Welcome to Litsy!

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it‘s an origin story setting up the reader‘s understanding of a character for a series, also being a series set around a black man at a time that was rare. On the other hand, it‘s a whole lot of people menacing each other without much of a through line and a ludicrous number of bodies piling up. I can‘t quite give it a pick. Pretty cool that my library has a signed first edition.

Book 1 of the series. I‘d read some of the later ones, so it was interesting to go back to where it all started. #serieslove2025

@chaoticmissadventures #333challenge

Auto-buy: V.E. Schwab, Patrick deWitt, P. Djèlí Clark

Read More: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Walter Mosley, Percival Everett

First Time: Malcolm Gladwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Brom

I actually made a spreadsheet for this list when it was first published! I‘ve read 23 of them including some of my favorites.
1. The Shadow of the Wind
2. Bury Your Dead
3. Blacktop Wasteland
Many more are on my TBR list, including the tagged book.
Here‘s the link to take the survey: https://shorturl.at/KbFsO
#TLT

Well, well look at me already finished my #titleandtunes pick for October. ? And I loved it! Easy Rawlins just needs to make a few dollars so he can pay his mortgage. So when a friend offers to pay him to "find a White girl," he agrees but she inevitably means trouble. Rawlins is a great character and this was perfect 1940s LA noir, but from the Black perspective. #blues @cinfhen @barbarabb

Some literal choices for this month's #titlesandtunes theme. Lots of 🔵🔵🔵 A crime fiction modern classic with blue in the title and a cover of Joni Mitchell's Blue by Sarah McLaughlin. (Can't get the original since Joni removed her music from Spotify a while ago. 😟). @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB #blues
https://spotify.link/Xw1g6rLpuDb

Informative and contextual commentary in the author's anniversary introduction, also spilling out into the text. Good to get some different perspective of society and its relationship to constituents and demographics in the eyes of the law and how investigation would work apart from white privilege and protections. This grey area of realism, seen/treated as untrustworthy & suspicious, and needing to find ways to work around the law in its myopia.

This was the perfect book for my mood - hitting me slap in the face with some cold blooded violence, and a bright guy who‘s having one hell of a bad day to root for. The voice of Easy Rawlins was so appealing. He‘s smarter and stronger than people take him for, but he‘s not invulnerable. He has his fears, as he should, there are people involved here far more brutal than he could ever be.⬇️

A crime classic, the first in the Easy Rawlins series. An LA noir but with a Black man who has access to people and places the white folks don‘t takes on a case as a favor to a friend, and of course it all goes awry.

Thanks for the tag @EadieB

1. To me noir fiction is dark mysteries with an urban
setting.
2. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

Can you play: @SilversReviews @Traci1 @Andrew65

#two4tuesday

This was IT. Absolutely worth any hype it gets. Is it a perfect detective novel? Nah, but that‘s mostly b/c Easy isn‘t a hard-boiled gumshoe. Not yet. He‘s just a guy who needs a job. The job? Find a missing white woman. Simple, right? Turns out there‘s more to it than meets the eye. The best part about this book is how well Mosley paints 40‘s LA society. A man like Easy exists because no one else is going to care. Easy‘s just getting started.

Fast paced with a wild cast of characters, Easy is just trying to stay out of trouble and pay his mortgage. This is a quick read with a lot of action, and mystery but not really one Mosley sets you up to solve on your own.

TW: rape, incest, cold abuse, violence

I hinted for my husband to get me a gift subscription from my local indie RJ Julia‘s for Christmas and was delighted to receive my first book today. They have you fill out a questionnaire about your reading likes and dislikes to get a feel for what you may enjoy. I have not read any of this series and am looking forward to digging in.

This book took me from wheels up to wheels down Denver to Pittsburgh. Aside from a mystery it also got into what life was like for a Black man in Los Angeles in the 40s including issues of police brutality and systemic racism that felt very current. Glad I made time to read this classic of political corruption, murder, and lust in 1948 la.

