoming Bourgeois
Review: "Bad Boy" is a traditional Easy Rawlins mystery, taking place in the 60's. Frankly, I liked the earlier Rawlin's books cuz the character had more energy and had a more licentious life-style. Easy's realization that Chesterfield's were killing him and he should stop smoking (despite their therapeutic effects after tight situations) is interesting, but reminds me too much of my own whitebread life.
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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: OUTSTANDING!!!!
Review: Easy Rawlins is still trying to accept the alleged death of his long time friend and companion, Raymond " Mouse" Alexander. For three months, Easy is haunted by his own thoughts and doubts - "He's dead becuase of me" and he is in a deep depression. Until he receives a call from John, a freind from Houston who simply wants him to find his step-son, Brawley. In his search for Brawley, Easy enters the world of the Urban Revolutionary, a political group that wants to make life better for the residents of Compton. But there is somehting else going that only Easy can uncover. Through his investigation, readers become reacquainted with Mofass, Jewelle, Odell, Jesus, Feather and the little yellow dog. As Easy searches the dark streets of Compton he recalls lessons he has learned from Mouse and surprisingly one from Fearless Jones that helps him understand the man that he has become. There are plenty of concurrent themes throughout the novel - father/son relationship, foster children, children growing up without parents, grief, depression, child abuse, greed and a parents love for their children. Mosley tied them all together to give his readers a wonderful, suspense novel. What can you say about Walter Mosley! Not enough! He is an extraordinary writer and we are glad to have him and Easy back! You'll find each page is a cliff hanger. Mosley has a way of giving you just enough to make you turn the page to find out more. But pay attention - because as soon as you think you have it solved - you realize that you Mosley is and will always be the Master of mysteries. Peace and Blessings!!
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: Still confused about the ending
Review: I agree this was an exceptional work - I've read all of the Easy Rawlins mysteries - except for the ending. I re-read the last 2 chapters twice, but I still can't figure out how John ended up at the finale scene wherein Easy commits the act that prevents Brawley from getting killed eventually (not trying to give away the story ending). And for that matter, what/where is the building from which Brawley/John emerge in this most crucial scene of the book?
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Summary: . . . And on the other side of the equation . . .
Review: It seems more often than not that the heroes of the mystery genre are white. So for many of us to go back into a racially subjugated time, here in the early sixties, we may realize that we never heard the other side of the story. We missed the other background. No longer with Walter Mosely. Mr. Mosely brings us back to the past, the very recent past, where the black detective really had all the problems the white detective had, i.e. the bad guys would attempt to put him in harms way, plus the subjugation of the (for the most part) white police force. So it would be a mistake for us to say that Mr. Mosely brings a "refreshing" view. Painful, perhaps. Unfortunate, certainly. But always very well written. Here Ezekial Rawlins is asked by his friend, John, to help his girlfriend Alva's son stay out of the limelight or rather, the searchlights of the police department. Brawly has been influenced by a Black Group named the First Men. Whether they truly seek only the leverage and subsequent parity that equal education can bring (the 1960's in Los Angeles was only a few years after Brown vs. Board of Education) or as the police believe, they were but a front for gun running, bank robbery and revolution, is denied to us as it has been in the last 40 years. However, Mosely doesn't pass judgment on this. Who's to say that in some arenas of social justice the end . . . But we're not asked to go there. We follow Easy, troubled by a violent past he cannot avoid, haunted by the sins of omission and commission, as the bodies turn up. Easy is a noble man who struggles, like Marlowe before him, Spenser and Cole, to maintain his own sense of integrity. Like some of the music of that time, "(you) who are on the road, must have a code, that you can live by." And Easy has that code, not always accepted by the people who love him or even by himself. But the code works and Mosely has another winner on his hands. John, the friend who first asked Easy Rawlins to help, says at the end that he is grateful for Easy's help in sorting out justice and greed, insult and victory, but all the while John wouldn't mind if he never saw Easy again. And it makes sense. Outside of George Pelecanos, few tackle the task of racial injustice but more, the painful "getting along" in the novel genre as a background to murder and the mystery. Highly recommended stuff.
