Review of the Day: Gray Dawn by Walter Mosley

Gray Dawn is Mosley’s 17th Easy Rawlins book. And while one can certainly read the book like any other detective story, Mosley has said that he uses the books to explore the history of Los Angeles as experienced by its Black citizens. For me, the mystery is not nearly as interesting as the wonderful phrases and sentences Mosley uses. Here are some examples:

Just a few blocks from the end of the fancy boulevard, on the north side of the street, stood one of the city’s tallest glass-and-steel skyscrapers. This edifice represented the crux of business in America: the mining of the sweat and blood, hopes and dreams, of people who have never and will never see the upper reaches of possibility that their squandered labors have wrought. (p.58).

“Answer him, Diggs,” Charcoal Joe said in a velvet tone. The kind of black velvet that lines the interior of a coffin (p. 172).

“We’re open. You’re just not comin’ in.” 

It took me a minute to absorb his words. Because no matter how long it is that I’ve been Black in America, it always throws me off when I confront Top Hat’s kind of prejudice. This ridiculous red-faced man had decided or been instructed to keep certain people out of the establishment based on the color of their skin. This was more absurd than Red Face’s suit. At that time Gardena had a Japanese mayor, and this man was still saying that I couldn’t walk in through a casino door (p. 194).

The doors slid open, and I entered a world where oil and vinegar just had to be the best of friends. That much was apparent in the people who occupied the lobby (p. 213).

“And does he have anywhere near the acumen of the ways of the world that you do?” 

“He has an army.” 

“Beehive got a queen. But step on her and her army don’t mean a thing” (p. 308).

kindle and LibroFM audiobook. 328 pgs. 27 February 2026.