Charcoal Joe

An Easy Rawlins Mystery

By: Walter Mosley

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve.

Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready - finally - to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency.

But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order.

Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.

©2016 Walter Mosley (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Narrator Michael Boatman is no stranger to Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mystery series. His comfort with the author's style and the title character's swagger make Charcoal Joe a captivating listen.... The author's wit and sarcasm are enhanced by a narration that envelops the listener in 1960s Los Angeles. Both longtime Mosley fans and new ones will take another drive or walk around the block just to listen a little longer." ( AudioFile)

Vintage Easy with an unexpected assist.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book with several prominent Black Angelinos making appearances. Easy enjoys an assist from one of the baddest of his friends not named Raymond.

THE GANGS ALL HERE.

I remember some of the characters but it was hard keeping up with the cast.

Charcoal Joe- really good, not great.

I enjoyed the story. It was a little busy as usual with so many new and old characters jammed into the storyline, but that comes with the territory.

The maturation of Easy is enjoyable. Age has brought along some wisdom and he also got some of his swagger back from the early days. I also love the fact that he and Fearless Jones finally linked up in a story. I just wish Boatman didn't narrate Fearless as if he were Gomer Pyle.

Overall, I enjoy Michael Boatman's narration overall, but he has some quirks in his style that annoy me slightly.

My one gripe is that Mouse didn't even flash that .41 caliber once. I don't see him being completely out of the game, so hopefully it shows back up in book 15.

My godness, I loved this book.

Walter Mosley is such a wonderful story teller. It was my first of his novels to read and now i am hooked, I will be reading the entire series.

really loved this one

really love this story all the action and mystery that can be had looking forward to the next selection

great read from beginning to end!

great read! I can't until his next book. Please give us another Easy Rawlings book!

Another Good Easy Rawlings novel a little disap

Another good Easy Rawlings novel cool concept of combinding characters from different novels very cool

Mosley’s Easy Bestseller Worth It

Charcoal Joe is one more in Mr. Mosley’s long line of great Easy Rawlins mysteries. I wish I could say they’re better every time, but they’ve all been so entertaining. I do miss the younger LA days begun with Devil in a Blue Dress. I guess it’s sentimentality as the crooks and cops get meaner and the progress gets slower.
But this story is a fine one, with competing gangsters, Fearless Jones, Mouse Alexander, and assorted femme fatales. 1969 LA, $2 Million in cash and diamonds goes missing during a double murder. A mild-mannered (mostly) young professor in the wrong place and time looks to take the wrap. Enter Ezekiel Porterhouse Rawlins and eventually... well you may know the rest.

Pretty Good Storyline... but a little obvious for

The book was maybe a B+ for Easy Rawlins mystery. Not a lot of mystery just some lose storylines that never necessarily gel together. but characters were great and interesting, if we could have gotten to know them better.

Twists and turns

Great reader and great story. Characters were interesting and did not guess the answer. The end