Bottom Line: Walter Mosely, the creator the masterful Easy Rawlins series, remains as poignant--and pointed--as ever.
Down the River Unto the Sea is a curious book.
On one hand it is a straightforward detective novel set in Mosely's familiar racially-tense world. It features a first person POV detective, Joe King Oliver, who narrates his examination of two serious, possibly connected cases: that of a convicted cop killer slated to die, and his own framing for an assault that derailed his career with the police force. It features a wide array of characters, a brooding and emotionally complex protagonist, and the near-constant pressure of time running out. It is a perfectly serviceable detective story, but one that is straight-down-the-middle in some respects.
There is an almost unrelenting sexuality throughout. It is often warped, sometimes violent, but also at times conflicted and multi-dimensional.
Yet on the other hand there are real touches of color, texture, emotion, complexity between the requisite plot-points. It's this other hand that makes the book interesting.
Just the Facts
I first read Mr. Mosely's famous Easy Rawlins books many years ago, and this is the first book of his I've read since. So it was disappointing to see familiar types of characters and scenarios from those old stories revisited here, in a different world, a different time, over a decade later. The "straight-forward detective story" structure was at times easy to see. For instance, while there are quite a number of characters sprinkled throughout the book, the implausibility of a couple of them reveals their "use" in the story. (King's retired grandmother, a minor character, is being courted by a billionaire? Hmm...)
Further, the third act of the story, while brave on the author's part, is "non-traditional" and does not resolve in a way that fully satisfied me. So from a plot and structure standpoint--that first hand I mentioned--Down the River Unto the Sea is good but not great, worthwhile but not exemplary.
But Wait, There's More
Lucky for us, there is also that second hand I mentioned. Between the clear-cut plot points and visible bones of story structure is a finer, more skilled application of subtlety and emotion.
Joe King Oliver is an angry man, and he has nearly succeeded in destroying his world a second time after his unknown enemies destroyed it initially. His world is an angry world of deceit and vindictiveness. Yet he's also a loving father, even as his daughter's looming adulthood creates a further vulnerability in what is ostensibly his greatest and strongest stabilizing influence. His story also includes nods to music and literature added here and there, like accents to a painting that bring the whole piece to life.
There is an almost unrelenting sexuality throughout the book. It is often warped, sometimes violent, but also at times conflicted and multi-dimensional. Sexuality is almost another character in the story; but instead of being portrayed through one bedroom one romp to another, it looms overhead, sometimes menacing, sometimes tantalizing.
Written long before the BLM movement or George Floyd's murder, King's world is nonetheless mired in racial injustice. This was so with Easy Rawlins, but things have an even finer edge now. As the years have drawn on, it's easy to imagine author's rage sharpened over the unrelenting years, and that passion is well-reflected between the lines.
This "second hand" is what elevates Down the River Unto the Sea to its real power. This is why it was a two-day read for me--I simply could not put it down. This is what made an otherwise average book into something powerful and memorable.
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