Mystery Review: Gone Fishin', apostrophe and all, is an oddity. Six books into the carefully chronological progression of the Easy Rawlins mystery series, Walter Mosley decided to write a prequel, a flashback. This is the origin story of Easy Rawlins and his best friend, stone cold killer Raymond "Mouse" Alexander at 19 years old. There's little mystery here. Mosley is setting a background for the rest of the Easy Rawlins novels while telling an uncommon and peculiar story of boys coming of age. "I've been counting my steps from that day to this one. From Louisiana to Texas; from childhood to being a man." Easy and Mouse form an abnormal bond over a trip to a Southern backwoods of voodoo, sex, and death. Some references in the previous five novels are explained, some of the details of Easy and Mouse's relationship are revealed. Although it can stand alone, I don't see this as interesting to many readers other than those following the series. Gone Fishin' is fine as far as it goes, interesting enough, but I had trouble hearing Easy's voice in this younger incarnation, eight years before the setting of the first book. I'm also unsure whether it was necessary; a little mystery can be a good thing.
Having read several novels by both Chester Himes and Walter Mosley, I've been tempted to compare them. It's easy to picture Himes as the forerunner of Mosley, but I don't think that's the case. Chester Himes (1909-84) had a successful series of eight novels featuring police detectives Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones from 1957 to 1969 (a ninth novel Plan B, popped up in 1993). Three were made into films. Originally written for the French noir market, Himes' stories, set in New York City, are much more plot and action oriented. We learn little about his detectives. They can disappear for large chunks of the books. Walter Mosley (b. 1952 -- still writing with a new novel arriving in 2021) puts Easy Rawlins in L.A. (and the South) and he's omnipresent in the novels, often battling the police and himself. The reader is constantly learning more about his thoughts, his history, his life, his place in society. Beyond being black mystery writers focusing on black characters, the two have little in common.
Perhaps not indispensable, but Gone Fishin' has enough substance to entertain. At the time Easy is illiterate: "I thought that if I could read I wouldn't have to hang around people ... to tell me stories. I could just read stories myself. And if I didn't like the stories I read then I could just change them." Mouse is the most conspicuous character in the Easy Rawlins series, dominating any page on which he appears. Here we get to see what he was before he became what he is. [3★]
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