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Watts 1956 and trouble comes knocking at Paris Minton's door in the shape of Tiny Bobchek, his lover's boyfriend, who ends up dead on the floor of his bookshop shot through the head. He manages to cope with that incident and deal with the body with the help of his friend Fearless and legendary killer and storyteller Van Cleave. His second problem is his cousin Ulysses 'Useless' S Grant IV who is in dire need of help from Minton when he finds himself involved up in a plot that has got totally out of hand. Even though he keeps to his promise and does not allow Useless to cross his threshold Minton realizes that sooner or later he will inevitably become involved with whatever Useless has done especially when he realises that Useless (who is the apple of his Aunt Three Hearts' eye) has graduated from theft to large-scale blackmail. Minton soon finds himself embroiled in murder, a blackmail scheme and trying to keep Useless's mama from cursing him with her evil eye, which has felled many a man who has displeased her. With the help of Fearless and some other eccentric and weird cronies Paris is determined to unravel the potentially lethal but definitely dangerous mess that his cousin has got himself into. FEAR OF THE DARK is the exciting and violent third book in the series to feature bookseller Paris Minton and Fearless Jones. While FEAR OF THE DARK involves both Minton and Jones, it is in fact predominately about Minton and dealing with the issues that bind families and friends. Mosley has always been able to capture the essence, time and place of whatever era that he is writing about and in FEAR OF THE DARK he has continued with this. The novel is graceful in the way it has been written in terms of narrative, discourse and portrayal. The reader is slowly absorbed in to the lives of both Fearless and Minton. One of the things that stands out in FEAR OF THE DARK is how good a storyteller Mosley is. This is much more than just a good crime novel. There is social and racial commentary, history and psychology all interwoven and embedded into the novel. However, because FEAR OF THE DARK is so well written the reader is not hit over the head with it. With FEAR OF THE DARK Walter Mosley's stature has just grown a bit more.
Reviewed by Ayo Onatade, August 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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