I'm not a black man. Walter Mosley is, so I assume he's writing from experience and knows what he's talking about. As such, it's nice to read crime drama/detective stories with well-round portraits of black men and women, men and women that the reader can believe in. Having said that, I didn't know what the hell was going on for half the time in Fear Itself. Now, part of that was intentional. Mosley held the old wool over my eyes for a while on purpose. On the other hand, there were times when the action and dialogue got somewhat muddied up, and I don't think that was intentional. This was not the strongest narrative story the author's ever composed, that's for sure. It does have its strong points though. The Southern California setting description is enjoyable for someone like myself who's spent some time there. The eccentrics that pop up are delightful distractions. Here's a point which I'm not sure falls under strong or weak point: the main character. The diminutive and mild-mannered Paris Minton, a bookshop owner, is no hero. In fact, at times he's a coward. However, when the chips are down, the man stands up. The anti-hero is all the rage in literature these days, but the Paris character doesn't feel like a bandwagoner. He seems like the genuine article underdog. He feels realistic. He doesn't always do the right thing. He wants to do the right thing, but he's generally more concerned for himself. I'm kind of disgusted by him at times. All that may have even lessened my overall enjoyment of the book, but by god, I respect Mosley for that!If you haven't figured it out by now, I like Walter Mosley. From what I've read, his books may not go down amongst the great literary works of our time. They should, however, be considered as valuable in their own right.
I picked this one up because I had so enjoyed The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, also by Mosley. Sadly, this was not nearly as good. While Ptolemy Grey was a haunting, character-driven novel, this is a noirish mystery set in Watts in the 1950s.The protagonist, Paris, and his best friend, Fearless Jones, must work together to unravel an increasingly convoluted mystery. At times the plot was confusing - it mostly involved a variety of characters who all offered money to find other characters, and it was hard to keep track of who was chasing whom. It's a shame, because Mosley is an excellent author, but I feel that his real strength is in characterisation. There were some moments that were brilliant here - I particularly enjoyed the ghastly Fine family, a rare black female millionaire with a control-freak streak and her crazy sister. Paris and Fearless make a fun team; one is a wussy bookshop owner who runs from danger, the other a World War II vet whose nickname is well-earned. The backdrop of 1950s LA is well-drawn, with the duo facing racism with a depressing regularity, and the characters are lively. Sadly, the plot was uninspiring, confusing, and dare I say dull at times. A real shame, because this novel had a lot of potential. Ah well.
What do You think about Fear Itself (2009)?
Having read several of Mosley's Easy Rawlin's mysteries, I wondered whether his other series, Fearless Jones mysteries, would be too similar. I actually enjoyed Fear Itself more than I did my last-read Easy Rawlins mystery (Black Betty). Mosley gives his main characters, Paris Minton (from whose point of view the story is told) and Fearless Jones, sufficiently different traits that you would never make the mistake that you were reading about Rawlins, even though the stories occur in a similar time period and in the same city (Los Angeles). I did notice one mention of a character from the Rawlins books, which was a nice touch. Good mystery story, as usual with Walter Mosley.
—Everton Patterson
I really enjoyed this book. Paris is a great narrator! I love that Mosley is all about showing that black men are intelligent, well-read, and conscientious. The Fearless/Minton duo worked in ways that the Mouse/Rawlins duo didn't. While there is still one that is smart and one that is the sheer power force there seemed to be an equalness I didn't see in the Rawlins series. Don Cheadle narrating also drove this for me. His voice was amazing and just fit right in with the narrative. I recommend checking this serious out. It's similar to Rawlins but seems a bit different. You can tell this is Mosley's preferred time period.
—Continualknowledge
I found the character of Fearless Jones less appealing than that of Easy Rawlins. It felt to me like Mr. Mosley was stretching the vehicle of story-through-street character with this personality. In fact, I thought the narrator of the story, a friend of Fearless's and polar opposite in character and personality (afraid of anything and everything, by his own admission), owner of a used book store, self-educated, widely read and highly intelligent - whereas Fearless is not very bright intellectually, but very intuitive... and also very ready to do physical harm if necessary... was more interesting and captivating. There was a compelling mystery, which eventually got solved in a suspenseful and gripping way, but I won't read another of Mosley's Fearless Jones books.
—Judith
