Black Betty, Engl. ed.: An Easy Rawlins Mystery: Amazon.de: Walter Mosley: Englische Bücher

From Booklist

It's summertime 1961, and the livin' isn't so easy for Easy Rawlins. His real-estate deals--kept secret to avoid the reprisals that a black landlord in postwar Los Angeles might expect from both black friends and white enemies--have mostly gone bad, his wife has left, and he's attempting to raise two kids on his own. Easy needs money bad, so when a white private eye offers two grand to help find Betty Eady, a name from Easy's distant past, he takes the job. Meanwhile, the lethal killer Mouse, Easy's oldest friend, is out of jail and looking for the man who set him up. As in the three previous installments in Mosley's acclaimed series, the case at hand is never really the center of attention. While Mosley develops a plot and generates tension as well as anyone working in crime fiction, he has always had bigger fish to fry. As we've watched Easy try to make a life for himself and his loved ones in South Central L.A. from World War II onward, we've witnessed the rise and fall of hope in the black community. As the civil rights movement gains momentum and Martin Luther King, Jr., comes to prominence on the national scale, Easy feels something very different on the streets: "I realized that I'd always be surrounded by violence and insanity. I saw it everywhere. . . . It was even in me. That feeling of anger, wrapped tight under my skin, in my hands. And it was getting worse."

Just as he did with the war and the McCarthy era, Mosley gives us a recognizable moment in American history viewed through the eyes of a single black man. This perspective, rare in crime fiction, vivifies not only the black experience but the larger event as well. Here we feel the hot winds that would eventually ignite the Watts riots not as abstract issues in race relations, but as emotions in the hearts of individuals we have come to know and care about. In Easy's bitterness and in the bone-weary fatigue with which he greets each new act of senseless violence--whether the weapon is a white cop's fists or Mouse's Colt-.45--we feel the ineffable sadness that has come to envelop our urban landscape. Bill Ott -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Kirkus Reviews

It's 1961, and Easy Rawlins has lost most of what he had five years ago in White Butterfly (1992). Not only has his wife walked out with his daughter, but his real estate investments have left him broke, and he's moved out of his own building to a rental in West LA, where shamus Saul Lynx comes to ask him to find aging mantrap Elizabeth Eady, aka Black Betty. Easy goes looking for Betty's gambling brother Marlon, but finds nothing more of him than a bloody molar and a fat check from imperious Sarah Clarice Cain, daughter of the late, rich, unlamented Albert Cain. Why is Sarah so desperate to find Betty, and how is her disappearance tied to the police investigation of Albert's death? While he's pondering these questions, Easy finds big problems on his own doorstep. His investment in Freedom's Plaza is jeopardized by a smooth supermarket king who doesn't care for African-American competition; and his homicidal friend Mouse, sprung from jail after five years for manslaughter, is determined to identify and kill the witness who sent him there. It's high time the Easy Rawlins saga was recognized for the remarkable achievement it is: a snapshot social history of the black experience in postwar LA. This latest installment, teeming with violence, bitterness, and compassion, is Mosley's finest work yet. (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Alle Produktbeschreibungen

Kundenrezensionen

5 Sterne

4 Sterne

3 Sterne

2 Sterne

1 Sterne

10 Rezensionen

4.2 von 5 Sternen

Kundenrezension verfassen

Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen

Easy Rawlins Is An Easy Read 19. Mai 2000

Von N. Sausser

Format:Taschenbuch

Easy Rawlins is a complex character. I enjoy getting to know him better in each of Mosley's books. But because Walter Mosley has such a wonderful talent for character development, I probably will never have Easy figured out completely. What amazes me about these books is that they read like a serial but any one of them can stand on it's own without any long, detailed introductions or explanations. Black Betty does not disappoint. Easy juggles several situations at once and manages to bring order and justice to his world by the end of the book. I think the most endearing quality of Easy's is the love and care he gives to his kids, Jesus and Feather. The time spent with his family gives a good balance to the darker side of his life on the streets. There are some big surprises in this story...some good and some sad and good at the same time. I bought this book a long time ago and saved it until the next Easy Rawlings book came out so I could read them both at the same time because when I finish a Walter Mosley book I always want more. I wish he could write 'em as fast as I can read 'em.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

Black Betty Was Great 28. M�rz 2000

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

I enjoyed Black Betty as I do all of Walter Mosley's books. He has had me hooked for 6 years now. I first found him and read all that was avaliable, white Butterfly, Devil in a Blue Dress and Red Death. Then I had to stop because there weren't any more of his mysteries to read! I am so glad I have found him again. He helps me enjoy reading.

Everyone seems ready to shoot and kill in this book. 8. Februar 2000

Von Breton Bienvenue

I read this book with my book club. We agreed that everyone just seems so mean to each other in the story. People kill each other left and right until you begin to wonder who will be left standing at the end. Speaking of the ending (don't worry, I won't give it away), I was distressed and disappointed that things did not work out the way that I hoped. Plus, the killer just seemed to come out of nowhere and have no real connection to the other characters. I'm amazed by how many answers to Easy's questions existed right under everyone's noses. I do enjoy mystery, but I prefer Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and Gone Fishin' by the same author.