The Long Fall-Walter Mosley

The Long Fall
Walter Mosley
Riverhead, Mar 2009, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594488580

Albany, New York private investigator Ambrose Thurman hires Manhattan based sleuth Leonid McGill to find four black men who were close friends to two decades ago. He gives Leonid their nicknames as that is all his client gave him. Leonid has turned over a new leaf about being morally correct when it comes to working cases to include no jobs for the mob and being straight with his wife Katrina to include no more affairs with Aura and raise his three children; two not sired by him.

He learns James “Big Jim” Wright is dead; Frankie “Jumper” Tork is in the Tombs awaiting sentencing for B&E; Theodore “Toolie” Nelson is doing 86 years; and Roger “B-Brain” Brown is a successful financier. He reports the information to Ambrose, but soon afterward Jumper and B-Brain are killed; Toolie is stabbed; followed by Ambrose whose real name is Norman Fell also being murdered. As NYPD Detective Kitteridge tries to nail him, Leonid works on finding who the client was as he feels he owes B-Brain for exposing him; he also works a case involving a mobster seeking an accountant hiding in Coney Island and his teenage son Twill planning to kill an abusive pedophile father.

This is an intriguing private investigative Noir starring a man who in his fifties has found scruples that makes his job that much more difficult. The prime investigation is action-packed as Leonid realizes he indirectly caused the murders and almost dies too; yet feels he must uncover the truth even flying in a prop to Albany to do so. The other two sleuthing subplots, some musings by the hero into his unprincipled past and his family drama are well handled and enable the audience to better understand Leonid’s motives. Although the king of the city seems over the Empire State Building, fans will enjoy this Walter Mosley’s fine opening Manhattan (and Albany) murder mystery.

Harriet Klausner