Starred review from October 1, 2024
Ten years ago, as related in Down the River Unto the Sea, Joe King Oliver, a Black private eye, was framed for assault and sent to Riker's. The three months he spent inside changed how he saw the world: he's not so quick to play by the rules anymore. In his third outing (after Every Man a King), he juggles two explosive assignments. A billionaire hires him to find the wife who ran out on him, taking their seven-year-old daughter. He wants his daughter back, but Joe soon realizes he also wants revenge. If Joe turns him down, though, he's signed his own death warrant. Then Joe's 93-year-old grandmother asks him to find his father, Odin, who was imprisoned for homicide when Joe was young. Joe wants nothing to do with Odin, whom he blames for his family's disintegration, but he can't say no to his grandmother, who wants to see her son before she dies. So Joe ends up looking for a father he hates while saving a mother and child from a violent, sociopathic man. VERDICT A gritty crime novel with a pace that never lets up; Mosley's best work since the incomparable Easy Rawlins series.--David Keymer
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 15, 2024
PI Joe King Oliver has been hired by a billionaire to find his wife and daughter, but when Joe meets Marigold, he senses that she may be hiding for good reasons. A former NYPD detective betrayed by his peers, Joe is a man of inconvenient principles. Will he turn an easy, lucrative job into a risky rescue operation? As he faces this conundrum, his family loyalty is put to the test by his determined 94-year-old grandmother, who lives in palatial splendor with mega-wealthy Roger Ferris. Facing surgery for a tumor, Brenda asks Joe to find her son--his father, Chief Odin Oliver. Chief was sent to prison when Joe was young, and Joe refused any contact with him then and after his release. But now he must honor his grandmother's request, no matter how complicated and perilous it becomes as he discovers that Chief's troubles continue and that he's in hiding, protected by a coterie of fierce and adoring women. Joe confronts formidable adversaries and irresistible temptations, while wrestling with conflicting emotions. The father-son dynamic is universal in its resonance; Joe's keen reflections are rendered with steely lyricism, and every intriguing character complicates the dilemmas and dangers Joe must overcome. A gripping investigation of love, lies, crimes, and rough justice told with verve, wit, and wisdom.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Mosley's astute and involving King Oliver series has tremendous appeal and true staying power.
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November 4, 2024
In MWA Grand Master Mosley’s smooth, enjoyable latest King Oliver mystery (after Every Man a King), the NYPD detective–turned–PI agrees to help California tycoon Anthony Orr retrieve his young daughter, whom Orr claims was carried off to New York by his second wife. King soon realizes the case isn’t as simple as it seems: Orr has a violent past, with rumors swirling that he killed his first wife, and he’s sent two hired guns to see that King does his job right. As a result, King agrees to help Orr’s wife and daughter stay out of reach of Orr and his men. Meanwhile, King’s 94-year-old grandmother urges him to reconcile with his father, Chief Odin Oliver, who’s been living underground since his release from prison after a murder sentence. For King, it soon becomes clear that any genuine reconciliation will involve reinvestigating the killing for which Chief was convicted. Mosley brings both plots to tidy conclusions, but the stakes feel somewhat lower this time out, with the racial themes prominent in previous installments replaced by gentler family tensions. Still, series fans will enjoy themselves. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins-Loomis Literary.
January 1, 2025
Tangled in painful memories of his long-missing father, who was released from prison nine years ago, private investigator Joe King Oliver searches for his old man in this follow-up toEvery Man a King (2023). The 44-year-old King hasn't seen or heard from his hated/loved father, Chief Odin Oliver, since he was 13. After Chief was convicted of robbing a convenience store and shooting two men, his wife (King's mother) had a nervous breakdown, was sent to an asylum, and died. Now, King's ailing 94-year-old grandmother wants him to find her son before she's operated on for cancer. King's search, which leads him through a succession of Chief's friends, lovers, and criminal associates, overlaps with the case of a woman he's been hired to find by the wealthy husband she walked out on, taking their 7-year-old daughter--a job the empathetic detective turns on its ear once it becomes obvious that the shady husband is abusive. With its many interconnected characters and layers of family history, the kaleidoscopic plot--narrated by King--isn't always easy to follow. His desire to sleep with smart and beautiful women he encounters smooths the path. King can't help showing off his sophisticated taste in food, literature, appearances (one woman's dress was "the color of Meyer lemons"), and language ("She was so certain about the space she occupied that there was no gainsaying her position"). At the same time, the novel is rooted in street philosophy ("It's at least three times harder to get outta trouble than it is gettin' in") and the ongoing threat of violence. As with Mosley's great Easy Rawlins series, there's simply no one else writing books like this one. A dense but deeply reflective sequel.
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