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Summary: Love WM, but this one didn't do it for me.
Review: It took me forever to get through this book. The only reason I stuck with it was because of the author's track record. IMO, without Mouse, there was nothing that set this book apart from any average read. There were too many characters, and I didn't feel anything for the leads. And as for Brawly...I didn't care if Easy ever found him and what had happened to him. Mouse is what made the Easy Rawlins Mysteries. This book was a disappointment.
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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!
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Summary: LA in 1964
Review: The sixth installment of Mosley's LA-set series opens a few months after the traumatic events of Little Yellow Dog (including the apparent death of his best friend, Mouse). Easy Rawlins is trying to get his life back on track as the woman he met in that last adventure, Bonnie, has moved in with him and his children, Feather and Jesus. However, his old friend John, who did him a few favors in that last book, calls upon Easy for help. John's stepson Brawly seems to have fallen in with a bad crowd of black revolutionaries and John wants Easy to extricate him before anything bad happens. There's a nice subplot about Jesus wanting to drop out of high school, and how Easy deals with that, which ties into the father/son theme that runs strongly throughout the entire series.
But this relatively simple favor gets quickly complicated as Brawly proves hard to find and Easy stumbles across yet another dead body (it would be interesting to go through the series and tally up how many times Easy has come across a corpse). Soon he is digging into Brawly's family history, as well as attempting to meet members of the Urban Revolutionary Party. This allows Mosley to show the state of the civil rights movement, which is shown in all shades of gray--from militant, to earnest, to misguided, to naive, to indifferent, and everything in between. It also allows him to highlight the dirty tricks of the FBI and police, who had special clandestine units set up to monitor and sabotage groups like the fictional Urban Revolutionary Party. One minor flaw in the book is the generic feel of this group, they come across as a small collection of earnest, but vaguely naive and misguided people.
As usual in the Easy Rawlins series, as he drives around town poking around, lots of characters are introduced--many of which are more interesting than the main characters. Also as usual, what should be relatively straightforward is awfully complicated, and of course the racist police are just waiting to crack some heads. Fortunately for Easy, he keeps hearing the dead Mouse's voice in his head, dispensing advice when things get tough. This device gets pretty cheesy after a while, and one keeps waiting for Mouse to arise from the dead and walk into the story at a crucial point. Another minor flaw with the book is that almost the entire book passes with little information about Brawly, there's little reason for the reader to care about whether Easy rescues him or not. Even Easy starts questioning just how deep he's going to get into the matter, and whether Brawly is worth it. The ultimate solution at the end is rather a neat one, and on the whole, the book is one of the stronger in the series.
Note: At one point in the book, Easy makes the angry point that there are no black Ambassadors representing his country. While is is certainly true that America's diplomatic corps has been largely white until the 1970s, in point of fact, the first black Ambassador was appointed in 1948 as envoy to Liberia. His name was Edward Dudley, and his story and that of other early black diplomats is detailed in the book Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department, 1945-1969.
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Summary: Corruption and unrest in 1964 Los Angeles
Review: This is the first book I've read in the "Easy Rawlins" series of detective novels. I heard Mosely speak once in a panel discussion of the legacy of Raymond Chandler, and since then I've been looking for an opportunity to read his stuff. Chandler wrote novels about corruption, about institutions that you expect to be stalwart and only gradually find out are corrupt to the core. In Mosely's books, the corruption is taken for granted up front. This is a book about relationships, about the ad-hoc institutions and problem-solving methods people put together by themselves when they KNOW the legitimate system is crooked. Easy Rawlins isn't a paid detective; he's a problem-solver doing a favor for a friend. This puts a fresh new face on the detective genre. I've never read the first Rawlins book, Devil in a Blue Dress, but I think that I'll be looking for a copy soon.
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