Style/genre: Procedural, Female protagonist

If you like this, try…Michael Connelly, P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Patricia Cornwell, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton

Rating: 4 out of 5 fingerprints

“Eve stepped out of the shower and into the drying tube…”

This futuristic series (set in the middle of the 22nd century) centers around a bad-assed NYPD cop who nabs murderers as often as some women shop.*Eve Dallas is long, lean, belligerent–and an excellent detective.  She’s married to a handsome, sexy Irish billionaire named Roarke–he of the long flowing black hair and intense blue eyes.  It’s a fun series with futuristic inventions such as flying vehicles (finally!), Autochefs, and the like.   Eve has a finely tuned bullshit detector and is a master of the verbal ass-kicking.  In “Promises in Death”,  she hunts down a cop-killer.

Li Morris is an NYPSD mortician in love with Amaryllis Coltraine, a fellow cop who has turned up dead. Eve is assigned the case and has the unenviable task of breaking the news to Morris, who is  a good friend.  Eve always takes murder cases personally and this one hits her extra hard. The killer taunts her with a note and memorabilia from the murder, which only increases her determination.

Regular readers of the series will recognize certain features:

• Unbelievably spectacular sex occurs between Eve and Roarke
• Sass talk is exchanged by  Dallas and Peabody, Delia–a detective and Eve’s partner
• Roarke’s e-skills  cut through red tape and help Eve solve the case

A few regulars also put in appearances.  They include  Dr. Mira, a sensitive psychotherapist who often helps Eve profile suspects; Ian McNab, an EDD (Electronics Detection Division) detective and Peabody’s main squeeze; and Dan Webster, an Internal Affairs Division cop and a former lover of Eve’s.

If this is your first venture into the series, I’d definitely recommend reading it from the beginning, but starting here won’t ruin anything for you.  It’s a good book and there’s some good “gotcha!” moments near the end when Eve plays the killer like a violin during interrogation.

*Is woman = avid shopper a shopworn cliche? You bet–which is part of the fun of the series. Eve avoids makeup and trims her own hair and hates shopping, socializing and other “girly” activities.

Style/genre: Hard-boiled
If you like this try…Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Dashiell Hammett
Rating:4 out of 5 fingerprints

” ‘Easy Rawlins!’ ” someone called.  I turned to see Quinten Naylor twist the handle of my front gate…

Easy Rawlins, the WWII vet cum detective of Watts’ mean streets, is now married and a father in 1956 Los Angeles…and ready for the straight and narrow.   His wife Regina, his infant daughter  Edna and his adopted son, Jesus, now occupy his time.  Detective Quentin Naylor, however,  needs Easy’s help.  A serial killer is targeting African-American women from seedy neighborhoods.  Easy refuses but soon his best friend Mouse Alexander is the chief suspect.  Easy searches for the real killer among his former haunts .  Easy’s wife , who tries unsuccessfully to learn about Easy’s past, grows ever more distant. When a white woman is unexpectedly killed, the police investigation goes into overdrive.

The white woman, a stripper called “The White Butterfly”, is known to  the outside world  as a fresh-faced UCLA student whose father is an influential prosecutor.  Easy must peel away the layers of her false identity to find her connection to the other three women.  But time is running out–especially when a series of similar murders occurs in another city.

Can Easy keep his family together, keep Mouse out of jail, and find the real killer?

In this second outing in the Fearless Jones series, quiet African-American bookstore owner Paris Minton once again finds himself pulled into violent events beyond his control in 1950s Watts by his best friend, “Fearless” Jones. This time, Fearless needs assistance tracking down “The Watermelon Man”–his erstwhile employer and the husband of an attractive woman who requests Fearless’ help.

It’s not long before corpses start piling up and  Paris and Fearless must rely on their native street smarts to keep them out of trouble.  Along the way they become entangled with vintage Mosley characters like Milo Sweet, the bonds bailman who is always out for a quick buck and his beautiful and–well, inscrutable– Japanese-American assistant, Loretta Kakura.  There are also new characters like Winifred Fine, the wealthiest woman in Los Angeles and an eccentric; Charlotta, a sensuous young woman who is Paris’s neighbor for a time; and Brown, an ace chess player and possible suspect.

Mosley has a unique voice:

“Hampton was a nearly perfect specimen of manhood…His lips were generous and sculpted.  And his oiled hair was combed back in perfect waves in the way that Hindu Indians draw hair on their deities.”

Events careen out of control as  Paris finds a priceless relic that he is loathe to give up. The pair use their complementary talents (Paris is the brains, Fearless is the brawn) to find their quarry and stay out of danger.

Definitely recommended reading.

Fearless Jones (book cover)

Style/genre: Hard-boiled
If you like this try…Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker, Dashiell Hammett
Rating:4 out of 5 fingerprints

“My used-book store had been open for just about a month when the police showed up….”

Paris Minton is an African-American bookstore owner in 1950s Los Angeles who prefers reading his wares to using his fists. When the lovely Elana Love wiggles into his store one day, inquiring about a storefront preacher named Reverend Jones, things go sour quickly. After a blissful night with Ms. Love, Paris awakens at a motel missing his car, his wallet, and Elana.

Paris and his best friend “Fearless” Jones must sort out the mess while ducking various street thugs in Watts, not to mention the LAPD, who would just as soon kill or arrest a black man back then as look at him. The two men intervene on behalf of an old Jewish man under deadly assault and are welcomed as temporary guardians to his family. Along the way they enlist the help of Milo Sweet, the local bondsman.

Mosley’s prose is as lean and muscular as the pork in the sandwiches Paris loads up on in a coffee shop while cracking the case:

Just then the young woman leaned forward and crumpled backward, into my arms. As I stood there holding her steady, the fear fled my heart. At close quarters her scent was floral but it was also sharp, like the smell after lightning strikes.

Occasionally Mosley  reminds you how exquisitely well-read Paris is, such as when he describes Loretta Kakuro, Milo’s lovely assistant, as a “Japanese passe-partout.”

Fearless, Paris’s best friend, is a WWII vet and the opposite of Paris–quick to use his fists, devastating to women, possessed of a sixth grade education but with the ability to read the the mysteries of human heart like a dime store comic book. Much of the pleasure of reading the Fearless Jones series comes from the rock-solid friendship that endures despite their differences.

Taut and suspenseful, this book is recommended reading.