Fear of the Dark

July 31, 2006
Though the prose is a bit rough in spots, Mosley's third outing for L.A. bookseller Paris Minton and the intrepid Fearless Jones is as entertaining as its predecessors, Fearless Jones
and Fear Itself
. Trouble comes to Paris's door in the form of his cousin Ulysses "Useless" S. Grant IV," who needs help after getting mixed up in a scheme that has gotten totally out of hand. Despite refusing to even let Useless cross his threshold, Paris is drawn, violently, into the fray. Mosley isn't afraid to cast his characters in heroic molds and does so explicitly when Paris recalls Bullfinch's
Mythology
and muses: "Fearless was the hero, I was the hero's companion, Useless was the mischievous trickster." As in any good heroic adventure, Fearless and Paris face a variety of monsters, traps, sirens and other temptations. Mosley's talent for sketching memorable minor characters of every hue ("buttery brown," "copper," "brick," "olive with a hint of lemon") is fully evident, while his reading of the racial temperature of the 1950s is as dead-on as ever.

August 1, 2006
The third in Mosleys Fearless Jones series (following " Fearless Jones" , 2001, and " Fear Itself" , 2003) again finds timid bookseller Paris Minton in a whole mess of trouble, courtesy of his friends but abetted by his own dogged determination to set things right. The series--named after Paris' best friend, the universally intimidating but disarmingly sweet Fearless Jones--works as a kind of point-counterpoint to Mosley's more celebrated Easy Rawlins novels, also set in South Central L.A and moving from the late 1940s into the 1960s. Paris is more bookish and less confrontational than Easy, and Fearless has a kinder heart than Easy's tough-guy buddy, Mouse, but the two pairs work like horn players trading solos in a jazz combo. This time, Paris' problems center on his cousin Ulysses (aka Useless), who has disappeared after attempting to swindle his co-conspirators in a blackmail scheme. Paris' Aunt Three Hearts--she of the legendary evil eye--demands her nephew's help in finding the wandering Ulysses, and you don't say no to Three Hearts. Mosley's signature feel for the historical moment is evident again here, but the Fearless novels seem a little more plot driven than the Rawlins'stories, which deal as much with the hero's troubled inner life as they do with societal issues. Still, this series remains an entertaining and insightful look at black life in postwar Southern California. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)