What I'm Reading

Walter Mosley, “All I Did Was Shoot My Man,” featuring Leonid T. McGill.

Mosley is the creator of the award-winning, popular Easy Rawlins mystery series; this is his 4^th book starring L.T. McGill, a middle-aged black former PI to the mob. McGill is going, has gone, is mostly on the right side of the law these days, but circumstances have a way of blurring the boundaries for him on a regular basis. McGill is a complicated man with Buddhist leanings, anger management issues, family problems, and the need to make a good living. He also has a fierce conscience and his internal stories spiral through attempts to make restitution to those he has wronged in the past to his obligations to his wife and children and, finally, to his heart that never lies. Fascinating characters and fast-moving convoluted noir.

L.T. McGill is always on his way home to his wife and children – two of whom are not his ‘by blood,’ but his wife’s and her lovers’. One of those two is his heart-child, Twilliam (Twill).

  

McGill often gets sidetracked and arrives home after the grown children are all away and his wife is asleep or, as in this story, passed-out from too much cognac. L.T. is the rock of his family upon whom they all depend; but, he is often either emotionally and/or physically distant.

Along with sharp and complex characterization, there’s also much New York City atmosphere and pacing. And, humor.

Katrina, L.T.’s wife, is spiraling downward; but, so much is going on that no one seems able to stop and tend to her until L.T. finds her one night with her wrists slashed. While the family waits at the hospital -- which is where the book ends -- McGill laments to Twill that he should have seen it coming, he should have done something to avert the tragedy. And, then this lovely funny note from his favorite son,

“’You couldn’ta stopped this, Pops. Moms always been in charge’a her business. You know she cross the street when she wants to. F_ _ k the lights.’  I laughed for the first time that evening.”

And, so did I…

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I think my favorite of Walter Mosley’s books remains another recent offering, the stand-alone “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.” Stunning and, as suggested by the name of his hero, an ancient tale.