Rose Gold

Rose Gold: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley   320 pages

L. A. private detective Easy Rawlins is back in his thirteenth adventure; the second after Mosley left readers believing Easy had perished after driving his car off a California cliff.  It’s only months after that near-death experience, and Easy is still recuperating.

Easy’s focus is no longer catching the bad guy but making a good life for his daughter, Feather, which includes getting her into a pricey private school. He needs money; not sure how he’s going to afford the tuition, but confident that he’ll find a way.

The story open with Easy moving to a newer home, not terribly far from his current address. He may be moving, but Easy is an simple man to find. He is approached by undercover police officer Roger Fisk and three other unidentified, plainclothes officers to find Rosemary Gold, the daughter of a very wealthy and very private munitions manufacturer. Readers should keep in mind that the novel takes place in the 1960s, at the height of Vietnam. I immediately thought of Patty Hearst and her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. And while Rose Gold’s action takes place long before that event, I can’t help but wonder if Mosely wasn’t influenced by it. The revolutionary group who supposedly kidnapped the young heiress calls itself Scorched Earth, which again reminded me of the SLA.

Easy is reluctant to take the case; after all he is a black man who would be nosing into a white man’s business. He quickly changes his mind when he is offered an eight thousand dollar down payment on services rendered. This could be ticket to Feather’s education.

Needless to say, Easy finds himself involved in more than a mere kidnapping plot. Several other law enforcement agencies are either trying to buy him and his service or buy him off. Sometimes he isn’t sure exactly who he is working for nor exactly why he is y to Rosemary Gold

Mosley’s sentences are as colorful as the decade the action occurs. There’s the hippie subculture, plenty of drugs, tough guys who are hell bent on making a name for themselves in the neighborhood, and a fascinating subplot surrounding the last of an American Indian tribe who could almost be as dangerous as Easy’s friend, Mouse. And to top it off, Easy is in the doghouse with his girlfriend, Bonnie.

I give Easy Rawlins’ latest adventure 5 out of 5 stars.