Joe King Oliver's favor for his ailing grandmother takes the New York-based private detective to Los Angeles, where the search for a missing woman puts him in the crosshairs of retired and active gangsters in the gripping Hanging and Burning by Walter Mosley (Farewell, Amethystine; Down the River unto the Sea).
Oliver's grandmother asks him to help her friend Arman Babylon, who is being treated at the same cancer center as she is. Arman wants to reunite with his estranged granddaughter, Twyla Mann, before he dies. It doesn't take long for Oliver to discover that Arman isn't just an old man dying from cancer but also a former gangster with a violent past. The search for Twyla takes Oliver to the L.A. outpost of Manhattan's Carnelian Oyster Bar and Restaurant jazz club and to clues on both coasts. It also leads him to Arman's previous criminal colleagues, who unleash a maelstrom of perilous warnings when Oliver finds that Arman is linked to the 1989 disappearance of torch singer Dalia Shorts.
Mosley's fourth outing with Oliver maintains the intriguing tone, brisk plotting, and believable characters reminiscent of a 1940s PI narrative, yet with a contemporary approach. As the detective prowls jazz clubs and sifts through L.A.'s crime history, he eschews much technology. Instead, Oliver prefers a hands-on approach--following evidence, relying on face-to-face conversations, trusting the instincts he learned when he was a cop.
Easy Rawlins continues to be Mosley's most captivating creation, but Joe King Oliver maintains a strong, engrossing presence as evidenced in Hanging and Burning. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer