When the Thrill Is Gone

Leonid McGill #3

by Walter Mosley

The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for Leonid McGill. Lately, he is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his personal life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, has been diagnosed with cancer and is living on his couch; his wife has taken a new lover, and seems to be endangering the McGill family; and his girlfriend, Aura, is back in his life but intent on some serious conversations
So how can McGill say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she says, who escaped from poverty via a marriage to a rich art collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she tells McGill that she fears for her life, and that she needs his help to make sure she doesn’t meet the fate of her husband’s first two wives.
McGill knows better than to believe every word a potential client says, but this isn't a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that—if his family's misadventures don't kill him first—sorting out the truth in her story will propel him to confront some surprising, even shocking, truths.
As he did in his first two Leonid McGill mysteries, the bestselling The Long Fall and Known to Evil, Walter Mosley creates the vivid and engrossing world of a New York where motives are always suspect and nothing is as it seems.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, African American, New York, Mystery Thriller

359 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2011

About the author

Walter Mosley (b. 1952) is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins, as well as numerous other works, from literary fiction and science fiction to a young adult novel and political monographs. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the Nation, among other publications. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

In this 3rd book in the 'Leonid McGill' series, the New York private detective is hired by a beautiful woman who fears for her life. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

Leonid McGill is an African-American former boxer and criminal who - determined to mend his ways - is now a private investigator in New York City.

;

Leonid, whose communist father named him for Russian official Leonid Brezhnev, is 55-years-old and self-conscious about his height of 5' 6" - which contributes to McGill's tendency to engage in fisticuffs at the drop of a hat. Thus Leonid has a reputation as a tough guy, which makes him a target of both thugs and law enforcement.

As the story opens McGill gets a visit from a potential client who introduces herself as Chrystal Chambers-Tyler.



Chrystal is an artist married to Cyril Tyler, a reclusive billionaire whose first two wives died under suspicious circumstances. Chrystal confides that she's concerned about her safety, because chubby Cyril has been losing weight, and she fears he's having an affair and planning to get rid of her. So Chrystal pays Leonid a hefty fee to check Cyril out.

Leonid manages to wrangle a visit with Cyril, who insists he loves his wife. Moreover, Cyril is upset because Chrystal has left home and refuses to communicate with him.



Cyril pays McGill to pass a message to Chrystal, which Cyril hopes will bring his wife home.

Armed with two big fees, McGill gets caught up in a complex investigation that reveals some people are not who they claim to be. Moreover, Leonid's case comes to involve two murders, five children being orphaned, and Leonid's life being put in jeopardy.

The story is much more complicated than this however, and we meet a slew of characters as McGill goes about his business. These include McGill's Scandinavian wife Katrina, who's having an affair with a much younger man;



Leonid's extramarital girlfriend Aura, who insists on a platonic affair while Leonid is married;

;

Leonid's children, Shelly, Twill, and Dimitri, all of whom have their own issues: Dimitri runs off with a woman in trouble and Twill is a con-artist following in Leonid's old criminal footsteps;

;

Leonid's best friend Gordo, who's staying in Leonid's home while dying of cancer;

;

crime boss Harris Vartan, who asks Leonid to find an old associate;



McGill's whipsmart secretary Mardi Bitterman, who was abused as a child;

;

and many more. Leonid also recalls pithy observations made by his father Tolstoy, which contribute to Leonid's own philosophical comments.

In truth, there's too of much of this, and the plethora of people and subplots is confusing. Nevertheless, Leonid is a clever character and I enjoyed following his thought processes and peregrinations around New York City as he lives his life and does his work.

You can't go wrong with Walter Mosley's crime novels, which are always good examples of noir drama.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I'd read the first two Leonid McGill detective mysteries written by Mosley years back, before I began to write my opinions down on Goodreads. For some reason I never got around to continuing the series so I decided to try to catch up. From what I remember from the earlier books, the plots were a little unremarkable, as with many detective series. That might have been part of the reason why I wasn't in a rush to read this one.

