Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Mystery (Hardcover)

by Walter Mosley (Author) "The morning air still smelled of smoke..." (more)
Key Phrases: Nola Payne, Miss Landry, Easy Rawlins (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Los Angeles, 1965, right after the Watts Riots, six summer days of racial violence--burning, looting, and killing--that followed the routine arrest of a black motorist for drunken driving. Although custodian and unlicensed PI Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins stayed safely inside during the turmoil, as an African-American male he understands all too well what it was about. "It's hot and people are mad," he explains in Walter Mosley's Little Scarlet. "They’ve been mad since they were babies." Even with the rioting finally cooled, police remain on edge. So when a mid-30s, redheaded black woman named Nola Payne--aka "Little Scarlet"--turns up dead in her apartment, strangled and shot and showing signs of recent sexual contact, the cops are reluctant to storm L.A.'s minority community, looking for her murderer, especially since the culprit may well be an injured white man Payne had sheltered, and who's now disappeared. Instead, they ask Easy to see what he can find out about this crime.

The case forces Rawlins to address the ethnic tribulations of 1960s America, in microcosm, and his own discomfort with discrimination, in particular.

I spent my whole early life at the back of buses and in the segregated balconies at theaters. I had been arrested for walking in the wrong part of town and threatened for looking a man in the eye. And when I went to war to fight for freedom, I found myself in a segregated army, treated with less respect than they treated German POWs. I had seen people who looked like me jeered on TV and in the movies. I had had enough and I wasn't about to turn back, even though I wanted to.

But Easy can't tackle this investigation alone; assisting him are the casually homicidal Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, as well as a dogged white detective and a fetching younger woman, who threatens to overturn the settled life Easy has been working toward all these years. Nor can Rawlins wrap the case up easily. Harassed and attacked for his inquiries, he eventually connects Payne's slaying to a homeless man, allegedly responsible for killing as many as 21 black women, all of whom had the bad judgment to hook up with white men.

Little Scarlet, the eighth Rawlins novel (after Bad Boy Brawly Brown), is unusual for Mosley, because it focuses as much on the credible mechanics of crime-solving as it does on the exposition of character and the exploration of L.A.'s mid-20th-century black culture. Combined with the author's vigorous prose and prowess with dialogue, Easy's promotion to serious sleuth promises great things for what was already a standout series. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly
Set during the Watts riots of 1965, this eighth entry in Mosley's acclaimed Easy Rawlins series (Bad Boy Brawly Brown, etc.) demonstrates the reach and power of the genre, combining a deeply involving mystery with vigorous characterizations and probing commentary about race relations in America. Easy Rawlins, 45, is—like the rest of black L.A.—angry: "the angry voice in my heart that urged me to go out and fight after all the hangings I had seen, after all of the times I had been called nigger and all of the doors that had been slammed in my face." But Easy stays out of the fiery streets until a white cop and his bosses recruit him to identify the murderer of a young black woman, Nola Payne; the cops suspect an unidentified white man whom Nola sheltered during the riots, and are worried that if they pursue the case, word will leak and the riots will escalate. Easy, an unlicensed PI who also works as a school custodian, agrees to investigate, drawing into his quest several series regulars, including the stone killer Mouse, the magical healer Mama Jo and his own family. There's also a sexy young woman whose allure, like that of the violent streets, threatens to smash the life of integrity he has so carefully built. In time, Easy focuses on a homeless black man as the killer, not only of Nola but of perhaps 20 other black women, all of whom had hooked up with white men. This is Mosley's best novel to date: the plot is streamlined and the language simple yet strong, allowing the serpentine story line to support Easy's amazingly complex character and hypnotic narration as Mosley plunges us into his world and, by extension, the world of all blacks in white-run America. Fierce, provocative, expertly entertaining, this is genre writing at its finest.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st ed/1st printing edition (July 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316073032
• ISBN-13: 978-0316073035
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,029 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 8 in The Easy Rawlins Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A return to form for Easy Rawlins, July 13, 2004

By	Michael Hockinson "popular culture snob" (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The reader from Sunnyvale, CA who disliked "Little Scarlet" because Mosley seemingly "squander(ed)" the "opportunity to reintroduce...Mouse" obviously did not read the Easy Rawlins short story collection "Six Easy Pieces," released last year. If he had, he would have read Mouse's reappearance in "Grey-Eyed Death." The collection's final story, (the aptly titled) "Amber Gate," also includes an appearance by Mouse and establishes the events that lead up to the murder Easy is called upon to solve here. Readers who have not already done so are encouraged to seek out this strong collection prior to starting "Scarlet."

That said, LC is a return to form for Mosley's best-loved character following the disappointing by-the-numbers feel of 2002's "Bad Boy Brawly Brown." At readings I've attended, Mosley has made little secret where his writing preferences lie - he'd rather be doing original novels, his publishers want more Easy. Mr. Mosley has written better novels ("The Man in My Basement" a recent example), but I predict none are likely to be as well-regarded or remain in print as long as this series.

