num_pages: 312
description: Walter Mosley's Fearless Jones inaugurates a new crime series set in 1950s Los Angeles. But can Jones match Mosley's engaging long-term hero Easy Rawlins? On the evidence of this first book, the answer is resoundingly in the affirmative, even if the new series takes a little time to establish the new protagonist. And this is probably because the central character here is not so much the eponymous Fearless Jones as Paris Minton, the owner of a small second-hand bookstore. Minton is savagely beaten up and his store burned to the ground for mysterious reasons. A beautiful woman is involved, and the beleaguered Minton asks for the aid of his friend, the resourceful Fearless Jones. As Jones painstakingly investigates the woman's past, a very dark mystery begins to unravel. The crime aspects here are delivered with total panache, but Mosley would never be happy without adding that level of socio-political commentary he is so adept at, and the place of black men in 1950s LA (with few rights and little money) is a potent theme. Easy Rawlins is still Mosley's main man, but Fearless Jones gives every appearance of possessing similar longevity. --Barry Forshaw
language: English
title: Fearless Jones
titlecomplete: Fearless Jones (Fearless Jones, #1)
genres: Noir, Mystery, African American, Suspense, Detective, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime
ratings_count: 3033
series: Fearless Jones
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Little, Brown and Company