The prolific Walter Mosley's latest book introduces a new hero, ex-cop-turned-private investigator, Joe King Oliver. Oliver is a man haunted by injustices, who suffered personal betrayal by dirty cops and a vindictive ex-wife, but is honest enough to admit that his own bad choices also played a part in his downfall. Set up by a phony rape charge, Oliver was locked up in the notorious Rikers Island jail, where only solitary confinement saved him from being killed by other inmates. By the time he was released, as suddenly and as inexplicably as he had been arrested, Oliver was so traumatized by the brutality he experienced that he has cut himself off from all but the most minimal human contact for almost thirteen years. His 17-year-old daughter, Aja-Denise, who refuses to give up on her dad, is his only connection with humanity, and all that has kept him sane.
Oliver's time-out is ending however. The woman who helped set him up on the rape charge has been born again and writes him a letter that helps him piece together why he was taken down. And another young black man is on death row, being framed for murder because he killed two dirty cops in self-defense when they tried to murder him. Oliver sees connections between the two and is convinced that he can vindicate himself he he can prove the truth in the other case. But he can't do it alone. So he turns to another lost soul, Melquarth Frost. Frost is even more damaged by the violence and brutality of a racist environment than Oliver. Redemption is beyond his reach, but he can see a thin chance of it for Oliver, and decides to help. In one powerful scene, Frost confesses to Oliver that his own mother hated him. It made him long to evolve into something different; "like wolves had become dogs or dinosaurs birds.” Instead, the only amends he could offer was to seek out and kill the man who had raped his mother and produced him.
Mosley's take on human existence is as powerful in its own way as Dante's or Milton's.
Click HERE to read a review from the Los Angeles Times.
Click HERE to read a review from WSB-TV (Atlanta).
Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.
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