With the Easy Rawlins series Walter Mosley has created a cast of characters whose passions you can feel coming off the page. Easy's a working man trying to raise a family and do the right thing by his heart and for the people he cares about. If you already count yourself among the faithful, cracking open "Little Scarlet" will be like catching up with an old friend - you'll plow through it. If you find yourself tempted to try this series, start at the beginning with "Devil in a Blue Dress." You'll be hooked.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walter Mosley: Easy To Like!, August 13, 2004

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

One of the many gifts of President Bill Clinton was introducing me-- and I suspect many other white readers- to the great mystery writer Walter Mosley. Early in his presidency on a vacation to Martha's Vineyard, the president laden down with books, including Mosley's then latest, as he left a local bookstore, was accosted by the media. (That Mr. Clinton read Mosley comes as no surprise since Toni Morrison has described him as the first black president in America.) So the press wanted to know what Mr. Clinton read for pleasure-- and what a pleasure reading Mr. Mosley is, particularly when he writes of the adventures of the indefatigable Easy Rawlins. He returns here at the time of the Watts race riots in '65 where he is recruited by a detective from the infamous LAPD to help solve the murder of a young black woman, Little Scarlet, who may have ben killed by a white man. Mr. Mosley weaves a complex tapestry here with many characters of all colors, some new of course, and many returning from previous novels, Mouse, Bonnie, Feather, Jesus et al.

As always, Mosley through Rawlings makes cogent statements about race in America. He tackles unflinchingly both self-hatred in the black community and the hierarchy of color there. In the hands of a lesser writer this story would be little more than an angry diatribe about the treatment of blacks by whites in this country; but that does not happen. Mr. Mosley creates black characters who are less than perfect and white ones-- including one from the LAPD-- who are actually decent people. As the writer's fans know already, his prose is as succinct as a grocery list but beautifully descriptive. Rawlins describes his clan as "my beautiful patchwork family." A cook prepares eggs "just an instant past running." A young black man already has the "slouching shoulders of someone who has been defeated by life." I particularly liked Easy's definition of a real cook as someone who can cook up a complete meal in five minute with whatever is available. And when Easy takes an alias, as he often does, he selects names of deceased friends-- because their names are easy to remember and to keep them alive, a beautiful concept and a loving tribute.

The author has never written a better novel. Thank you, Mr. Clinton, and thank you, Mr. Mosley.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy Rawlins is Back and in Rare Form, August 8, 2004

By	Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

They're back. Both Easy Rawlins and his sidekick, "Mouse" has delighted fans of Walter Mosley for years and his latest, Little Scarlet, is no exception. It is 1965 and the city of Los Angles has been embroiled in rioting, killing, and other forms of violence in Watts for several days. Now a young black woman is dead and her aunt is insisting that a white man did it. This white man happened to be in Watts at the height of looting and violence where he was dragged from his vehicle and badly beaten. He escaped into a building to the home of the victim. Now the aunt is in a psychiatric facility, supposedly for her own protection and the police are calling on Easy to investigate the allegations.

The police have never been Easy's friend and now they want his help. What's up with that? He knows it is because if the word gets out that a white man killed a black woman, the now dormant riot would explode all over again. With thorough detective work, it does not take long for Easy to track down the mysterious white man. But things are never that easy and Easy is convinced Peter Rhone did not kill Nola Payne AKA Little Scarlet. A mishmash of neighborhood characters provide clues of other possible suspects and with the help of his old friends, Mouse and Jackson Blue, he is off and running. One of his informants is Juanda, a young woman who catches Easy's eye. But he can't go there for he is devoted to Bonnie, his woman of several years. His household is replete with his adopted children, Jesus, now eighteen years old and his daughter, Feather. He owns several properties, has a steady job as a custodian supervisor with the school district and an office in Watts where he conducts his private investigation business. What more could a brother with humble beginnings by way of Louisiana and Texas want? But why is it when a man wants to do right, evil is always present?

Easy's clues lead him to a suspect that the police rejected as a killer two years prior when Easy suspected him. He immerses himself in the homeless world as he looks for the suspect. Now the police are looking into cold cases that turn up more possible victims of this psychotic killer whose M.O. seems to target black women who date men out of their race. The search takes Easy from Watts, to white suburban neighborhoods to seedy homeless shelters, confirming that what we see with our eyes is not necessarily so.

Mosley's prose is witty and serious, at times mystical and seductive. Several mystery writers spin their stories in Los Angeles and capture the excitement and glamour of this city that to this day is entangled in racial tension. Mosley happens to be one of the best, giving his readers a telescopic view of the ways of black and white folks in a landscape of automobiles and folks trying to make it from day to day. Fans will delight in this latest mystery. Keep `em coming Mosley.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub