Synopses & Reviews
The Walter Mosley and his new hero, Leonid McGill, are back in the new New York Times-bestselling mystery series that's already being hailed as a classic of contemporary noir. Leonid McGill—the protagonist introduced in The Long Fall, the book that returned Walter Mosley to bestseller lists nationwide—is still fighting to stick to his reformed ways while the world around him pulls him in every other direction. He has split up with his girlfriend, Aura, because his new self won't let him leave his wife—but then Aura's new boyfriend starts angling to get Leonid kicked out of his prime, top-of-theskyscraper office space. Meanwhile, one of his sons seems to have found true love—but the girl has a shady past that's all of a sudden threatening the whole McGill family—and his other son, the charming rogue Twilliam, is doing nothing but enabling the crisis.
Most ominously of all, Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind-the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can't fix—and he's come to Leonid for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. But he won't tell McGill his motives, which doesn't quite square with the new company policy—but turning down Rinaldo is almost impossible to even contemplate.
Known to Evil delivers on all the promise of the characters and story lines introduced in The Long Fall, and then some. It careens fast and deep into gritty, glittery contemporary Manhattan, making the city pulse in a whole new way, and it firmly establishes Leonid McGill as one of the mystery world's most iconic, charismatic leading men.
Review
“
The Long Fall is an astounding performance by a master, a searing X-ray of grasping, conspiratorial New York and of the penitent soul of a wily, battle-scarred private-eye. Dark: because it takes us express to the lower depths. Beautiful: because Mosley never leaves us without light. This is, simply, Mosley’s best work yet.”—
Junot Díaz
“The new man in your life: Leonid McGill, a private investigator and former boxer graced with the rueful wisdom that can come from relentless pummeling – inside the ring and out. . . . The novel’s deepest mystery, embodied by McGill’s unfaithful wife and sweetly criminal stepson: how to keep faith with others, and yourself.”—O magazine
“Having retired Easy Rawlins, Mosley has devised a worthy successor in Leonid McGill.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Fans won’t be disappointed . . . The Long Fall is a well-written twists-and-turns story that runs up to a satisfying conclusion.”—USA Today
“…McGill is someone you can definitely settle down with.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mosley's taut, rough-edged prose is totally befitting his character. He keeps McGill in proper perspective by pulling back on his intuitive ability, so that the crime does not just solve itself. As a result, the reader quickly becomes immersed in the story line, groping along with the hard-boiled PI as he begins to connect the dots. … the hero's dogged pursuit of the truth in a murder case where he seemingly has little to gain -- other than perhaps his continued freedom -- makes him all the more likable, even for a New Yorker”—The Chicago Sun-Times
“One of his finest novels to date…”—The Boston Globe
“After Easy Rawlins and Paris Minton, Mosley’s best-known creations, McGill is a welcome conundrum. A detective in the classic noir style – cynical, romantic, doomed – who exists not in the 1940s but today’s New York City, this African American boxer with a deceased communist father (hence Leonid) listens to the BBC and practices Buddhist meditation. But don’t get nervous; there is nothing New Age about McGill’s struggle to ‘go from crooked to slightly bent.’ . . . Mosley cinches [the] plots elegantly together . . . We follow eagerly, seduced by Mosley’s laconic style and by a newly arrived hero who seems to have been around forever.”—Washington Post
“Mosley keeps the action fast-paced right to the end….Mosley says he expects to write up to 10 books in the series, and readers of the first will find themselves looking forward to the next one.”—The Associated Press
“…Mosley stirs the pot and concocts a perfect milieu for an engaging new hero and an entertaining new series.”—Publishers Weekly
“…Once you start reading this mystery, you won’t want to stop.”—Library Journal
“The Long Fall is another one of Mosley’s impeccably captivating rides featuring bizarre murders, mafia dealings, the long (and sometimes short) arm of the law and a bunch of other seedy-ass characters. . . As a Walter Mosley fan, but also someone who’s never read a murder mystery, I feel like I got the best of both worlds.”—Fader Magazine
“Mosley juggles each plot thread with skill, bringing each to a believable but suspenseful conclusion.”—The Miami Herald
“Mosley is a genius at character development and in The Long Fall he has created the perfect centerpiece in Leonid McGill…”—Newark Star-Ledger
“In The Long Fall, Easy Rawlins creator Walter Mosley introduces readers to what promises to be another captivating character…”—San Antonio Express-News
“It’s another masterstroke of mystery from a writer who knows how to create suspense at its best.”—Chicagoist.com
Review
Praise for
All I Did Was Shoot My Man
“The best [McGill] book yet.”—The Boston Globe
“Like the city he works in, and the Mosley books he inhabits, Leonid McGill is complicated, savvy and full of surprises: a would-be champ who can't win for losing, a fighter who can never be counted out.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A big city never looks the same once you've walked its streets with a hard-boiled private eye. preferably someone as perceptive and thoughtful as Leonid McGill…[He] doesn't so much walk the city as case it for danger. Keeping pace with him is as much an education as an adventure.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mosley ratchets up the tension with each new installment in his compelling series.”—Star-Ledger
“Walter Mosley has proven over and over again during the past two decades that he is not only one of America’s greatest mystery writers, but is one of America’s greatest writers period—an American literary treasure. And in All I Did Was Shoot My Man…Mosley has given us one of his best works ever. In Leonid McGill, Mosley has created a character Dostoyevsky would have loved. [He] has written a mystery novel that transcends the genre—a private-eye story for the new, uncertain and constantly dangerous century. All I Did Was Shoot My Man is one of the best books of [the year] and you can’t help but root for Leonid McGill. We have much to look forward to with this series. Kudos to Walter Mosley.”—BookReporter.com
“The best in the series to date…complex, satisfying.”—Publishers Weekly
“Exceptional storytelling.”—Library Journal
Synopsis
In this gritty, fast-paced crime novel, a resilient ex-con seeks redemption and uncovers a web of high-stakes secrets as Detective Leonid McGill tries to prove her innocence. Zella Grisham never denied shooting her boyfriend. That's not why she did eight years of hard time on a sixteen-year sentence. It's that the shooting inadvertently led to charges of grand theft. Talk about bad luck.
Leonid McGill has reasons to believe she's innocent. But reopening the case is only serving to unsettle McGill's private life even further--and expose a family secret that's like a kick to the gut.
As the case unfolds, as the truth of what happened eight years ago becomes more damning and more complex than anyone dreamed, McGill and Zella realize that everyone is guilty of something, and that sometimes the sins of the past can be too damaging to ever forget. Or ever forgive.
Synopsis
Leonid McGill can't say no to the beautiful woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash and a story. She's married to a rich art collector. Now she fears for her life. Leonid knows better than to believe her, but he can't afford to turn her away, even if he knows this woman's tale will bring him straight to death's door.
Synopsis
The widely praised New York Times bestseller, and Mosley's first new series since his acclaimed Easy Rawlins novels... Leonid McGill is an ex-boxer and a hard drinker looking to clean up his act. He's an old-school P.I. working a New York City that's gotten a little too fancy all around him. But it's still full of dirty secrets, and as McGill unearths them, his commitment to the straight and narrow is going to be tested to the limit...
Synopsis
"The newest of the great fictional detectives" (Boston Globe) from the New York Times bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins novels. When New York private eye Leonid McGill is hired to check up on a vulnerable young woman, all he discovers is a bloody crime scene-and the woman gone missing. His client doesn't want her found. The reason will put everything McGill cherishes in harm's way: his family, his friends, and his very soul.
Synopsis
Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley's latest New York Times- bestselling series. The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe" (The Boston Globe) and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid's couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations...
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family's misadventures don't kill him first-sorting out the woman's crooked tale will bring him straight to death's door.
Synopsis
In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present.
Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn't remember shooting Harry, but she didn't deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.
For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella's innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an exprostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias.
A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man's attempt to stay connected to his family.
Synopsis
His name is etched on the door of his Manhattan office: LEONID McGILL, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. It’s a name that takes a little explaining, but he’s used to it. “Daddy was a communist and great-great- Granddaddy was a slave master from Scotland. You know, the black man’s family tree is mostly root. Whatever you see aboveground is only a hint at the real story.”
Ex-boxer, hard drinker, in a business that trades mostly in cash and favors: McGill’s an old-school P.I. working a city that’s gotten fancy all around him. Fancy or not, he has always managed to get by—keep a roof over the head of his wife and kids, and still manage a little fun on the side—mostly because he’s never been above taking a shady job for a quick buck. But like the city itself, McGill is turning over a new leaf, “decided to go from crooked to slightly bent.”
New York City in the twenty-first century is a city full of secrets—and still a place that reacts when you know where to poke and which string to pull. That’s exactly the kind of thing Leonid McGill knows how to do. As soon as The Long Fall begins, with McGill calling in old markers and greasing NYPD palms to unearth some seemingly harmless information for a high-paying client, he learns that even in this cleaned-up city, his commitment to the straight and narrow is going to be constantly tested.
And we learn that with this protagonist, this city, this time, Mosley has tapped a rich new vein that’s inspiring his best work since the classic Devil in a Blue Dress.
Watch a trailer for this book:
Synopsis
Zella Grisham never denied shooting her boyfriend. That’s not why she did eight years of hard time on a sixteen-year sentence. It’s that the shooting inadvertently led to charges of grand theft. Talk about bad luck.
Leonid McGill has reasons to believe she’s innocent. But reopening the case is only serving to unsettle McGill’s private life even further—and expose a family secret that’s like a kick to the gut.
As the case unfolds, as the truth of what happened eight years ago becomes more damning and more complex than anyone dreamed, McGill and Zella realize that everyone is guilty of something, and that sometimes the sins of the past can be too damaging to ever forget. Or ever forgive.
Synopsis
"The newest of the great fictional detectives" (Boston Globe) from the New York Times bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins novels. When New York private eye Leonid McGill is hired to check up on a vulnerable young woman, all he discovers is a bloody crime scene-and the woman gone missing. His client doesn't want her found. The reason will put everything McGill cherishes in harm's way: his family, his friends, and his very soul.
Synopsis
Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley's latest New York Times- bestselling series. The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe" (The Boston Globe) and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid's couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations...
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family's misadventures don't kill him first-sorting out the woman's crooked tale will bring him straight to death's door.
About the Author
Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated, beloved, and bestselling writers. His books have been translated into at least twenty-one languages, and have won numerous awards. Born in Los Angeles, Mosley lives in New York City.