January 1970 finds Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, LA's premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations. He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency. All is right with the world... and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives.
As always with Mosley, the prose is succinct, nearly mathematical in its precise balance, with sudden moments of restless beauty ... But within that studied, memorable prose, there’s an underlying loneliness. Rawlins has his companions, but much of his torment is designed to be dealt with alone. As Farewell, Amethystine winds to its conclusion, that solitude is devastating.
Mosley’s plotting can be a bit hard to follow at times ... However, the main attraction of the Easy Rawlins novels is the superb prose. Mosley’s dialogue, much of it straight out of Watts and Compton, is pitch perfect, and some passages have the sensuous rhythm of a basement slow dance.
