Cinnamon Kiss: A Novel (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "So it's real simple, Mouse was saying..." (more)
Key Phrases: snakeskin jacket, brass elephant, bearer bonds, Dream Dog, Joe Cicero, Easy Rawlins (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. As shown in the superb 10th entry in Mosley's Easy Rawlins series (Devil in a Blue Dress, etc.), Easy's progress is never smooth and his achievements (responsible job, son and daughter both flowering, loving woman in his house, friends and even a grudging respect from local authorities) always fragile. Now, at the height of the Vietnam War era, it all threatens to collapse. Daughter Feather's mysterious illness is the proximate cause, and only an expensive Swiss clinic offers hope. Needing the nearly impossible sum of $35,000, Easy considers assisting his dangerous pal, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, with a robbery. But he decides instead to try his luck on a missing persons job brokered by white friend and PI Saul Lynx. Easy leaves Los Angeles for San Francisco, where his new employer puts him on the trail of a wealthy and eccentric lawyer and the lawyer's exotic lover, a girl known as Cinnamon, who have disappeared. As ever, Mosley is able to capture the era—hippies, Watts, communes—in brief strokes that provide a brilliant background to Easy's search for solutions to both a convoluted mystery and complex personal problems.
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From The Washington Post

Walter Mosley's thrillers should be the literary equivalent of Milk Duds, but there's something surprisingly nutritious about them. Take Cinnamon Kiss, his latest novel starring Easy Rawlins, a black PI in Los Angeles. It's hard to imagine a collection of more hackneyed elements: Easy has to raise $35,000 fast to pay Swiss doctors to save his adopted daughter. An old friend gets him an assignment to track down papers that tie a wealthy family to an incriminating Nazi past. Everywhere Easy goes, darned if he doesn't arrive just moments after a crucial source has been murdered. And now there's a vicious assassin after him, too!

It's a sugar high of a plot, written out in Mosley's cool prose, which teeters on the edge of noir parody: "This was an ugly job and it was likely to get uglier," Easy tells us without flinching. Describing a tough friend, he says, "He could kill a man and then go take a catnap without the slightest concern." Lamenting the dangerous choices posed by his daughter's disease, he thinks, "Nearly twenty years of trying to be an upright citizen making an honest wage and it all disappears because of a bucket full of bad blood." With a voice like that, a rising body count, a dying little girl, a craven assassin and a soupçon of Nazism, you've got yourself a perfect book for the flight from D.C. to L.A. But wait, there's more -- and that's Mosley's genius: The entertainment takes place right in the cross hairs, while rich, complex issues dart by on the periphery.

Despite his enormous popularity with white readers -- the previous Easy Rawlins novel, Little Scarlet, was a national bestseller -- Mosley hasn't crossed over in a way that renders race irrelevant. All the latent humiliations of racism are still here: the clammy atmosphere of suspicion, an economy that won't give blacks enough traction to get ahead. But Mosley conveys this like a long-suffering ambassador to the Land of White People, explaining the frustrations of being black in America with wry wit and repressed bitterness.

Easy plays a similar mediating role in the world of this novel, which is set in 1966. Much of the area where he lives has been destroyed by the Watts riots. In this vast expression of self-destructive racial anger that Easy understands and laments, he see himself as a go-between. At the 80 percent black school where he manages the maintenance staff, he says, "I could translate the rules and expectations of the institution that many southern Negroes just didn't understand." And the white principal appreciates what she calls his "ghetto pedagogy," his ability to explain to her the nuances of African American culture. "You're right, Mr. Rawlins," she says one day. "And you're white," he replies with a little laugh -- enough to remind her of how things are without shattering their rapport.

But he's thoroughly capable of expressing his frustrations in language stronger than friendly wordplay. While pursuing a lead with a friend in downtown L.A., he suddenly notices two policemen eyeing him. "Most Americans wouldn't understand why two well-dressed men would have to explain why they were standing on a public street," he writes. "But most Americans cannot comprehend the scrutiny that black people have been under since the days we were dragged here in bondage. Those two cops felt fully authorized to stop us with no reason and no warrant. They felt that they could question us and search us and cart us off to jail if there was the slightest flaw in how we explained our business. Even with all the urgency I felt at that moment I had a small space to hate what those policemen represented in my life. But I could hate as much as I wanted: I still didn't have the luxury to defy their authority."