But this series carries it's strength in depicting Leonid McGill and his highly-dysfunctional family life, with McGill having to juggle them as skillfully as navigating his dangerous cases as a PI in contemporary New York City. From his brilliant and charismatic son, Twill, who's just dropped out of high school and always finds his way into trouble, his loveless but devoted marriage to his cheating wife Katrina, his on-again, off-again relationship with his girlfriend Aura, and his shaky relationship with his dead Communist revolutionary father (whose teachings are a constant influence to Leonid), it's a wonder that our hero has any time in the day to actually do detective work.

And in this installment, Leonid is hired by a young steel painter who is scared of being murdered by the psychic superpowers of her billionaire husband, a man who lives in a ranch-style house on the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper.

One of the issues with Leonid is that he always seems to have every resource available to him to solve every problem that comes his way, so he never seems to be in much danger and he never has to work too hard to find clues. That might also be an issue with detective novels set in contemporary times when information is so easy to find. And why are the plots in so many detective series books so damned forgettable?! Is it laziness and dependency on a cool character to carry you through? But anyway, the book is still an enjoyable read and the series is worth a look. And this installment might be the best in the series so far. And I love the title, which is probably taken from one of my favorite songs, "The Thrill Is Gone" by B.B. King.

A sigh escaped my lips but no one heard, and so no one cared.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Mosley is a natural storyteller and a gifted writer. He doesn't produce pablum; his books require an effort to read -- concentration, understanding, and thinking on the part of the reader -- what I would call active reading.

This is true in the author's other works that I've read and I found it to be true in When the Thrill is Gone. Leonid McGill is a multifaceted character and his world is a complex place to live. He walks a tightrope between good and evil, not afraid of either, but not necessarily judging evil to be what mainstream society would view it to be.

I always learn a lot about people when I read a Walter Mosley book; the McGill series is no different.

[Amos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Mosley rarely disappoints and the third book of his Leonid McGill series keeps said sentiment on the side of truth.

4 Sterling Stars

[Jonathan K (Max Outlier) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.75

Having read several of the McGill stories, Mosley uses a formulaic approach which is both repetitive yet engaging due to his skill at storytelling. The formula I refer to is: 'private investigator with a motley crew and dysfunctional family life is hired by questionable affluent types to find missing relatives or colleagues', and so far, its the same with each story

We see the same characters: Katrina his cheating, alcohol abusing wife; his two sons, Twill and Dmitri and daughter, Shelly; Mardi his young assistant; Gordo, a long time friend and boxing coach; Aura, the woman he loves but can't be with; Hush, a former killer turned business man; Bug, a hacker colleague and Zephyra, another hacker Bug is in love with.

With this 'episode' we find McGill being hired by Chrystal Chambers, a woman claiming her billionaire husband Cyril is trying to murder her and has proof his previous wives had been murdered as well. What McGill learns is the woman who came to his office was actually Shawna, the lookalike sister. It turns out the money came from the sale of an expensive necklace Cyril had given Chrystal who fears for her life in another city.

As with all McGill stories the investigation spins out of control with every step the PI takes. Meanwhile Gordo's health took a turn for the worse and is being cared for at LT's home. Dmitri falls in love with a former prostitute and flees the country for Paris.

These stories are a good news/bad news platform, the bad news being the 'soap' element of his family and personal life. The good news being terrific momentum as the story heads to the finish line. In fact as the reader nears the last 20+ pages, it leaves him exhausted due to the machine gun-like plot twists.

I have another McGill book from the library, but I'll be honest saying I'm a bit hesitant due to the formula used in all the others. A fan of Mosley, this is a bit disappointing but as the saying goes, 'it is what it is'..Good detective stories are a dime a dozen and these are pretty typical

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last thing I need is another mystery writer whose series I want to read, but dang it, I've gone and done it again, found an author whose writing I thoroughly enjoy. When the Thrill is Gone was my first book by this author even though it is the third in his series about PI Leonid McGill. Now I have to go back and read the first two, and maybe other novels by Mosley.

