Resumo de Fearless Jones

In the beginning, there was the petulant question: Why is this not a new Easy Rawlins mystery? By the middle, the question was forgotten as I sunk deeper into the rich new Mosley creation, Fearless Jones.

After waiting five years for Mosley to pen a new mystery, I had to force myself to slow down so I could read the book. As with every Mosley book since the Easy Rawlins series that first slapped my face and snagged my attention with the sheer enormous quality of its writing, I began reading in disappointment. Although Mosley remains one of my all-time favorite writers, none of his novels since Easy have been quite as thoroughly engaging. Once I get past that personal grudge and into the meat of Mosley's writing, however; I am consistently pleased by the nuance, detail and character development that combine to make up a Mosley mystery.

As with all Mosley books, this is a mystery noir in every sense. While there are a few upbeat portions of the book, for the majority of the novel we are mired in the struggles of the main characters, Paris Minton and Fearless Jones, as they pit themselves against a white-dominated 1950s Los Angeles cityscape and the prejudices and complications that come with that.

One of the more intriguing things about the book was the fact that we do not actually meet Fearless Jones, the title character, until a ways into the novel. Instead we are gradually introduced to the idea of Fearless Jones, and he reaches mythic proportions in our minds before he ever actually appears in person. We see the beginning of the book owner. That he has struggled to make something of himself and his store is apparent from the start, as is the fact that his store is his life. He loves books as if they were personal friends.

Paris's comfortable world is shattered by the sultry Elana Love and her explosive life and troubles. Her breezy sashay into his store one afternoon, floating on the wings of seemingly innocuous questions and heady perfume, pulls Paris into her life's melodrama, and the mystery commences. Within a day of meeting her Paris is beaten, shot at, robbed and has sex, plus his store is burned to the ground (and his dreams along with it).

After going through all of this Paris wrestles with his conscience and decides to spring his old friend Fearless Jones from jail. Fearless proves to be a character who is he becomes an active character in the mystery, you know you have a long night ahead of you as you read the rest of the book straight through. The unusual mix of chaos and backbone of the book.

One of Mosley's trademarks, in addition to his strong character development (in fact, he and John Irving rank as the top two authors for character development in my opinion), is poverty. His novels are not bleak, but the main characters never get any "breaks" from the other characters. One of the more interesting pairings in this novel is the relationship that develops between Paris, Fearless and Hedva Tannenbaum, a Jewish woman who becomes their staunch advocate and helpmate.

I found Fearless Jones to be an engaging novel filled with Mosley's trademark Jazz-prose, noir nuances, beautiful women, social prejudices, convoluted plot lines, danger and intrigue with glimpses of hope throughout. This book is a must read for Mosley fans, however; if you are new to Mosley's magnificent work, I must recommend you begin with the books in his Easy Rawlins series before moving on to his newer work

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