Review by Booklist Review
\rtf1\ansi\deff0The third in Mosleys Fearless Jones series (following Fearless Jones0 , 2001, and Fear Itself0 , 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. --Bill Ott Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
When family is involved, everyone is out for revenge. Fearless Jones and Paris Minton regroup in Mosley's latest. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Watts, 1956. Time for another 15 rounds of unsought violence for bookseller Paris Minton and his friend Fearless Jones. Surrounded by men--and quite a few women--who think they're tough, Paris (Fear Itself, 2003, etc.) considers himself a coward. He's been afraid of the dark ever since the April Fool's night when he spent five hours locked in a crawl space beneath his bookstore with the cooling corpse of his lover Jessa Brown's ex-boyfriend Tiny Bobchek, shot through the head. Burying Tiny in a shallow grave with the help of Fearless and legendary killer and storyteller Van Cleave takes the heat off Paris but doesn't rescue him from the danger brought by another visitor: Paris's cousin Ulysses S. Grant IV, more aptly known as Useless. Realizing that the apple of his Aunt Three Hearts' eye has graduated from theft to large-scale blackmail, Paris reluctantly enlists the help of Fearless and a dozen more questionable allies in tracking down the head blackmailers before the mounting pile of casualties includes him. It's an unlikely task for Paris, who claims to be always afraid, and Fearless, who may be incapable of doing long division. Luckily, the clouds obscuring the labyrinthine plot frequently lift to reveal the clarity of Paris's wisdom, as when he observes that kindly Fearless constantly fights only because "we were poor and we were black and so we either fought or we lost ground." Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
