Walter Mosley, 2004, Little Brown and Company.

Another Easy Rawlins mystery. This time, Easy is called on by the police to help defuse a complicated situation emerging right after the Watts Riots of 1965. Of the series, Little Scarlet is perhaps the most intense, direct, and linear. There are fewer twists and turns, and things are much more what they appear to be — which is to say that they are a subtle, complex pattern of race relations in post-riot Los Angeles. Sure, things are less deceptive. Mosley deftly tells us a story, while revealing an evolving and fluid situation with regards to how people of different races — and classes — coexist in Los Angeles.