250+ pages
Description via Goodreads
I kept my silence and Hobbes took his friendly hand back. I was in a hurry to get to my house. I felt bad about turning down the policeman. I felt miserable that young women would die. But there was nothing I could do. I had my own life to attend to--didn't I? (20)
I flew through this book. It's Mosley's great writing--straightforward, fast-paced and charged with grit. I can't say that this particular story was any better than Devil in a Blue Dress or A Red Death...but I'm at the point where I'm comfortable with the characters, so I don't need to ponder their every action or word spoken. It all just works.
What's new with Easy? Well...he's married with a kid and his adopted son Jesus. One happy family, except not. He's called on once again to help the police find a serial killer of exotic dancers/strippers/women of that variety. But the time Easy spends away from home and enveloped in secrets and the L.A underworld is taking a toll on his family life. This story is as much about personal wrongdoing as it is criminal wrongdoing. What do I mean by personal wrongdoing? ...well in my opinion it seems that Easy only married his wife, so he can say he has a wife and a home. Same goes for his daughter, who is named Edna by the way--shockingly close to his ex-lover/best friend's ex-wife's name, Etta. Now, I'm sure he loves them, but I'm also sure he's more in love with the idea of having a wife and child at home, in the house he bought all those years ago. It's sort of ties back in with his struggle over possession in A Red Death. In the end we see where all his creeping around at questionable hours, in questionable places gets him and the family he always wanted.
White Butterfly didn't leave me with as big an impression as Devil in a Blue Dress did, and that's because I viewed this as a transitional book...Easy once built up, is now stripped down. Again. We'll see what happens in the next Easy Rawlins mystery.
White Butterfly
Four stars
I have never read a Walter Mosley book even though I have one stilling on my shelf. I really need to read it, I have heard good things about his writing.
ReplyDeleteWhich book do you have?
DeleteAnd yeah, at first I had to adjust to his writing style, but now it just flows. Good stuff.