Bad Boy Brawly Brown (Easy Rawlins Mystery)
Racial tensions and America's civil rights movement have previously  figured into Walter Mosley's series about sometimes-sleuth Ezekiel "Easy"  Rawlins. ButBad Boy Brawly Brownturns what had been a background  element into compelling surface tension. The year is 1964, and though Easy seems  settled into honest work as a Los Angeles custodian, he's having other  problems--notably, his adopted son's wish to quit school and lingering remorse  over the death (inA Little  Yellow Dog) of his homicidal crony, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. Yet he  remains willing to do "favors" for folks in need. So, when Alva Torres comes to  him, worried that her son, Brawly Brown, will get into trouble running with  black revolutionaries, Easy agrees to find the young man and "somehow ... get  him back home." His first day on the job, however, Rawlins stumbles across  Alva's ex-husband--murdered--and he's soon dodging police, trying to connect a  black activist's demise to a weapons cache, and exposing years of betrayal that  have made Brawly an ideal pawn in disastrous plans.Mosley's portrayal of L.A.'s mid-20th-century racial divide is far from  simplistic, with winners and sinners on both sides. He also does a  better-than-usual job here of plot pacing, with less need to rush a solution at  the end. But it is Easy Rawlins's evolution that's most intriguing inBrawly  Brown. A man determined to curb his violent and distrustful tendencies, Easy  finds himself, at 44, having finally come to peace with his life, just when the  peace around him is at such tremendous risk.--J. Kingston Pierce