Leonid is a hard-boiled detective, not always right with the law. Okay, almost never right with the law. And he used to be even worse – I've gotta find out those details. Anyway, a very rich woman comes to him because she thinks her husband is going to kill her; two former wives are now dead and he is behaving oddly. But...the woman's dress and demeanor don't quite seem right for her wealth. So what is really going on?

The book is heavy on the testosterone, lots of tough guys doing tough things, but the violence isn't overly gruesome. The characters are interesting and the plot has enough turns to keep me interested. The characters aren't black and white, but all shades of good and bad. McGill's relationship with his wife is especially interesting. For me, the book had just the right amount of description. In describing the characters, Mosley usually described their skin color, no two being alike. “Her color was that of maple syrup in a glass jar, but in shadow.” I loved that. All in all, a great read for the genre.

I was given an uncorrected proof of the book by the publisher, very much appreciated.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Mosley has created a private eye with a unique take on the world in Leonid McGill, son of Tolstoy McGill and brother to Nikita. Leonid's Father was a communist activist, a man for the worker, with a philosopher's tongue. When the Thrill is Gone opens with Leonid having been estranged from his father for many years. However, Leonid often refers to his father's adages to get him through life. And, like Dr. House, Leonid believes that everybody lies. "Almost everything you know or ever hear is a lie. Advertisements, politicians' promises, children's claims of accomplishments and innocence...your own memory."

This mystery opens when a woman named Chrystal Tyler walks into Leonid's office claiming that her husband Cyril is planning to kill her. She also believes he is having an affair because she can hear him talking to a woman on the phone late at night and he has lost a lot of weight lately. Leonid comes to find out that this woman, who claims to be Chrystal Tyler is really her sister Shawna. On top of that, Shawna is murdered soon after retaining Leonid's services, leaving five orphaned children. Leonid sets out to find Chrystal and to save her from possibly being murdered.

While he searches for Chrystal, he often philosophizes, utilizing pugilistic metaphors from his time in the ring and philosophical tidbits he picked up from his father. He worries about the lives he impacts. "I'd never been caught or convicted, not so much as indicted for the lives I'd shattered." As he searches for Chrystal, he finds out that Chrystal's husband has been married twice before and both of his wives have died mysteriously. Leonid has good reason to suspect Cyril Tyler of murder.

The story is quite complex with a huge array of characters and sub-plots. Leonid's personal life is not going too well either. His closest friend Gordo is dying of cancer in Leonid's apartment. Leonid's wife is having another affair, this time with a man half her age. His sons are giving him trouble. Dimitri is in Paris with the ex-girlfriend of a Russian gun runner. His other son, Twill, who is Leonid's favorite, is making a lot of money and not in an honest way. Leonid lets the reader know that his wife thinks she pulled a fast one on him as two of his three children are not his by blood, but are the children of other men. That doesn't matter much to Leonid who is wise to the scam. Dimitri is the only one of his children related to him by blood. He often wonders why he has remained married to his wife for so long. He has a way with the ladies and has a special one, Aura, who he loves. He has offered to divorce his wife and marry Aura but Aura is afraid that Leonid will die a violent death. In a previous book in this series, it was Aura who nursed Leonid back to health.

If you like your mysteries filled with quips, lots of sharp turns and rabbit trails, this is one for you. I especially liked Leonid's character and enjoyed looking at life from his perspective. I found the huge cast of characters somewhat confusing but focused primarily on the ones I thought were part of the big hunt. I think the book would have been better with fewer characters. Overall, however, this is a topnotch thriller worthy of the author.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered Walter Mosley when I read the Easy Rawlins series. I got into those books, so I looked forward to the new series featuring Leonid McGill, a PI in modern-day New York. While the McGill books are fun in their own way, the atmosphere of the McGill series pales in comparison to that of the Rawlins series. Even so, McGill is a worthy successor to Rawlins. The son of a confirmed communist who was raised hearing Marxist ideology, he is savvy enough to know that ideology isn't going to take him far in New York City. Yet, he also understands the truth of that ideology for a black man avoiding trouble in a white culture that sees only the color of his skin and misses his intellect.

