White Butterfly: An Easy Rawlins Novel (Easy Rawlins Mystery #3)
Description
From the acclaimed bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins series, deemed “one of America’s best mystery writers” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a tale about a murdered man who does not want to go to heaven or hell—he’d rather have his old life in Harlem.
The police don't show up on Easy's doorstep until the third girl dies. It's Los Angeles, 1956 and it takes more than a murdered black girl before the cops get interested. Now they need Easy. The LAPD need help to find the serial killer who’s going around murdering young, African American strippers. They only show up when the killer murders a white girl.
But Easy turns them down. As he says: "I was worth a precinct full of detectives when the cops needed the word in the ghetto." He’s married now, a father, and his detective days are over. When the white college coed dies, the cops make it clear that if Easy doesn't help his best friend is headed for jail. So Easy is back, walking the midnight streets of Watts and the darker twisted avenues of a cunning killer's mind, in the most explosive Easy Rawlins mystery yet.
Praise for White Butterfly: An Easy Rawlins Novel (Easy Rawlins Mystery #3)
"Wonderful page-turning excitement....Like Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and others, Mosley has been reconstructing the hard-boiled tradition from the bottom up....Easy Rawlins moves through mean streets even Marlowe wouldn't walk."
— San Francisco Chronicle
"With White Butterfly, Walter Mosley has established himself as one of America's best mystery writers."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Rawlins...might be the best American character to appear in quite some time."
— Entertainment Weekly
“Startling and powerful…Mosley handles well the conflict between good and downright dirty that drives the great street detectives of the crime genre.”
— Newsday
“If [Philip] Marlowe was tough, Easy has to be even tougher.”
— Washington Post Book World
“Crackles with the suspense and wit of vintage Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, but its keen commentaries on racial issues make it a vital piece of modern fiction…Mosley has earned a place among contemporary masters of crime fiction.”
— Boston Sunday Herald