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Title: Bonde Faith
Author: Walter Mosley
Reader: Michael Boatman
Audiobook: 2007
Unabridged
Length: 7 hours

Ears: 4

Rent:  audiomysteries.com

Easy Rawlings is at a crossroads in his life. It is a time of upheaval for both Rawlings and the black community in Los Angeles. The year is 1967 and Rawlings has his office in Watts an area that has recently been torn with riots. Bonnie, the woman that Easy has loved, has been banished from his house by him. On this day the disappearance of an acquaintance will lead Easy on a search for friends and enemies that will change his life.

Walter Mosley’s 10^th Easy Rawlings mystery, Blonde Faith, is not the best in the long series. My personal favorite is the first, Devil in a Blue Dress written in 1990. However unlike anyone else writing today Mosley uses the detective novel to address the issue of race in America in a way that gives a voice to the experience of blacks in the last 60 years.

Easy is enlisted to find a friend, Christmas Black, who seems to have disappeared after leaving his daughter in the keeping of Rawlings. But there is more to the search since it becomes clear that the disappearance of Black might be connected to Easy’s longtime friend Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, a cold blooded killer and all around bad guy. Since the police believe Mouse is responsible for the murder of Black, Easy needs to find both quickly.

Mosley has the eye and ear of the injustices and prejudices that black men and women faced then and by extension now. Two incidents jumped out at me in their intensity and humiliation. The first is Rawlings’ treatment at a car dealership and then his experience as he makes a reservation at one of best restaurants in Los Angeles.

There is a lot to like in Blonde Faith. Michael Boatman provides a nuanced reading and performance. Never stooping into parody of dialect he gets all the slang and idiom of the various characters right without being condescending. The author paints a picture of life for these people that are at times harsh and troubling. The characters are all unique and vivid. From the Black’s family with 12 ugly children to the Mexican family living in a house that Easy owns who have decided to move to a different neighborhood because of post riot tensions.

Easy’s story began in post WWII Los Angels and now 20 years later in 1967 it ends with this angry and sad story. Rawlings muses on relations between the races, his family, children, his mother and most of all, Bonnie his one love, to no profound conclusions. Mosley had indicated in recent interviews that this is the last in the Easy Rawlings series; he has told the story and wishes to move on to other things. Possibly because I knew this before I began I felt a great sense of melancholy throughout the book.

Walter Mosley has created one of the great detectives of modern crime fiction. I looked forward to each book. While it is not perfect, Blonde Faith is a fitting conclusion to this series.

Reviewed on 12/20/07 by Robert W. Karp