Farewell, Amethystine - (Easy Rawlins) by Walter Mosley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From "master of the genre" (Washington Post) Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins' latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia--blinding him to reason and risk.

January 1970 finds Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, LA's premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations. He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency. All is right with the world... and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips. He falls into the memory of things past. Little things, like loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas.

The missing ex, a young white man named Curt Fields, is found dead. Easy's only real friend in the LAPD, Melvin Suggs, has gone into hiding rather than allow his femme fatale wife to go to the gas chamber. And that's only the beginning.

Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning. All of his success cannot succor his heart. The 1970's have ushered in new expectations of men and women, Black and White, and Easy has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul.

Review Quotes

"As in previous entries, the twists and turns of the investigation take a back seat to Easy's emotional journey, and Mosley sheds keen light on the difficulties of navigating life in America as a Black man....Mosley's fans will enjoy themselves."--Publishers Weekly

"A prelude to a potentially fresh--and dangerous--chapter in Rawlins' life. Things are never simple for Easy Rawlins. But his creator remains a master of the genre."--Kirkus Reviews

"Evocative of both classic noir and 1970s Los Angeles, Mosley's latest Easy Rawlins story (following Blood Grove, 2021) offers wisdom about human connections folded smoothly into page-turning action. Readers will find a bolstering escape in Rawlins' world, which is constructed of densely woven loves, grudges, and debts and infused with abiding optimism."--Christine Tran, Booklist, STARRED

About the Author

WALTER MOSLEY is one of America's most celebrated writers. He was given the 2020 National Book Award's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America and honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Kirsch Award, numerous Edgars and several NAACP Image Awards. His work is translated into 25 languages. He has published fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Nation. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, for AppleTV+ and serves as a writer and executive producer for FX's "Snowfall."