Part of Easy Rawlins, book 14
First published 2016
Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins has started fresh in late 1960s Los Angeles. He plans to propose to girlfriend Bonnie Shay and has launched a detective agency with two partners using money from his previous case. Then his friend Mouse brings him Rufus Tyler, an elderly man known as Charcoal Joe. Tyler needs help with his friend's son Seymour, a brilliant Stanford student arrested for killing a white man from Redondo Beach. Police found Seymour standing over the corpse at the victim's cabin. Tyler offers generous payment to clear his nephew's name, but the evidence looks damning and racial tensions complicate everything. Easy takes the case despite the long odds. New enemies pursue him while something suspicious surrounds Charcoal Joe himself. Easy juggles his fledgling business, his relationship plans, and mounting dangers as he works to save an innocent young man from a racially charged murder conviction.
Genres: american-fiction, african-american, mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Stanford
Period: 1960s
320 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: racism