This is vintage MosleyThis is vintage Rawlins GrittyIntimate Mesmerizing Here is what Easy says about this period of time: “I tried to think of better things. About our new young Irish president and Martin Luther King; about how the world was changing and a black man in America had the chance to be a man for the first time in hundreds of years. But the same world was being rocked almost daily by underground nuclear explosions and the threat of war.” The Los Angeles of the 50s and 60s was growing...

I just love this series! Mosley's writing is about a smooth and captivating as they come. Easy is such a complex character, yet Mosley makes him feel relatable and realistic. Easy's strengths and flaws make him the kind of character that you want to see come out alright in the end despite the odds against him finding real happiness and peace. I'm about to dive into A Little Yellow Dog next!You can find me at:•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•Twitter: @MonlatReaderInstagram: @readermonicaFaceb...

Still loving this series although there were only a few interesting twists to the story. I can't wait to continue on with Book #5 which is called A Little Yellow Dog.

Such a good detective series with entertaining plot and interesting characters. Try to space out the books a bit so I don't run out of books to read so soon! Highly recommend this series one of the better detective novels!

I've read and enjoyed books about tough guys whom no one gets the best of but I've never read one like this. Easy Rawlins is a black PI who, while doing his job of finding a missing person, has to deal with the hostility of racism. In this book, a white PI hires him to go places where he'll fit in and the other wouldn't. He's looking for Betty, a missing black woman who was working for a rich white family and whom he remembers from his youth. She was older and stunning and unforgettable. The way...

Poor Easy! He manages to get himself into so much trouble.. excellent as always.

With Black Betty, Mosley delivers what you'd expect from an Easy Rawlins mystery if you came to it having already read a few others such as I had. The crime to be solved is made to seem convoluted but ultimately turns out to be relatively simple. Yet as with each book in this series it isn't really about the plot. It's about Easy's singular way of seeing and evaluating and dealing with the people he encounters along the way, his perspective on a period of time that seems both long ago and immedi...

I love the Easy Rawlins series. What struck me about this one was Mosley's prose. I'm not sure if Mosley just stepped it up a notch with his fourth installment, or whether it was the format that caused me to notice. I read this one on my Kindle, which allowed me to linger over the well-crafted paragraphs, whereas I listened to the audio version of the first three books (audio has no mercy - it just keeps going). About halfway through I started to highlight some of my favorites. Here's one of the...

Well, it seems that RLT Reads Book Club has gone straight to hell in a hand basket. I know some of it was my fought. Over the last two years my health has been a handful and I have been off my reading game and not able to keep up. Trying to balance my health and all of RLT Brands is two full time jobs wrapped up into one. But I made an executive decision over this past holiday; to take some time for me. Life is to short to not do some of what you enjoy. So I'm back to my favorite pass time on th...

Another great Easy Rawlins story. I love this series. The characters are amazing and the story flows throughout each chapter. On to book 5.

I love Walter Mosley books and Black Betty has to be one of my favorites. There was suspense--just when I thought who did it, nope, I was wrong. It was a definite page turner.

This book was entertaining, however don't look for much depth in the Easy Rawlins novels. Mosley tend to talk too much about how hard it is to be a black man in 1950's LA but you never really feel the anguish. Easy's situations are too far fetched. It's simply not believable. These feeling may have come out because I've read a few too many Easy Rawlin's novels and frankly its hard to differentiate between them. Standard formula: woman in trouble in black part of town because she has messed aroun...

This was a reread for me( the first time I read this was in the early 2000's) and I loved it even more this time around. I had forgotten all the juice that was taken place in this book. all the scandal and hurt. And then there's Easy, getting himself into trouble trying to help people. This time looking for a love (more like school boy crush) that has gone missing and her employer is looking for her and will stop at nothing, and I mean just that, to find her again. This one was probably the sadd...

Apart from Devil in a Blue Dress all the books so far have been average at best and not nearly as good. There have been some similarities that Mosley keeps repeating from previous books but they don’t really add anything to the story or the main character himself. The plot feels messy with many new characters and troubles piling up which distracts the attention from the main goal that Easy is supposed to have. Halfway through the book I felt like we were wandering around the streets with no appa...

Walter Mosley is a Goodreads experience for me. Never heard of him and never would have except for GR. He seemed like an author I ought to read although out of my normal realm. I am one of those infamous white males. Mosey writes about Easy Rawlins, a black guy immersed in a black milieu of 1960s Los Angeles. So I go to my favorite online used book dealer, www.alibris.com , to buy some books in the Easy Rawlins series. As is often the case, the first book in a series is not available used and ch...

'Black Betty' by Walter Mosley, number 4 in the Easy Rawlins mystery series, is very complex and very good. However, it is also very very dark. Innocence cannot be preserved on any level. Easy Rawlins is so smart but he is full of uncontrolled demons. Only his children save him from his worst impulses. He seems to pursue justice to spite the universe rather than to help, especially since for him victory against bad guys is temporary and the saved are rarely deserving except for perhaps in posses...

A Book Drenched In History January 9, 2003Review by Judith W. ColomboWalter Mosley doesn't just write mysteries. He creates a historical landscape peopled with vibrant and authentic characters who like most of us are flawed and lacking in some way. "Black Betty" is Mosley at his best. The mystery is enthralling and many layered, the atmosphere electric, and the villains exquisitely evil.The time is 1961 the era of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and the beginning of The Civil rights movement.

This is my first Easy Rollins mystery. I've seen these books around forever, and wanted a taste. This was a great way to be introduced to the series. A few incidences of violence. Made me a little uncomfortable, but then, I am very sensitive to that. I liked the story, and the dramatization. I may try another.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover Easy Rawlins. What an enjoyable discovery! Although it took a little while to get used to the dialect, I found the story as compelling as the characters. Now, of course, I feel I need to go back and read more of this series.

Wonderfully convoluted as always, this adventure finds Easy Rawlins at his worst; an angry man who makes bad decisions that get people killed. Yet as ever he displays those characteristics which make him a likable noir hero, a willingness to put his life on the line for his beliefs and the pursuit of what's right and true and justice and all that other stuff.Whilst Mosley is as formulaic as ever there's something infinitely readable about these books, unlike other too predictable authors in the