Books
TWELVE STEPS TOWARD POLITICAL REVELATION (available April 26, 2011)
In his late teens and early twenties, Walter Mosley was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Drawing from this intimate knowledge of addiction and recovery, Mosley explores the deviances of contemporary America and describes a society in thrall to its own consumption. Although Americans live in the richest country on earth, many citizens exist on the brink of poverty, and from that profound economic inequality stems self-destructive behavior.
In Twelve Steps to Political Revelation, Mosley outlines a guide to recovery from oppression. First we must identify the problems that surround us. Next we must actively work together to create a just, more holistic society. And finally, power must be returned to the embrace of the people.
Challenging and original, Recovery confronts both self-understanding and how we define ourselves in relation to others.
WHEN THE THRILL IS GONE (available March 8, 2011)
Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley’s latest New York Times- bestselling series.
The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as “a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe” (The Boston Globe) and “the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins” (Toronto Globe and Mail). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he’s worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid’s couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid’s girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations…
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She’s an artist, she tells him, who’s escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid’s help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn’t a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family’s misadventures don’t kill him first-sorting out the woman’s crooked tale will bring him straight to death’s door.
Early Praise for WHEN THE THRILL IS GONE:
“Mosley fills his third thriller featuring New York City PI Leonid McGill (after Known to Evil) with insights even deeper than the mysteries McGill is trying to solve. Chrystal Tyler, a potential new client, tells McGill that she’s afraid her billionaire husband is having an affair and may kill her. While McGill realizes the woman is lying, he needs the case and agrees to see what he can do to make her husband back off. Meanwhile, McGill’s wife of 24 years, Katrina, is having an affair; his favorite son, Twill, has a new scam working; and longtime boxing mentor Gordo Tallman is living in his apartment, fighting cancer. Then Harris Vartan, a dangerous organized crime figure, asks a favor that will lead McGill on a journey of self-discovery. Readers will encounter the full panoply of complex Mosley characters, from deceitful women to ruthless killers, but it’s the often surprising bonds of love and family that lift this raw, unsentimental novel.”
- Publishers Weekly, starred review
THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY (on sale now)
At ninety-one years old, Ptolemy Grey is one of the world’s forgotten: by his family, by his friends, by even himself. Marooned in a cluttered Los Angeles apartment overflowing with mementos from his past, Ptolemy sinks deeper into lonely dementia and into a past that’s best left buried. He’s determined to pass the rest of his days with only his memories for company. Until, at his grandnephew’s funeral, he meets Robyn and experiences a seismic shift, in his head, his heart, and his life.
Seventeen and without a family of her own, Robyn is unlike anyone Ptolemy has ever known. She and Ptolemy form an unexpected bond that reinvigorates his world. Robyn will not tolerate the way he has allowed himself to live, skulking in and out of awareness barely long enough to cash his small pension checks, living in fear of his neighbors and the memories that threaten to swallow him. With Robyn’s help, Ptolemy moves from isolation back into the brightness of friendship and desire. But Robyn’s challenges also push Ptolemy to make a life-changing decision that will affect both of them: to recapture the clarity and vigor of his fading mind and unlock the secrets he has carried for decades.
Already an acclaimed and beloved literary voice, Walter Mosley charts new territory in the exploration of the complex tensions at the heart of race in America. A novel that explores the generosity of love, the influence of memory, and our human desire for connection, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a contemporary classic.
Early Praise for THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY:
“(Mosley) plays out an intriguing premise in his powerful latest: a man is given a second shot at life, but at the price of a hastened death. …Mosley’s depiction of the indignities of old age is heartbreaking, and Ptolemy’s grace and decency make for a wonderful character and a moving novel.”
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Mosley’s dramatic departure from his Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill crime novels appears to be a very personal one, a deeply thoughtful, provocative, and often beautiful meditation on aging, memory, family, loss, and love.”
- Booklist (starred review)
“Borrowing from Faust, the Iliad and Gran Torino, Mosley (Known to Evil, 2010, etc.) unforgettably transforms Ptolemy’s cacophony of memories into a powerful symphony that makes him “into many men from out of all the lives he had lived through the decades.”
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a beautiful meditation on love, frailty and old age. Filled with Walter Mosley’s signature humor and narrative mastery, it is as much a page turner as it is a heart tugger. It is a novel that stays with you long after you read the last word and immediately urges you to read it again.”
- Edwidge Danticat
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- NOW AVAILABLE -
KNOWN TO EVIL
Walter Mosley and his new hero, Leonid McGill, are back in the new New York Times-bestselling mystery series that’s already being hailed as a classic of contemporary noir.
Leonid McGill has been hired by New York City’s ultimate power broker, Alfonse Rinaldo, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can’t fix. What Rinaldo can’t handle on his own, Leonid doesn’t really want to know. But he’s a client you can’t say no to, and so McGill sets off to track down a ayoung woamn for reasons no one will explain to him. Everyone’s motives are murky in McGill’s world; that, he’s used to. What he’s not quite accustomed to is his own recent commitment to the straight and narrow, a path that still seems to lead him directly to the city’s crookedest corners and down its darkest alleys, where his most unsavory acquaintances become his most cherished allies. In Known to Evil, Mosley shows us New York City as we’ve never seen it before, emphatically confirming his own reputation and firmly establishing Leonid McGill as one of the mystery world’s most iconic, charismatic leading men.
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Known-Evil-Leonid-McGill-Mystery/dp/1594487529/
B&N:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Known-to-Evil/Walter-Mosley/e/9781594487521/
Borders:
http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1594487529
Indiebound:
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594487521
- COMPLETE WORKS -
The Easy Rawlins Mysteries
Blonde Faith - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Cinnamon Kiss - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Little Scarlet - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Six Easy Pieces - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Bad Boy Brawly Brown - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
A Little Yellow Dog - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Black Betty - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Gone Fishin’ - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
White Butterfly - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
A Red Death - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Devil in a Blue Dress - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Other Fiction
The Tempest Tales - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Diablerie - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Killing Johnny Fry - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
The Man in My Basement - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Fear of the Dark - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Fortunate Son - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
The Wave - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Fear Itself - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Futureland - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Fearless Jones - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Walkin’ the Dog - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Blue Light - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
RL’s Dream - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
47 - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
The Right Mistake - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Nonfiction
This Year You Write Your Novel - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Life Out of Context - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
Workin’ on the Chain Gang - Buy at: Amazon | B&N | Your local bookstore