What a deftly handled moment, and moments like that are sprinkled all over this mostly silly tale of snooping through San Francisco and L.A., interviewing hippies and discovering dead bodies. The only real flaw is Cinnamon, a gorgeous young woman who gives the book a lusty title and a wild sex scene, but nothing really important (which is to say nothing about the importance of wild sex in general). She's a friend of the liberal lawyer who disappeared with those Nazi papers that Easy must find. Late in the novel, while Easy's girlfriend is patiently nursing his adopted daughter in Switzerland, Cinnamon and Easy enjoy a multi-orgasmic evening "with no impediments of love at all." It's a scene that inspires groans of a different sort. "Cinnamon's kiss was a spiritual thing," Mosley writes, evoking -- what? -- the Crucifixion, the Ark of the Covenant? "It was like the sudden and unexpected appeasement between the east and west." But, in fact, he's a lot more interested in the sudden and unexpected appeasement between her thighs. "A barrier fell away," he says of this woman he barely knows; "forgiveness flooded my heart, and somewhere I was granted redemption for all my transgressions." Sure, once you get rid of those "impediments of love," that always happens.

If only Mosley were as sensitive to the function of sexism as he is to the function of racism. When Easy's girlfriend returns from her weeks-long rescue mission in Switzerland, he piously throws her out for being disloyal. Mosley doesn't seem to hear the appalling hypocrisy of this move, a misstep that makes what's intended as a dramatic conclusion merely galling. But that's Easy: deeply sympathetic, deeply flawed, always engaging.

Reviewed by Ron Charles
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (September 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316073024
• ISBN-13: 978-0316073028
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #491,671 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "In The Company Of An Old Friend", October 13, 2005

By	H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Easy Rawlins is back in Walter Mosley's tenth novel in the series and is better than ever. He is so polished, shrewd, cool in the best sense of the word and altogether human. This time he is faced with every parent's nightmare, the possibility of a young child's dying from a rare illness. Most of the action is about his efforts-- by whatever means available-- to raise the necessary cash for expensive treatment for his daughter Feather in a hospital in Switzerland. Easy's woman Bonnie-- or is she?-- is back, along with his buddy Mouse and a host of other characters we remember from earlier novels. Mr. Mosley is nothing if not creative and we'd better not take him for granted. This is evident in the way this story ends; we see that Easy will go in a different direction in the next novel in the series.

As always, Mr. Mosley writes in concise, precise understated language. He is introspective about race in these United States in the 1960's-- sadly sometimes it seems as if little has changed since then-- without being didactic. He through Easy makes profound statements about the world: having a sense of humor is the best test of intelligence, black men who kill innocent people in far-away countries are no better than the whites who lynched blacks. Finally in Easy's own words when he and Mouse, as they are making a call from a phone booth, are approached by two white cops and questioned: "Most Americans wouldn't understand why two well-dressed men would have to explain why they were standing on a public street. But most Americans cannot comprehend the scrutiny that black people have been under since the days we were dragged here in bondage."

Even though Mr. Mosley always writes about race his characters are not just black and white. He has as many ways to describe skin color as Eskimos have of names for snow. In addition to just "brown," there is "medium brown," "toasted brown," "coffee brown," "high brown like a polished pecan," "light brown sugar," "sepia hue." Then we have "light-skinned," "sandpaper toned," and "high-yellow." Darker colors go from "walnut shelled," "almost jet skin," "dark-colored," the "color of tree bark," "dark-skinned," "very black,"-- and my favorite-- "skin black as an undertaker's shoes." Finally there are the reddish tones: "reddish-brown plantain" skin, "reddish hue," "terra cotta colored" and of course the beautiful character Cinnamon Cargill whose skin is described as "cinnamon red."

It is such a pleasure to read a new Rawlins mystery. Easy in a beautiful passage describes missing Bonnie and loneliness. "Never before could I fully trust another human being. If it was five in the morning and I'd been out all night I could call her [Bonnie] and she'd be there as fast as she could. . . Being with her made me understand how lonely I'd been for all my wandering years. But being alone again made me feel that I was back in the company of an old friend." Reading Mosley is just like being with an old friend. I have never read a better mystery writer.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Easy!, November 28, 2005

By	One Word Mag.com "Spoken Word :: Hip Hop :: P... (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

Walter Mosley is one of the most versatile writers laboring in the field of modern fiction. Best known for his mysteries concerning Los Angeles private investigator Easy Rawlins, Mosley is not afraid to turn his talents to other genres, whether it be non-specific genre fiction, fantasy, or essays.

