The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe" (The Boston Globe) and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid's couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations...
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family's misadventures don't kill him first-sorting out the woman's crooked tale will bring him straight to death's door.
My thoughts
P.I. Leonid McGill takes on the case of a beautiful woman and artist who hands him a bundle of cash, saying she is afraid someone is trying to kill her. Soon he finds out she is not who she says she is and yet she still may have been murdered. He also takes on the case of locating a William Williams that no one has seen in over twenty years. Enough to keep him bust, there is still his private life having to deal with his stepson who has disappeared, his wife and girlfriend and his best friend. So much going on, yet Mosley gives an entertaining and mysterious tale that is colorful and descriptive. This is another one of those novels that I am glad to have been introduced to or otherwise would have missed. Mosley is a master of his craft.
Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher. I received no compensation for my thoughts.
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