Customer Reviews

The Long Fall: The First Leonid McGill Mystery

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never read the Easy Rawlins books. Maybe I should, because I'm in love with private investigator Leonid McGill at his very first appearance in The Long Fall.

LT (middle name Trotter) is a 53-year-old black man "two inches shorter and forty pounds heavier than a man should be." He's all muscle, a trained boxer, though he doesn't box. He has an unfaithful wife he doesn't love, and only one of their kids is biologically his. His favorite son is not his real son.

He can't be with the woman he really loves because his family needs him.

As an adolescent LT divided his leisure time between art museums and the boxing gym. He's very well read for a guy who earns a living doing shady deals.

LT never kills people, but his expertise has been used by the kinds of people who do kill. We meet him at a turning point in life. He's having too many nightmares. From now on instead of being crooked, he hopes to be only slightly bent. He's practicing meditation to help deal with his guilty past.

LT has a deadly talent. He can locate anybody, no matter how well hidden. In this book the bad guys are using LT again, but very cleverly, so that he only finds out when people start dying in his wake. He doesn't like it one bit, especially when his own name joins the hit list. Finding the mastermind behind the slaughter takes LT into some strange and frightening places. Be prepared for a complex plot with fascinating subplots!

Walter Mosley has written a wonderful book full of quirky characters and utterly engaging human dilemmas.

I can remember when "Devil in a Blue Dress" came out. It was all over the bookstores, in dumps and displays in the front of various stores. Everyone who read mysteries read it that year. I'm the guy who sees what everyone else is doing, and does something else, just out of stubbornness, so I didn't read it for a year or so, but when I did, I realized that the hype wasn't in this case just manufactured. "Devil" is a truly great detective novel, one of the best first ones in the last 25-30 years, up there with Dennis Lehane's "A Drink Before the War" and Jonathan Kellerman's "When the Bough Breaks".

Mosley's had a somewhat uneven career since, in my opinion anyway. Several of the Easy Rawlins books since have been good (I especially liked "The Little Yellow Dog") and I liked the series of short stories featuring Socrates Fortlow, the guy who'd spent 20 years in jail for killing his wife and her lover. On the other hand, he's branched out and tried to be a "serious novelist", and that can be dangerous. I avoided "Blue Light" and his other more experimental stuff, and I didn't care for "The Man in my Basement" much at all. The whole series with Paris Minton, sidekick of Fearless Jones, just annoyed me, and the last book, where Paris in one passage modestly tells you he has a big schlong, while bedding one of many different women he enjoys during the course of the book, just struck me as a juvenile fantasy, predictable and not very interesting. I keep waiting for Mosley to recapture what he had when he started, before he got ideas and tried to be taken seriously.

The author is from Los Angeles, but he's moved to New York City (I gather his wife's in the "theatah") and so his new series is set in that city. Leonid McGill is a different character from Easy Rawlins. He's more of a shifty character, someone who in the past framed others for crimes they didn't commit (though most of the time they'd done *something*) and even occasionally fingered a target for a hit man. He finally did something that touched his soul in a profound way, and so now he's decided to walk the straight and narrow, and only take jobs where he can help people. Unfortunately, the past has a way of catching up with people in Mosley's books, and McGill is no exception to the rule. Someone hires him to find a list of people, against his better judgment he does it because he needs the money to pay the rent, and soon the men he's found wind up dead. When he goes looking for the guy who hired him, it turns out that individual is dead also, and soon after someone tries to kill McGill.

This is a standard private eye novel in the Chandler style. The plot is a bit over-complicated, has too many characters, and is really more about the setting (New York City) and the people that inhabit it than it is about the plot. McGill's a fascinating character, resenting his Communist father (who renamed himself Tolstoy and named his sons Leonid and Nikita), and feeling a sense of obligation to the wife who temporarily left him for a disgraced Wall Street hotshot, but came back and is trying to provide a home for him. The secondary characters, from the rest of Leonid's family to the various underworld figures he knows and interacts with, is pretty much completely fascinating. At one point one of the rich white people actually calls Leonid the "n" word, and he just ignores the guy. Easy would have been enraged, and I think Mouse would have shot the guy twice in the face.

