Synopses & Reviews
Easy Rawlins returns to solve a mystery set amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen.
Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965 when anger is high and fear still smolders everywhere the police turn up at Easy Rawlins's doorstep. He expects the worst, as usual. But they've come to ask for his help.
A man was wrenched from his car by a mob at the riots' peak and escaped into a nearby apartment building. Soon afterward, a redheaded woman known as Little Scarlet was found dead in that building and the fleeing man is the obvious suspect. But the man has vanished.
The police fear that their presence in certain neighborhoods could spark a new inferno, so they ask Easy Rawlins to see what he can discover. The vanished man is the key, but he is only the beginning. Easy enlists the help of his longtime friend Mouse to break through the shroud. And what Easy finds is a killer whose rage, like that which burned in the city for weeks, is intrinsically woven around deep-set passions feelings echoed within Easy himself.
Review
"Easy Rawlins sizzles as Watts burns....The real strength of Easy's narrative...is his unflinching recognition that in working with the police, he's crossing the same border that's driven his brothers and sisters to violence." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Mosley returns to top form....Mosley remains a master at showing his readers slices of history from the inside, from a perspective that is all those things history usually isn't: intimate, individual, and passionate." Bill Ott, Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Mosley's hot streak continues with Little Scarlet, the best Easy novel in years. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Little Scarlet is a wonderful character driven novel entertaining and pertinent to our times." Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and A Simple Habana Melody
Review
"Mosley has a unique voice that remains fresh and he tells a damn good story. Little Scarlet is a compelling portrait of a painful era, peopled by living, breathing, unforgettable characters. This may be Walter Mosley's best." Jonathan Kellerman, author of Therapy
Review
"Little Scarlet is a masterwork. Walter Mosley is one of America's most exciting, incisive writers." George Pelecanos, author of Hard Revolution
Review
"Little Scarlet...does a thoughtful, effective job of making [its] sense of racial outrage pivotal to its murder plot....What makes it more than a genre piece is Easy's insight into how the world is changing around him." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Synopsis
An irresistible story of love and death amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen, this latest Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots. Easy's hunt for a killer reveals a new city emerging from the ashes and a new life for Easy and his friends.
About the Author
Walter Mosley is the author of the bestselling Easy Rawlins series of mysteries, the novel R.L.'s Dream, and the story collection Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He was born in Los Angeles and has been at various times in his life a potter, a computer programmer, and a poet. His books have been translated into twenty languages. He lives in New York.