Black Betty

An Easy Rawlins Mystery

By: Walter Mosley

Narrated by: Michael Boatman

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Detective Easy Rawlins returns in a mystery set in 1961 Los Angeles as Easy accepts a job searching for a beautiful woman nicknamed Black Betty who works as a housekeeper in Beverly Hills.

Hear more of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries.

©2002 Walter Mosley (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Mosley's distinctive black investigator, Easy Rawlins, has moved from Watts to West L.A. with his two adopted children, but trouble still follows him. Hired to locate a sultry female acquaintance from his early days in Houston, Easy searches for her gambler brother and questions her Beverly Hills employer, unwittingly provoking racist police harassment. Meanwhile, friend Raymond ("Mouse") has been released from prison and vows revenge on the snitch who put him there. Mosley, as usual, describes a historically correct ethos in deft, literate prose." ( Library Journal)

A good listen!

I liked the few Easy Rawlins' audiobooks I have purchased including Black Betty especially after the defect in the audio was fixed.

Excellent Read

Boatman was incredible and the story was even better. Walter Mosley never disappoints. Highly recommended.

Easy Evolves!!!!

Black Betty in its own way is one of the best of the "Easy Rawlings" stories that I have read so far! Keeping its mix of late fifties and early sixties insight into the makeup of African American Culture "Black Betty" keeps you on the move and ends up surprising you in the end. I am starting to believe that there is only one sure thing with Easy Rawlins and that is that "Mouse" got to kill somebody!! Michael Boatman is again masterful in his presentation!

Black Betty

Great book. The author takes you on a journey and you connect the dots together.

Mosley does it again.

Ever wonder what it was like in post-war Los Angeles in the Black neighborhoods? Walter Mosley brings it to life in his Easy Rawlins series. Historical fiction, social commentary and hard-boiled detective fiction, these books invented a vivid new genre.

Loved it

This was a good read. I love this series,very interesting and action filled. I cant wait to read the rest of the series. Love,love love, this series.

NEVER a disappointment

Walter Mosley books are ALWAYS entertaining. The narrator sounds a lot like Denzel Washington (who played EZ in “Devil In A Blue Dress”).

persumej1

I love Walter Mosley, and Black Betty did not let me down. It was a great Easy Rawlins contuation. great book.

Too Much

There were far too many deaths for my liking- got a bit unrealistic to me

An Easy B For WM’s 4th Rawlins Tale

I read a bunch hate before reading this episode in the life of Ezekiel Rawlins, so I was prepared to be disappointed. It was not so. The one disappointment was Mouse’s cardboard role. WM usually better shows the balance between Raymond Alexander’s sociopathy and his value as Easy’s best and oldest friend. In this one, any positive comments by Easy about his friend seemed wooden; Mouse is just plain gray killer impatient for Easy to point him to his next victim. Perhaps this story holds more sadness than others but it is a well woven and entertaining mystery. The predominant hate in reviews arises from those who don’t want to hear the true story of the black persons’s plight in 1960’s LA (and America). That a “colored” man could be gunned down by a cop for breathing the same air back then is a terrible but true thing. To not want to know about it reminds me of an ostrich.
Editorial: That said, there are many reasons to be proud of the current state of affairs in America, regardless of the fake cause that BLM and its ilk makes their money on today. I’d love to read a WM story with Juice Rawlins as a second gen. P.I. bumping up against the false narrative and failed policies of the liberal “plantation owners” of the current era (a detective Candace Owens,) since All Lives Matter in the 21st C.