The 3 best books by Walter Mosley

It must be a matter of there being hardly any space left, or of shifts, among so many black genre authors who compete for (and in the best case achieve) the award of world bestseller.

The point is that it was difficult to understand that Walter mosley, as well as I already commented on Lawrence Block, has never arrived in Spain with the intensity of its recognition in the United States. We are talking about a Mosley that has been publishing US bestsellers since the 90s that in many cases they stay in soda when crossing the pond.

I have always suspected that it is a disconnection of cultures. Because the noir genre draws heavily on sociological topics and cultural stereotypes, even more so in a police approach from the start. The point is that if someone as Yankee in his scenery as James Ellroy get success in these parts, how not Mosley? At the end of the day we consume American customs even in the soup, of course not literature ...

Although it is also true that with the international award of RBA 2018 crime novel (a great gateway to Europe for the noiriest writers), Mosley seems to start to gain followers.

Top 3 Recommended Novels by Walter Mosley

Betrayal

In a classic like Mosley, his works give off that aroma that encapsulates the best of noir, with a touch of hard-boiled from yesteryear. Thus, a novel like this leads us to the social abysses where the underworld, corruption, the sink of ethics and the occasional improvised hero who perhaps only wants a minimal reparation for the wrong of the world coexist.

Joe King Oliver was an honest New York police officer until someone set him up that ruined his career and, for a few months, landed him in jail. A decade later, Oliver is making a living as a private investigator.

The unexpected arrival of a letter will give him the opportunity to find out who betrayed him and make peace with his past. At the same time, another conflictive case is presented to him: the defense of a black activist accused of having killed two police officers.

The devil dressed in blue

The start of a series that will accompany Mosley throughout his literary career. Rawlins's character, an atypical black researcher who, at this start of his long-lived fictional existence, seems to us to be a scapegoat for all the worst things motivated by the spurious interests of society.

The young Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran, meets in a Los Angeles bar with a disturbing individual who wants to propose a poisoned assignment: to locate a white woman who often frequents night jazz clubs. The lack of work and the need to pay the mortgage make the offer tempting, but it still seems dangerous: it is 1948 and black and white do not usually mix. Easy doesn't want to be one of those detectives who get into trouble, but ...

Dangerous blonde

Ten deliveries later we find a very different Rawlins, experienced and knowledgeable about risks, edges and potential big problems. The years have passed, we slide until the late sixties at its perfect point to stage the most intense black genre.

Two of the most dangerous men in Los Angeles have disappeared and Detective Easy Rawlins has to find them before a bloodbath occurs. The first is his friend Mouse, who has been accused of murdering a family man. The second is a Vietnam veteran who has been turned into a killing machine by the government and who has left his adopted daughter in Easy's care.

Although she is going through a personal hell after breaking up with the love of her life, there is too much at stake for Easy to ignore. You have to act fast and the best clue you have is a photo of a mysterious blonde on board a yacht.