Charlie Lomax, Turning Pages Book Club 2008-02-10

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Turning Pages Book Club, members would like to congratulate Walter Mosley on another great mystery novel.
This storyline takes place in the late 1960's in both Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, which made this storyline extra special for those of us from the "Bay Area".
Our hero the fantastic "Detective Easy Rawlins" in this story revels a sensitive side of "Easy" that has not been introduced much in the previous novels by Mr. Mosley.
Due to the fact that his daughter, "Feather" needs a life saving surgery which will cost $35,000, and this surgery will have to be done in Switzerland, it is a wonder,"Easy" can focus on the business at hand with total concentration.
As usual Mr. Mosley comes up with a unique storyline that captures the reader to the end of his novels and still asking for more. He has the unique capacity to make you laugh, angry and weep all at the same time while reading his murder/mysteries, which star non- other than "Easy", his wild, for real crazy, but always has his back-homeboy-"Mouse", and his homeboy-genius,scared of his own-shadow, friend-Jackson Blue", the person who got him into this mess, while trying to help him out, his friend Saul Lynx who is also a private investigator.
While,Mr. Mosley keeps many of his old characters he always adds new and colorful ones to this novel: Christmas Black -a Vietnam war hero/unhero and his adopted daughter, Easter Dawn, then there is the private investigator-Robert E. Lee and the star of the story "Cinnamon Cargill" and her lover Alex Bowers who have vanished for no apparent reason. Robert E. Lee, who is a Private Investigator, himself is willing to pay $10,000 up front for Ms. Cargill and Mr. Bowers to be found, with the promise of more after they are found. (Makes you want to go "hum").
Well, Easy has an offer from his friend Mouse,(who is trying to help Easy get some quick money), a set-up armed robbery scheme and then there is the offer from his friend Saul, of the simple double missing persons incident up in San Francisco? Well, what would you do, if you are an upstanding citizen in your community, role model at the school where you are employed and have children? Easy, takes the more legitimate sounding offer and heads off to San Francisco to meet Robert E. Lee for this mysterious assignment. This simple missing persons assignment takes him through San Francisco's Haight Ashberry during the prime "love and peace" era of the late 60's then across the bay to Berkeley, back and forth to Los Angles on a wild expedition to solve a mystery that seems very simple until people turn up dead and a crazed, serial killer/assassin by the name of Joe Cicero shows up on the scene. Then, everything seems to start rapidly moving throughout the story with dead bodies showing up, at every address that "Easy" is directed to shows up at and, of course all fingers are pointing at him. The first person he locates is found dead in Berkeley, and the great PI who hired him Mr. Lee, doesn't know this? Finally, when he does locate "Cinnamon Cargill", in Los Angeles,another dead body shows up at the location where she is staying. This gets to be a little unnerving for a simple missing persons investigation or is it really that simple?
This murder/mystery novel covers, crimes in history that were committed during World War II in Nazi Germany, and then brings you back to crimes during the Vietnam War.
Mr. Mosley is a very descriptive writer, who can describe a scene so vividly you could paint a picture from his words; (pg. 307-"I drove my rental car for hours, but it seemed like several days, bleeding on the steering wheel and down my....").
This murder mystery novel was so exhilarating and full of action that I just can't wait to read the next Walter Mosley mystery to see what happens next?

R. Garrison 2007-12-04

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I read it in three nights, just fantastic from start to finish. Highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys great mysteries and suspense.

Michael Freeman 2007-12-03

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If you like Easy Rollins you will like this. It is that simple. Walter Moseley seems to get better with age and so does Easy. He smarter, deeper and more sensitive. Great read. If you haven't read any of this series start further back with Devil in The Blue Dress or Black Betty. But it's all good.

D. K. Gaston 2007-11-13

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Easy Rawlin's is hired by a world famous PI (who models himself after Civil War General Robert E. Lee) to find a young black woman called Cinnamon. Easy takes the job only because his daughter Feather is in need of an experimental and costly medical procedure outside of the US. Easy finds that he is not the only person in search of Cinnamon. He, and his family are soon threatened. Despite the odds, Easy continues his search and uncovers a secret that people are willing to kill for it. This is a very well written novel that immediately pulls you into the story. Walter Mosley's descriptions of people and places are vivid and real. If you have a chance to read this, I would highly recommend that you do.

Lost Hours
Xiii

Lorna Rainey 2007-11-07

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I'm a great fan of Walter Mosley and specifically his always reluctant hero, Easy Rawlins. Once I finished "Little Scarlet" (loved it!!), I revelled in the afterglow of that one before I began "Cinnamon Kiss". Once again Mr. Mosley's writing is descriptive and visual, effectively placing the reader on Easy's shoulder...watching all the action. Surrounded by intrigue and beautiful women, Easy seems almost overmatched as he simultaneously grapples with some life-changing domestic issues. Although Mr. Mosley still weaves his artful spell over us with his layered and textured writing style, at times I found myself yelling at Easy for his lapses in good judgement and knew it was only a matter of time before he allowed his emotions to overrule his common sense. In spite of this, "Cinnamon Kiss" faithfully portrays how America began to morph into a more accepting society...the hippies, the shift in racial attitudes, the blending of our nation. And, the complex plot keeps you guessing from start to finish. The wrap up of the case is very clever and made me smile, the wrap up with his personal life...not so much. Nonetheless, Walter you are still my hero and I can only hope that my novel Native Intelligence will help me build a fan base as loyal as yours.