1964: Easy has given up the street life and has taken on a job as a supervising custodian at Sojourner Truth High School. But his newly found carefree lifestyle is threatened when two corpses are discovered at the school and the police think Easy is involved.

Reviews

Mosley's fifth outing with Easy Rawlins is no less enjoyable than its predecessors. Set in the early 1960s, this installment finds Easy working in a high school as head custodian for the Board of Education two years after giving up drinking and the "street life." When a corpse turns up on school grounds, Easy finds himself reluctantly caught up in the investigation‘between the rock and the hard place of the cops and the killers. Mosley writes in the grand tradition of the American hard-boiled private investigator. His dialog is sharp and his characters vivid‘the reader can almost feel the mean L.A. streets. Brimming with sex, deceit, and smoking guns, A Little Yellow Dog is a brawny, gritty, page-turning mystery that's a hell of a fun ride. [BOMC Selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/95.]‘Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"

Easy Rawlins's affair with a schoolteacher embroils him in murder. (July)

YA‘Easy Rawlins makes another appearance in this fast-moving mystery set in the African American community of Los Angeles in the 1960s. Although the story is filled with murder, drugs, and intrigue, it is an upbeat one that will appeal to urban YAs. Easy Rawlins is a likable fellow who works as a supervisory janitor in Sojourner Truth Junior High School and struggles to provide a loving and supportive home to two youngsters he rescued from the streets. Roman Gasteau is found murdered on the school grounds; his twin brother is discovered dead; and his wife, Idabell Turner, a teacher, is also slain. Idabell's little yellow dog somehow seems to be at the core of this string of murders. Easy has served his time on the streets of L.A., creating an underground world of friends and contacts in the process. The mutual respect and love between him and the many unique characters, coupled with Easy's smooth integration into the African American underworld, help him quickly solve the three related murders. The pace is fast; the characters many; the setting and language rich and authentic; the ending satisfying. Mosely has created another winner.‘Dottie Kraft, formerly at Farifax County Public Schools, VA