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Private investigator Easy Rawlins comes home one evening to find that his friend, Christmas Black, has left his daughter at Easy’s house—with no explanation why. It seems, though, that Christmas fears for his life and that of his daughter—so he disappears, leaving his daughter with someone he trusts.
Another friend known as Mouse has also disappeared, and his wife tells Easy that he’s wanted for murder. Easy fears that if he doesn’t find Mouse before the police do, they’ll kill him simply because they’re sick of dealing with him.
As Easy tries to deal with his ex-girlfriend’s engagement to another man, he also has to try to track down his friends before someone else does. Just about everywhere he goes, a body turns up—and sometimes even after he leaves. Then he meets a woman named Faith who seems to hold the key to more than one life.
It probably wasn’t a good idea for me to start this series with the tenth book. I couldn’t get as involved with the characters, and certain aspects of their lives confused me. Also, Blonde Faith probably isn’t the best introduction to Easy Rawlins, an African-American private investigator living in Los Angeles in 1967. Easy seems to be at his lowest emotionally, and that’ll bring you down a little as you’re reading. However, I give him points for doing what needed to be done, no matter how much he was hurting.
No breakneck thrills here, just a mystery that plods along, but it still has a charm that’s all its own—as long as you don’t mind a slow-paced mystery. Though I wasn’t crazy about Blonde Faith, neither was I totally disappointed; I believe Easy Rawlins is probably a better, and more interesting, character in previous books, but only a small bit of that came out in Blonde Faith. I still found it enjoyable enough that I’d like to try reading another Easy Rawlins mystery, just to see if maybe Mr. Mosley wasn’t at his strongest when he wrote this one.
