Trouble Is What I Do
Leonid McGill 6
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From innovative bestselling novelist Walter Mosley comes the return of the beloved Leonid McGill detective series featuring a morally ambiguous P.I. who solves crimes and whose victims are society's most downtrodden.
Leonid McGill's spent a lifetime building up his reputation in the New York investigative scene. His seemingly infallible instinct and inside knowledge of the crime world make him the ideal man to help when Phillip Worry comes knocking.
Phillip "Catfish" Worry is a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman who needs Leonid's help with a simple task: deliver a letter revealing the black lineage of a wealthy heiress and her corrupt father. Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to do a simple favor while shocking the prevailing elite is too much for Leonid to resist.
But when a famed and feared assassin puts a hit on Catfish, Leonid has no choice but to confront the ghost of his own felonious past. Working to protect his client, and his own family, Leonid must reach the heiress on the eve of her wedding before her powerful father kills those who hold their family's secret.
Joined by a team of young and tough aspiring investigators, Leonid must gain the trust of wary socialites, outsmart vengeful thugs, and, above all, serve the truth-- no matter the cost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In MWA Grand Master Mosley's easy-reading sixth Leonid McGill mystery (after 2015's And Sometimes I Wonder About You), the PI moseys around contemporary New York City from one repartee-filled scene to another. Black blues player Catfish Worry wants McGill to get a message to his granddaughter, who passes as white. Her prosperous father, Charles Sterman, who's Catfish's son, also passes, yet is a virulent racist. No less than the deadly Ernie Eckles (aka the Mississippi Assassin) sent him McGill's way. A bottle of legendarily aged moonshine is included as introduction and payment. Often undercover, McGill thinks, "And on those rare occasions I have been revealed, I was still the most dangerous man in the room." Not here, with his pal Hush ("ex-assassin extraordinaire") and Eckles in the mix: "The Mississippi Assassin could kill Sternman right then, and there wasn't a man in the room who could stop him with maybe the exception of Hush." If this were a spaghetti western, it would be all staring and no gunplay, to the dismay of action fans. Some readers may be disappointed that the violent pay-off at the end takes place way offstage.
Customer Reviews
Trouble
Author
American. Father was African American, mother was Jewish. Born and raised in California, now lives in NYC. Prolific writer of non-fiction, short fiction, screenplays, and novels in crime/mystery, YA, sci-fi, and literary fiction genres. Numerous prizes and awards including a Grammy for best album notes: I didn't know that was a thing. (It was a Richard Pryor album in case you were wondering.) He is best known for a series of mystery novels featuring black Los Angeles PI Easy Rawlins. This is the latest in a smaller series about "morally ambiguous" New York PI and ex-boxer Leonid McGill.
Plot
Leonid is approached by a nonagenarian Mississippi bluesman named Catfish Worry to deliver a letter to a young heiress on the eve of her wedding. The letter was written by her mother, a white woman of means who had a child by the redoubtable Mr Worry. The child, who passed as white, is the young heiress's father. He vehemently denies his own racial heritage to the point of being outspokenly racist himself. His goons try to silence Catfish. Stuff happens.
Characters
Leonid is the best developed character, and continues to evolve as the series progresses. This ex-boxer, now 59, clearly does not suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy because his insight and resourcefulness are undiminished. The supporting cast is deftly and colourfully portrayed, in Runyonesque fashion at times.
Narrative
Third person from the POV of the protagonist.
Prose
Up to Mr Mosley's usual standard. With echoes of Raymond Chandler, it is a cut above most contemporary crime fiction IMHO.
Bottom line
Highly recommended if you like this sort of thing, and even if you don't.
Note
The title paraphrases Sugar Ray Robinson: Boxing is what I do. Sugar Ray, reputed to the greatest boxer pound for pound who ever lived, died of Alzheimers at age 67 in 1989. After 202 professional fights, I'd venture that chronic traumatic encephalopathy was the more likely diagnosis, just one we didn't know about then. (Ray Charles "Sugar Ray" Leonard, 35 years younger than Robinson, was pretty good too, but only ever had 40 fights, which probably explains why he's still working as a motivational speaker. Just sayin'.)