It was Feather’s grandfather, who had killed his own daughter for bearing a black child.” I’d caught the murderer of Feather’s white mother. I took Jesus out of a life of child prostitution before he was three.

I seemed to collect children in my line of work doing ‘favors‘ for people. Even though we didn’t share common blood I loved them so much that it hurt sometimes. I could have spent a whole life watching my children grow. “It was a rhythm more satisfying than good music. Easy finds the twisted heartache and the racial reckonings behind Black Betty’s disappearance. Black Betty’s disappearance had the ripple effect of a few other people who were close to Black Betty also going missing. That is when the sleazy Saul Lynx, the white private detective that Easy Rawlins always avoids, asks Easy to locate the missing housekeeper, known as “Black Betty,” for the politically influential and wealthy Beverly Hills family the Cains. Easy is anxious about the Russian nuclear bombs being tested and anxious about money, or the lack of it, to support his young children. Easy Rawlins does not share the country’s enthusiasm. It is 1961 and the country has a young Irish president, John Kennedy. David Steinberger, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation, announced their choice of Mosley for the award in early September, stating: “Mosley is a master of craft and and narrative, and through his incredibly vibrant and diverse body of work, our literary heritage has truly been enriched.” Readers appreciate the clarity and the enlightenment that Mosley’s books bring. Henry Award, The Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a member of the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, a Grammy, several NAACP Image Awards and the Pen America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Walter Mosley, a Los Angeles native born in 1952, who now resides in New York and Los Angeles (Mosley and I shared the same high school, Alexander Hamilton High School, a school that often appears in the Easy Rawlins series) has also been the recipient of the O. Mosley has written 60 books of nonfiction, fiction, mystery fiction, and science fiction. Walter Mosley will be the first African American writer to receive the prestigious 2020 Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

47 by Walter Mosley