Cinnamon Kiss

With his daughter, Feather, at death's door suffering from a mysterious fever, Easy must accept a job from a man he despises, Robert E. Lee, arrogant, bigoted and "in certain circles, he's the most renowned private detective in the world." Easy is to work with Saul Lynx to find Philomena (Cinnamon) Cargill, servant of liberal lawyer, Axel Bowers, who Lee says has stolen a briefcase full of documents from his unnamed client and who is now out of the country. Although told to restrict his investigation to LA, Easy investigates Bowers house and finds a trunk full of Nazi memorabilia and the body of Axel Bowers.
Easy solves the case, and Feather recovers but Easy's heart can not resolve Bonnie's betrayal and he asks her to leave.

Easy Rawlins struggles to come up with the money to send his adopted daughter Feather to Switzerland for treatment of a deadly blood disorder, without losing everything he has worked for including a respectable job, a beautiful woman he loves, his home and possibly his life. Tough, brilliant and heart-breaking. (Reviewed in 2018) ( )

Interestingly, this book takes up where the previous one I had read left off. So, we're still in the 1960s, 1966 to be exact. The LA cops are still hideously racist, as seem to be most other white people in the story. I wonder if things have improved in the ensuing 40+ years? I read this book as an escape from the horrors of Native Son. It's actually an interesting yarn and includes hippies in this one. Hippies were just getting under way in those days, although I didn't actually know about them until a year or two later, when I was in grad school in Cambridge, MA.
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I don't usually follow detective series, and this is the first Easy Rawlins novel I've read, although it is apparently the 10th in the series. Easy Rawlins is a black private detective in LA in the 1960's. This is a book to read for its evocation of time and place. It's 1966, and the Watts riots have barely died down. The plot brings Easy up to San Francisco, so there are also some great portrayals of the Haight-Ashbury of the time.
Maybe it's, sadly, really not all that different now. I was particularly struck by this scene in which Easy and a companion are approached by two cops at a phone booth (no cell phones then):

"I couldn't help but think about the Cold War going on inside the borders of the United States. The police were on one side and Raymond and his breed were on the other.
"I came out of the phone booth with my hands in clear sight.
"My job was to make these cops feel that Raymond and I had a legitimate reason to be there at that phone booth on that street corner. Most Americans wouldn't understand why two well-dressed men would have to explain why they were standing on a public street."

Recommended ( )

Still good, but new characters are starting to get a bit more exaggerated. Not a flaw, but noticeable. ( )