This is a different character for a different world. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it. Very very good.

Once upon a time, Mr. Mosley was my favorite author. I never missed an Easy Rawlins or Fearless novel and I still long for their adventures. "Devil in a Blue Dress" is one of my favorite movies of all time and I have seen it at least 6 times. I adored Easy Rawlins so much, I bought the last few novels in hardcover for the full price!! I wanted Mr. Mosley to benefit from the hardcover royalties.

Now on to his new book, "The Long Fall". To put it bluntly, I don't like it. Hold on, let me back up a bit. I don't like any of the leading characters. Leonid McGill made a career of setting up innocent people and now he wants to change. Really, then get all of those people you set up OUT OF JAIL. The other major characters, his wife, favorite son, and friend (former assassin) are all despicable. Mr. Mosley, why didn't you make a good major character? Everyone in the book, except for the cop, are terrible people with terrible past. This book reminds me of the former show "Oz". There wasn't anyone in the show that you could call a good person. I feel the same way about this book. Mr. Mosley could have made his son a good person instead of a born criminal. His wife could have been good person. By the way, does Mr. Mosley have something against marriage? Easy Rawlins couldn't have a happy relationship either. I have been married happily for 16 years and MANY of my friends have been married longer. Mr. Mosley, there are people out there whose wife doesn't cheat on them at every opportunity.

Right now I don't know if I will read "Known to Evil". If I do decide to read it, I will definitely wait for the paperback or get it from a discount bookseller. I only gave this three stars because of my fondness for Mr. Mosley's previous works. I even bought "This year you write your novel" because he inspired me to write one. I feel so bad criticizing this book. I still adore Mr. Mosley's previous work and will think fondly of him because of it. Go back to writing about "Fearless" Mr. Mosley. At least he and Paris are a characters I can cheer on and if I am not mistaken, others share my opinion.

for nine filterless Camels and eight red-tipped matches."

Walter Mosley's newest novel, "The Long Fall", is full of this sort of short, terse nuggets that should assure any fan that while Easy Rawlins may be gone, Leonid McGill will fill that void very nicely.

Set in New York City, Leonid McGill is not as much a P.I. as he is an old-school fixer. You have a problem; Leonid's your go-to guy. The problem is that Leonid's client base has been historically filled with unsavory characters and the fixes made by Leonid have had some tragic consequences. Leonid is a man quite capable of self-reflection and he is haunted by his past. As a result, as the story opens, he has tried to walk away from that part of his work and decided to concentrate on cases that do not torture his newly invigorated sense of right and wrong. But, to paraphrase the only memorable line from the turgid Godfather 3 "just when he thought he was out... they pull him back in." The result is an excellent, fast-paced story.

There are three parallel plot lines in "The Long Fall". Leonid, named by his radical union-organizing father after Leonid Brezhnev), is asked by a shady P.I. from Albany to identify four men whose only connection is a decades old tragic event from their teenage years. As soon as their identities are revealed they start to die. At the same time, Leonid's step-son seems to have gotten himself mixed up in some bad business and Leonid tries to help his son out before the young teen digs himself a hole he can't crawl out of. Last, one of Leonid's former mob connections tries to get Leonid to locate a former mob-accountant. Leonid knows that finding this man will lead to his death. The story tracks each plot line until each one find some sort of resolution.

Two things stand out about "The Long Fall". First is the character of Leonid McGill. He's not a hero on a white horse. He's a flawed man, and some may say he's a bad man living in a bad world. But his saving grace is Leonid's self-awareness. He knows how flawed he is. In fact he is tormented by his past. His self-awareness and his strength in trying to steer a new course make him all the more human and it was impossible not to pull for him as the story progressed. Second is the quality of Mosley's writing. Since the genre came of age I think it fair to say that Chandler and Hammett are without peers. I'd put those two in a class by themselves. But Mosley has a terrific way with words and has the hard, sparse style that I've come to associate with the best `noir' writing. So while Mosley may not be Chandler or Hammett (who is?) I think he is one of the very few writers today who can be mentioned with them in the same sentence without embarrassment.

