Mosley's PI returns to uneasy streets of LA

[South Florida, 3 november 2014]

Oline H. Cogdill

'Rose Gold' By Walter Mosley. Doubleday, 320 pages, $25.95

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels have always been a perceptive time machine, giving a view of racism in post-WWII Los Angeles and showing how the same issues are part of the fabric of the 21st century.

Racial profiling, corrupt cops, and young men targeted as scapegoats haven't gone away. While Mosley weaves these situations into "Rose Gold," his 13th outing with private detective Easy, he never resorts to a screed, but shows how the best crime fiction truly is the contemporary social novel.

In "Rose Gold," it's late 1967-early 1968. Revolution is in the air on college campuses and in the streets of Los Angles as the war in Vietnam rages. But the big news in Easy's life is that he and his daughter Feather have moved into a large house in a lovely neighborhood where his bright child has the chance to go to a good school. Things are a' changing, the "rules were slowly evaporating but they lingered in the memories, desires, and expectations of the old guard and their offspring," Easy says.

But Easy's moving day is clouded when Roger Frisk, the police chief's special assistant, shows up with some of his squad. Frisk coerces Easy into taking on the job of finding Rosemary Goldsmith, a college student and the daughter of wealthy munitions manufacturer Foster Goldsmith. Rosemary — Rose Gold, as Easy calls her — was last seen with Robert Mantle, a black boxer turned political activist who's suspected of killing three cops and a high school vice principal, and being involved in an armored car heist. Rose may have been kidnapped or she may have gone willingly, but if Easy can find the boxer, he'll find the college student. Easy's investigation runs up against the FBI, the State Department and a few local gangsters.

Easy's habit of trading favors with his far-flung contacts has earned him the trust of the black community, allowing him to move among the neighborhoods. Along the way, Easy discovers that Rosemary may not be so innocent nor Robert such a villain as to warrant the police's shoot-on-sight decree.

Although "Rose Gold" takes place a few years before the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst, Mosley uses this historical touchstone to give his novel texture. The 1960s revolutionaries — and the aftermath of their actions -- don't seem that far removed from Occupy Wall Street. Amid Easy's investigation, he takes the time to tell little stories about acquaintances and friends that speak volumes about racism. A drive from "West Los Angeles down to South Central was like following a social science chart," showing the economic disparity in neighborhoods.

Mosley's 2007 novel "Blonde Faith" ended with what seemed like Easy's demise, but the author had a change of heart and brought him back in 2013 with "Little Green." "Rose Gold" picks up just five months after Easy's near fatal car accident.

Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol.com.

Meet the author

Walter Mosley will be among the authors participating in the Miami Book Fair International from Nov. 16-23 at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. Mosley's presentation will be at 11 a.m. Nov. 22 in Room 2106. Mosley also will be on the panel "By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review" at 10 a.m. Nov. 23 in the Chapman Room 3210. For more information, visit miamibookfair.com.