Rose Gold: An Easy Rawlins Mystery

Set in L.A. during the height of the Vietnam War, Mosley’s impressive 13th Easy Rawlins mystery (after 2013’s Little Green) finds Roger Frisk, special assistant to the police chief, calling on Easy with a job. Rosemary Goldsmith, a student at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the daughter of munitions giant Foster Goldsmith, is missing, perhaps kidnapped. Frisk wants Easy to track down black boxer and political activist Robert Mantle, with whom Rosemary was recently seen in Los Angeles. Easy, “the man to go to if they [the LAPD] want their finger on the jugular of the colored community,” accepts the carrot and stick offer only to discover that FBI agents and the State Department are also involved. Along the way, Easy’s trademark ability to trade favors has him helping disgraced cop Melvin Suggs, locating a stolen mixed-race child, and solving a marital problem for his pal Jackson Blue. Easy’s experiences and insights perfectly mirror the turbulent ’60s. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. (Sept.)