Fear of the Dark

Walter Mosley
Little Brown and Company (2006)
ISBN 9780316734585
Reviewed by AJ Cooper for Reader Views (9/06)

Paris the book seller is faced with helping his cousin or not. In the end due to circumstances he could not control he does help find his cousin Ulysses with the help of his friend Fearless Jones. This all occurs in LA in the 1950’s.

Paris likes to think he just sits and sells books to the local neighborhood, but in reality with his security mirrors he attracts trouble at just about every turn of the doorknob. Paris is also quite the ladies man and attracts woman no matter the color. The turmoil that surrounds Paris at times is funny and almost unbelievable. He gets caught with a white woman by her white boyfriend in his store and the boyfriend is not happy. Paris is forced to run frantically half dressed from his house to avoid the beating he would take from the boyfriend. He gets help from friends and decides he has been gone from home long enough and returns to find the boyfriend dead in his entry way. I could hardly wait to see how Paris would get the man out of his house and what would happen next. Fearless Jones comes to the rescue in more ways than one. They get rid of the body after Paris has to sit for an extended period of time in his basement hiding with the body. In the end Paris is forced to look for his cousin when his Aunt turns up at his doorstep. A woman of course becomes involved.

I always expect a great read from Mosley and “Fear of the Dark” did not disappoint me. I enjoyed the intrigue and all of the sudden turns the characters took. I felt I had a glimpse of the 1950’s and how differently a black man thought. It was interesting that there was never a thought about reporting the murder to the police and that Paris and Fearless handled everything and worked on solving all of the disappearances that occurred throughout the book. How can the owner of a bookstore get into so much trouble. I laughed out loud all the way through the book and was sorry we it was over.

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