Fall crime books

From the authoritative The Rap Sheet comes editor J. Kingston Pierce's list of the ten books he's most looking forward to reading this fall.

All ten will go on my To Read list, with this one at the top:

Blonde Faith, by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown USA). Boosted to widespread renown in the 1990s as one of President Bill Clinton’s favorite authors, Mosley has claimed a fecund fictional territory in post-World War II Los Angeles, where his reluctant sleuth, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, struggles with racial animosities and endeavors to keep those he loves free from harm. That latter task presents the most difficult challenges in this 10th installment of the Rawlins series. Not only is Easy losing the love of his life, Bonnie Shay, to another man, but his most casually homicidal crony, Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, is missing and wanted for killing the father of 12. Meanwhile, an ex-marine compadre has dumped his daughter on Easy’s doorstep -- a sure sign that her father is already dead, or soon will be. Raymond Chandler created the bones of L.A. detective fiction; Mosley gives it flesh and blood, and surprising hope. An October release.

Read Pierce's post.

--Marshal Zeringue