cover image Blonde Faith

Blonde Faith

Walter Mosley, , read by Michael Boatman. . Hachette Audio, $31.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-60024-042-3

Mosley's Easy Rawlins books were always about acquiring property, which was the American dream in post–WWII Los Angeles. But lately Rawlins's expanding family has taken center stage and death has darkened the landscape. “We born dyin.' If it wasn't for death, we'd never draw a breath,” says Michael Boatman as an old man who knew Rawlins's grandfather back in Texas. That theme is echoed by several other characters, especially Etta, the wife of Raymond “Mouse” Alexander, Easy's childhood friend and a born killer who has disappeared. Boatman, a veteran narrator of numerous Mosley novels, has a quiet and natural style that perfectly catches the voices of Etta, Rawlins's lover Bonnie and especially Rawlins himself. Boatman's beautifully controlled performance compliments all the rich shadings Mosley gives his private eye, now 18 years older than the optimistic young soldier introduced in Devil in a Blue Dress , who's feeling depressed and adrift in the riot-filled L.A. of 1967. An extremely frightening ending supports Mosley's claim that Easy's 10th mystery may be his last. Simultaneous release with the Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 6). (Oct.)