KNOWN TO EVIL is the second novel in Walter Mosley’s new series featuring New York-based, black P.I. Leonid McGill. I you somehow missed the series debut, THE LONG FALL, you can easily get fully acquainted with McGill and his world with this follow-up. And if this latest work is any indication, McGill is somebody you will want to know.
He rarely receives calls about work at his home phone number, but that’s not the only reason why the call is notable: It’s from Alphonse Rinaldo, the ultimate fixer whose power and influence secretly controls every major decision in the entire city. Rinaldo wants McGill to locate a young woman and report her current whereabouts and general status directly to him. Rinaldo won’t tell McGill what his connection to the young woman is; McGill knows enough about Rinaldo not to ask.
McGill also knows that Rinaldo is not someone you say “no” to, so he takes the young woman’s last known address and immediately sets off, only to arrive at the scene of a double murder, where a woman and a man are found dead. The woman is not the one Rinaldo is concerned about, but that’s not much comfort to McGill. Instead, it a sure sign that his mysterious client is in great danger.
The police, well aware of McGill’s long history with the criminal underworld, immediately suspect him of the murders, so he immediately pulls together his various contacts and resources from all over the New York area to discover the murderer of the two victims and thereby the location — and perhaps a whole lot more — of the missing woman. He knows that time is running out, and the last thing he wants is to report to Rinaldo that she has been killed.
This second novel is more plot-driven than its predecessor. This, along with the first-person narration, gives it more of a traditional P.I.-story ambience. But it is by no means ordinary or predictable. Instead it is, among other things, a superb example of how the genre can apply to our contemporary world.
The distinguishing characteristics of the McGill series that Mosley introduced in THE LONG FALL are in full force here. McGill is constantly distracted from his case by the many problems and conflicts in his personal life. Major among these are his son, who has fallen for a Russian prostitute and is now on the run from the girl’s pimp. Then there is McGill’s wife, who previously left him for another man, only to return, and now desperately wants to reconnect with her husband. But McGill is still carrying a huge torch for his former lover and office landlord. And if all of this weren’t enough, there are still some lingering cases to which he must attend.
Chief among the characteristics — and, indeed, the overall enjoyment of reading the series — is McGill himself. His narration and interior meditations alternate between the memories of his upbringing by his Communist-inspired father and his current observations of his own family, his work and his city. Overriding this is his constant struggle to disassociate himself from his criminal past and lead a new life on the straight and narrow. Try as he might, he finds that he must rely on the skills and various associates of his dark past in order to succeed at his work and continue with his life.
Mosley has long since been recognized as one of the most popular and important American authors working today, both in and out of the crime-fiction genre. This new series — and especially this second title — is sure to appeal to every reader out there. —Alan Cranis
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE WAVE by Walter Mosley
Related posts:
- The Pardon / Beyond Suspicion / Last to Die / Hear No Evil
- The Garden of Evil
- Evil Ways
- An Air That Kills / Do Evil in Return
- You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!