Started summer with this classic 1st Easy Rawlins in which the ww2 veteran is asked to find a mysterious woman by an obviously dodgy villain. It takes him into the underbelly of LA where violence triggers memories of the war. A great start to a series which noir with reflection on race .I plan to keep reading.
@BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft
#booked2021 #colorintitle

First book in the Easy Rawlins series, didn't disappoint. I love Mosley's Leonid McGill series and now I love this one too, looking forward to next book already. My July #BookSpin. A pick!

Also finished third book in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series, Beneath the Sugar Sky, and the second in The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. Both great reads.

And I got a #BookSpinBingo 😏 @TheAromaOfBooks

This book has been on my radar for ages, but for whatever reason, I never picked it up. While searching for book ideas to fill the last few prompts for #Booked2021, I found an article listing the top ten literary #frenemies and this book was on the list. Looking forward to finally starting the Easy Rawlins series this year. #bookmail

#MayCharacters @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
Prompt: Meddles

In this series the main character is a PI and always meddles but to a good end.

Lucky to see a great interview with and Life Time Achievement Award speech by multi-genre talent Walter Mosley at Virtual Bouchercon 2020! #mystery #scifi #novels #shortstories #brilliant #bouchercon

I have read one other Walter Mosley book, but I liked the beginning of this Easy Rawlins Series. A man down on his luck gets involved with something nefarious and finds his true calling in all the danger of a task to find a woman. Things are not as they appear at first glance in this story. A great mystery.

Pts for the weekend:
75 pts for yesterday
6 hours for #October20In4 60pt
Finished Book 15 pt
Ratched 5 pt
Participation 1 pt
@Clwojick

I think I may have missed something here or maybe it‘s just that noir is not really my genre, but this story of a black detective in 1948 LA just didn‘t grab my interest. Maybe it was the moral ambiguity that did me in? Ezekiel (Easy) tried to do right most of the time, but there was a lot of back stabbing, and I really just didn‘t connect with any of the characters. The plot was a bit convoluted as well. 2.5/5⭐️
#whodunitthesequel @Librarybelle

Up next is what I believe to be my LAST #whodunitthesequel swap... @Librarybelle we may have the longest running single swap in the history of Litsy!! 😳😳🤣🤣🤣👍 But it‘s been fun, and I‘ve read some wonderful mysteries through this group!! I‘ll miss y‘all!

And a HUGE thanks to Jess for keeping us straight and on-track and for taking over the leadership of a swap that she didn‘t sign up for...YOU ROCK! 💕💕💕
#DenzelWashingtonSwoon 💙

Between work today and some podcast stuff I had to finish tonight, I got very little reading in for the #juneteenthreadathon. I'll do better tomorrow! ( @robinb , I was supposed to have had this finished for you last weekend but I'm just getting to it now! 😔)

This one and Still Life are on their way to you, @ferskner ! #whodunitthesequel
Good grief that picture is awful. It‘s from the package drop at the post office.

#bookmail #whodunitthesequel
Thanks, @JenlovesJT47 !
Happy Valentine‘s Day all!

I started this yesterday and got quickly sucked in. Thanks to the #whodunitthesequel for introducing me to this. I quite like crime noir and this was a little bit different than I‘m used to, in a good way. The main character is a black man living in the corrupt city of L.A. in 1948. It was interesting getting his perspective and I really enjoyed this. I‘ve already requested the 2nd book from my library. 4⭐️

#Noir

Wow. Great detective novel set in 1940s L.A. I do not like the term “woke” but it sure describes this novel. And what descriptive writing! Looking forward to more Walter Mosley.

Wow. On my list this year was to finally read Walter Mosley. Fast-paced detective novel reflecting the Black experience in Post-WWII L.A.

First in his series of crime novels starring Easy Rawlins and set in Chandler country in the 1940s, with the twist that Easy is a black man hired by a white psychopath to track down a missing woman. I got a bit lost towards the end and had difficulty keeping all the characters and their motivations straight but the atmosphere of post-war black urban California is brilliantly conjured up and Easy is a great character.

Finished this one quickly, but it was just a so-so read for me. I don‘t want to get into too much for those in #WhoDunItTheSequel who haven‘t read it yet, but noir is not really my thing. However, I loved catching a glimpse of 1940s LA from a unique perspective.

I‘m taking this to the post office tomorrow, @bookwrm526 !

I snapped this picture earlier today; #Vladimir grudgingly modeled the book for me. #catsoflitsy

Littens - I‘ve missed you! Work has been crazy, and then I unexpectedly had to work additional hours (the joys of being a manager). But, I have the day off today, so I am trying to finish this up for #whodunitthesequel .

I liked this one. I loved the noir vibe as well. I was super invested in the whodunit aspect. And thats what I wanted . . . It broke my reading rut so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Excited to discover a new author! Even more excited to see this was made into a movie with Denzel Washington...I ❤️ reading a book then watching the movie to compare. #booksarealwaysbetterthanmovies #blackhistorymonth #blackauthors

⭐️⭐️

This one didn‘t really jibe with me unfortunately. Perhaps I am not really into LA noir but also I thought the “Devil” was very badly written. Anyway, I can say I have at least tried this author.

#readharder2018 - Mystery

When I‘m dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder, I put on my light box and read a good book. ☀️📘

Short but packed full of punch! Easy Rawlins is a memorable character, the dialogue is so flavor-able you can taste it, and the plot was twistier than a baggy tie! Looking forward to hearing Mr. Mosely speak at the New England Crime Bake in November!

This was so much more than great noir. Mosley‘s prose is so damn effortless and effective; Easy is a fascinating, complicated protagonist; and the mystery is all wrapped up in issues of race and perception. It‘s flat out brilliant. So much punch packed into such a slender package.

I read this because it was on a list of top 100 crime novels. It was a good start to a series and really brought postwar LA to life. Could easily imagine Marlowe on a different case one block over from Rawlins. Will I read more in the series? Maybe, if I think of it! So many series, so little time 😕

@Mollyanna Devil in A Blue Dress arrived today for our #whodunitthesequel. I'm looking forward to this book I've heard a lot about it here on Litsy.
Also @ScientistSam great notebook.
@Tiffy_Reads

Great, twisty hard-boiled crime thriller with well-drawn characters and a large dose of reality of being a black man in America. Unfortunately, police brutality has not changed much since the fourties. We also have a white femme fatale, a doomed love affair, a dangerous friend, and dangerous, ugly truths. An entertaining but also thought-provoking read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Really liked it! Michael Boatman did an excellent reading.

Great, hard-boiled crime set in Los Angeles 1948, the first in the Easy Rawlins series. He‘s out of a job so takes money to find a woman named daphne monet. Taut, well-written, the dialogue is spot-on and you feel like you‘re on the mean streets & speakeasies of LA. Easy is a complex man, with a violent past, but now a mortgage & wanting a real home & steady job. He‘s black & racism (from police etc) is dealt with in a matter of fact way.

Devil on a blue bike? 😉💁🏼‍♀️ enjoying this so far. It‘s hard-boiled crime, not my usual thing, but taut and intelligent with great atmosphere. #readharder

Solid introduction to a new to me series. Set in 1948 LA, Easy Rawlins has just lost his job in a factory. A friend connects him with a guy who needs help finding a woman, and things spiral from there. Mosley crafted a sense of time and place that made the story come alive.

Are you reading during the Superb Owl celebration? I am! This is my first Mosley and I love it so far! #currentlyreading #ReadingBlackout

If I am productive at work today, I'm going to treat myself to these audiobooks! Wish me luck.

@Mollyanna - This should be going out in Friday‘s mail. If it doesn‘t, I will let you know.

#whodunitthesequel

@Tiffy_Reads