Rawlins, however, remains Mosley's most popular character from a commercial standpoint. Part hard-boiled, part historical fiction, part.something else, the book, like Mosley, defies easy classification. Rawlins moves through mid-20th century America part invisible man, part very visible man, a good man in a very bad world who is aware that survival depends on compromise but who ultimately remains true to himself.

CINNAMON KISS, Mosley's latest Easy Rawlins novel, is set in the mid-1960s. It is the Summer of Love, but Rawlins' concerns are much more basic. His daughter,Feather, is in need of immediate medical treatment that costs much more money than Rawlins could beg for or borrow. When Mouse, Rawlins's friend and occasional partner, approaches him with the prospect of a heist with minimal risk and a large payoff, Rawlins is tempted to compromise his principles for the greater good of financing Heather's treatment.

However, salvation comes from another direction, when Rawlins's friend Saul Lynx approaches him with a more legitimate offer. Robert Lee, an enigmatic private investigator in San Francisco, has been hired to locate Axel Bowers, a prominent Bay-area attorney, and his assistant, the beautiful and mysterious Cinnamon Cargill. Bowers and Cargill have gone missing with some documents belonging to Lee's client, who is willing to pay dearly to get them back.

Rawlins is able to find Bowers easily enough, but Cargill has seemingly vanished into the wind. In his search for Cargill, Rawlins learns that he is not only racing against the clock but also against a deadly assassin whose name is enough to cause even the most dangerous of men to exercise caution. Rawlins soon learns that he is a part of something far more extensive than a document retrieval matter, and that his involvement is bringing not only himself but also his friends and family into terrible danger.

CINNAMON KISS is perhaps the most ambitious of Mosley's Rawlins novels, and arguably his best. He avoids the overly complex plotting that has occasionally overtaken some of his other fine work, and instead chooses to focus on his always interesting and multi-dimensional characters. There are enough of them here to fill three books. One of the most interesting is Robert Lee, could be the basis for a series all by himself. Mosley's description of the man and his home are worth the price of admission alone, and it would be quite interesting to see Lee's and Mosley's paths cross uneasily a time or two again.

And, as with other Rawlins novels, CINNAMON KISS concludes with some resolutions and some beginnings, the better to prepare the legion of readers of this fine series for the next volume. It can't come too soon.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PERFECT READING OF POPULAR CRIME FICTION, September 30, 2005

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Cinnamon Kiss: A Novel (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) (Audio CD)

Tough, gentle. Melancholy, euphoric. Actor/writer Michael Boatman is able to convey all of these emotions with his voice, and he does it to perfection in his reading of Walter Mosley's latest in the popular Easy Rawlins series.

Many will remember Boatman from his numerous TV appearances, especially in the role of Carter Heywood on "The Administration." However TV appearances are just the tip of the iceberg for this talented actor. His stage credits include such diverse plays as "The Seagull" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." A native of Colorado Springs, he is now at work on his second novel.

Doubtless the iconic Easy Rawlins is one of the most popular characters in crime fiction. While some series protagonists may tend to become stale, that is never the case with Easy. With "Cinnamon Kiss" listeners are once again returned to the 1960s as Easy faces one of his most daunting personal crises - his young daughter, Feather, has contracted a rare disease. This may be fatal for the girl unless Easy can come up with $35,000 for treatment at a Swiss clinic. It seems to be an unattainable figure.

His pal, Mouse, has a quick fix - they could rob an armored car. Easy backs away from that and accepts a job to find two missing persons. One of the now-you-see-him, now-you-don't persons is a well to do lawyer, and the other is his gorgeous assistant, Cinnamon.

Sound easy? Never so for Easy. He travels to California for his first look at communes and hippies. However, that's about all he sees - no signs of the missing. What he does find is murder trailing in his wake, and he has no idea why.

No one crafts a crime thriller like Walter Mosley - listen and enjoy.

- Gail Cooke