Rose Gold - by Walter Mosley (Paperback)

About the Book

When a boxer-turned-revolutionary kidnaps the daughter of a weapons manufacturer and threatens to publicly execute her in exchange for a lucrative ransom, Easy Rawlins is tapped by the LAPD to make a difficult border crossing to navigate an ensuing standoff.

Book Synopsis

In the sixties era of black nationalism, political abductions, and epidemic police corruption, Easy's latest case will pull him--unremittingly and inevitably--into the darkest underbelly of Los Angeles.

Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a weapons manufacturer, has been kidnapped by a black revolutionary cell called Scorched Earth. Their leader, Uhuru Nolicé, is holding her for ransom and if he doesn't receive the money, weapons, and apology he demands, "Rose Gold" will die--horribly and publicly. So the authorities turn to Easy Rawlins, the one man who can cross the necessary lines to resolve this dangerous standoff and find Rose Gold before it's too late.

Review Quotes

"You know Mosley will bring things to a satisfactory conclusion, so you can let the story fall away in favor of its rich social fabric, rendered in well-observed details of skin color, speech, dress and, of course, neighborhoods. This is the triumph of each Easy Rawlins story--documenting this changing panorama of a city where the migration of Southern blacks, eager to claim it as their new world, is constantly remaking the city as it remakes them. Every Rawlins novel can be read on its own, but it's a far richer experience to read them in sequence and follow Easy's complex evolution as well as that of his ad hoc family and tight circle of friends. These are the folks who provide a fascinating set of roadside attractions as Easy's case rolls on."
--Los Angeles Times

"When it comes to naming names, Walter Mosley knows no peer. A cop called Frisk, a guru who goes by Vandal, a boxer known as Hardcase Tommy Latour and a black militant with the excellent moniker of Most Grand all figure in Rose Gold, Mosley's endlessly entertaining new Easy Rawlins mystery."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Fans of Mosley's private investigator were grateful Rawlins survived, and for good reason: Mosley's writing gifts go well beyond the gumshoe genre. With Rawlins, he weaves in a tense racial element throughout, and raises the level of his achievement."
--Associated Press

"Set in L.A. during the height of the Vietnam War, Mosley's impressive 13th Easy Rawlins mystery (after 2013's Little Green) finds Roger Frisk, special assistant to the police chief, calling on Easy with a job... Easy's experiences and insights perfectly mirror the turbulent '60s."
--Publishers Weely, starred

"Mosley has few peers when it comes to crafting sentences, and he's woven some beauties into this swift-moving yet philosophical story that does more for illustrating an iconic perioud than hours of documentary film could. This Easy Rawlins novel harks back to the great early days of the series."
--Booklist, starred

"...The most quotable of all contemporary detectives stirs up enough trouble for scene after memorable scene."
--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the author of more than fifty books, most notably thirteen Easy Rawlins mysteries, the first of which, Devil in a Blue Dress, was made into an acclaimed film starring Denzel Washington. Always Outnumbered, adapted from his first Socrates Fortlow novel, was an HBO film starring Laurence Fishburne. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy Award, a PEN America Lifetime Achievement Award, a Langston Hughes Medal, and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award. A Los Angeles native and a graduate of Goddard College, he holds an MFA from CCNY and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.