"The Long Fall" is an excellent piece of writing and will be enjoyed by fans of Mosley or for anyone looking for the next terrific `hard-boiled detective'. L. Fleisig

Having read the second book in the series featuring Leonid McGill- Known to Evil: A Leonid McGill Mystery, I thought I might give the first book a try. In it, the reader is introduced to the profile of a fixer- someone who solves problems by staging events (or more bluntly, setting up patsies to take the fall) so as to make the problem go away. Leonid, being at once morally repugnant for his chosen vocation, but at the same time a man of conscience, rationalizes his dirty deeds by choosing to solve `problems' using those unfortunate souls who have already run afoul of the laws of men... and common decency. Although the people he has set up in his past life were crooked and probably would have gone to The Big House on some other rap anyway, Leonid genuinely feels bad for his behavior- in some instances at least- and seeks to turn a new leaf. Having come to the realization that in more than a few cases, the ends did not justify his twisted means, this leads Leonid to helping out one of the pasties after the fact (unbeknownst to the patsy, of course).

This first outing for Leonid McGill is actually three stories, told concurrently, wrapped into one tale. In one, the main story, Leonid is retained by a fellow PI to track down the whereabouts of four young black men. Subsequently, each turns up dead, with Leonid being the only link among them. In the second, more interesting story (which the author intended to be a sub-plot), a crime boss, with a glint of murder in his eye, comes to Leonid and asks him to locate his former accountant- a man in hiding that the crime boss swears he just wants to talk to. Subsequently, sensing Leonid's reticence, the boss's boss- The Big Boss- then comes to Leonid and subtly asks him - with more than a hint of mortal repercussions- to do what he normally does best. In so doing, Leonid uses his crooked ways for the sake of good. In the third, Leonid's favorite child, a son of like temperament and who, as he says is `not of his own blood', is apparently involved in something nefarious having to do with a depressed and suicidal girl, and Leonid must unravel yet another of his son's clever schemes so as to prevent any harm from befalling him.

And yet, Leonid McGill is a singular contradiction, both as a man and a literary character. While his appearance and vocation both evoke revulsion, Leonid is a (somewhat) devoted family man, loving to his children but ambivalent to his comely and philandering wife (indeed, their contrast in physical appearance made me think immediately of Beauty and the Beast). A man of divided loyalties, Leonid spends quality time with his family, but shares a bed with not only his wife, but also with his landlord- a single mom that he pines for in an on-again, off-again relationship.

While reading this mystery and Known To Evil, my thoughts often turned to the untimely passing of Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser mystery series (among several others) and the creator of Hawk, undoubtedly the single greatest literary invention of all time. I noticed that Leonid McGill was a kind of distilled amalgam of both Spenser and Hawk, given that Leonid, like Spenser and Hawk, was a boxer, and like Spenser, Leonid is both educated and very well-read, but has a distinct moral ambiguity while at the same time having a strong conscience. Mosley presents the reader a flawed leading man who is on his own unique quest for some small measure of redemption. At times in the book, Mosley reaches back and summons forth the credo under-pinning Raymond Chandler's character, Philip Marlowe; however, the book as a whole, with its somewhat dis-jointed writing style, did not really adhere to the grand noir tradition as set by Chandler and Hammett and as such, strikes me as more of a soft-boiled mystery. Still, I saw some shades of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer lurking within Leonid McGill, given both characters' uncouth behavior, ugly mugs and the animal magnetism that they have over the opposite sex- talk about unabashed escapism!.

In this mystery series, readers get to see the evolution of a character. Mosley did something truly original by going the other way, starting with a bad and despicable man, and showing us how, by degrees, he tries to turn a new leaf, with the occasional shocking and entertaining relapse here and there along the way. We also get to bear witness to the embryonic glimmerings of an emerging Master of the The Craft. That said, I honestly had to say that I had fun reading this book, especially when one reads prose like this (page 146):

"I was like a man, shovel in hand, finding himself standing in a freshly dug grave with no memory of having dug it. I stayed there because at least if you've hit bottom you had no farther to fall."

Although I had more fun reading this first installment of the Leonid McGill mystery series than the second, I look forward to reading the third and fourth books in the series. There's a lot going on within the pages of the book which makes for very engrossing reading. I encourage all true-blue aficionados of the mystery genre to give Leonid a serious read.

I made a mistake today. There are lots of things that need doing around the house. But early in the morning I thought I'd check on Walter Mosley's successor to Easy Rawlins and read a couple chapters in "The Long Fall".

It's hours later, there are still lots of things needing to be done. Well maybe tomorrow.

Mosley's new character, Leonid McGill, isn't a tough young stud like Easy Rawlins. He's a tough but aging, short man with a wife and three kids trying to quit smoking and working on the wrong side of the law. He is trying at least.

This novel is excellently written, with deeply interwoven stories that pull together neatly.

Other reviewers have complained about the complexity of the mid-novel. I found the threads to bring richness to the overall novel.


Enjoy, just don't start in on the novel if you have something you need to do.

Leonid McGill is one of the greatest characters i have ever read about. His troubles, his sadness, all of his life and though i have experienced almost none of what he has, i feel for him. Written in first person you step into the shoes of Leonid McGill. All i can say is that Mr. Mosley, job well done.

" . . . that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love." 2 Peter 1:4-7 (NKJV)

Walter Mosley knows how to establish a character with just a few words. Consider these:

"I didn't mind sending an innocent man, or woman, to prison because I didn't believe in innocence--and virtue didn't pay the bills. That was before my past caught up with me and died, spitting blood and curses on the rug. I still had a family that looked to me for their sustenance. My wife didn't love me and two out of three grown and nearly grown children were not of my blood. But none of that mattered. I had a job to do, and more than one debt to pay."

In some ways Leonid McGill is a lot like Easy Rawlins, a black man with the deck stacked against him who must look out for himself . . . and those he cares about. But on closer examination, the differences are much wider than from Watts to Manhattan. Easy has a better sense of who he is, has evolved more as a human being, and is a lot like Don Quixote. Leonid is near the beginning of a journey back from a brink where he didn't want to be.

Leonid is further toward the pit than most fictional detectives, a distinction that makes him more interesting. But there's still a streak of responsibility, of decency, that draws the reader to him.

As the book opens, Leonid knows that he's taken on a fishy assignment, but he finishes it anyway. PIs are used to being lied to, as least in detective fiction. When the lies turn out to have implications beyond his conscience, Leonid jumps back in to see what he can do about it.

While that seems straightforward, the plot twists and turns like the most convoluted of the Raymond Chandler classics. For my taste, it took more than a little too long for the mystery to be solved. As a result, the story bogs down in places and never quite goes at full speed.

If you love character development, you'll be fond of this book. If you want a straightforward mystery, you'll wonder why this one heads off in so many directions (as the consciously and conspicuously story bows to many of the great pioneers of PI fiction writing and their classic tales). If The Big Sleep wasn't one of your favorite novels, this book won't appeal to you as much as it did to me.

I especially appreciated Mr. Mosley's love for the old hard-boiled detective stories, so thoughtfully reflected in this story. It's great when a wonderful genre is expanded into new and interesting directions. I look forward to future books in the series.

Leonid McGill makes an interersting new caracter in this "new york noir" novel. I'm looking foreward to see how he's going to cope with his dysfunctional family - and of course enjoy the next mystery, that comes up.

What interested me in Walter Mosley was a review on NPR about "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey". That book is amazing and now I am a big Mosley fan.