When the Thrill Is Gone takes McGill into the highest reaches of the wealthy of New York society, both literally and figurately, and sends him a chase around the country as he tries to solve the mystery of the missing wife, the dead sister, and the problems of his own children. While crime solving carries the plot of the story along, what gives the book its heart is Leonid's relationships and the history he has with people he encounters along the way. In fact, even at the times when the plot goes off the track, the characters and their exchanges keep the book alive.

It lends depth to a character to have him involved with a family, especially if that family is somewhat troubled. Mosley uses that device to good effect in the Easy Rawlins series and does so in the McGill novels. In some ways Leonid McGill's family relationships are just as compelling as the crime story.

I enjoyed When the Thrill Is Gone, and I'll probably read more of Mosley's McGill books. It's not the greatest book I've read in a long time, but it definitely wasn't a waste of my time.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

In attempting to review this book, I found myself stumped. I decided a good place to start would be with drawing a graphic organizer of the characters and plot. Some ten minutes later I was looking at a jumbled mess. I didn't feel this book was a mess while reading it. Not at all. In fact, I was struck by the snappy, cynical dialogue and the modern day take on Sam Spade. But then I started to feel pulled in too many directions. The dialogue continued to be excellent, but there were simply too many characters, not enough character development, and too many side plots.

Leonid is a P.I. - a bad guy turned good (looking for redemption). He has a wife who is having an affair, a child who is in France helping an ex escape from some not so nice men, another child who is involved in some kind on money con. Meanwhile an old man is dying of cancer in his apartment, he's taken an ex con under his wing, an abused woman is his secretary, he has a platonic mistress, and actual mistress, and he has frequent run ins with misc. people he calls in favors from or who call in favors from him (a rogue nurse, driver, cop, hit man, organized crime boss - to name a few). And I haven't even gotten to the actual plot yet.

It's not a bad read, it's just all over the place. Maybe if this weren't the first book I was picking up in the series, I might have been more impressed, but somehow I doubt it.

When the end came, I found myself let down by the anticlimactic easy out of the mystery.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Mosley’s Leonid McGill books are different than the standard issue PI fare. They’re different than his own Easy Rawlins ones. They’re hardboiled but they’re also…I don’t know. There’s a lot going on. You go headfirst into this world but Mosley refuses to let you see it all. The way he reveals things and keeps you guessing. These books are so transgressive against the typical PI fare.

I think that’s because Leonid McGill isn’t really a private eye. I mean, I guess he is in a technical sense. But the plots of these books (and When the Thrill Is Gone is no different) is basically an excuse to let McGill be a Virgil-type to what goes on behind the scenes in Manhattan, both in the corporate world and the underworld.

But McGill is also a full-time penitent. He doesn’t live with the guilt of his past misdeeds, as much as he tries to correct them because he doesn’t know what else to do with his time on the earth. It makes for a most fascinating character. You know all of who he is now but you’re only going to get glimpses of the mob fixer he was then.

The plot is convoluted in the way all of these are. I can barely remember the plots of the first two, and I’m already forgetting this one, but I distinctly remember McGill maneuvering his way through New York City like he owns every inch of it. These books are unlike anything else in the genre. And I think we’re all the better for it.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was an award for the most distinct voice in Mystery, Mosley would win. His characters are complex, philosophical, and great observers of the human condition. Mosley's other distinction is world-building. Here and in his other novels, he creates an interlinked subculture of successful Black business people, entertainers, criminals, thugs, and scammers. His stories are all about the connections: when private detective Leonid McGill needs a hacker, he knows who to call. Same when he needs a limo, a safe house, an assassin, or any other obscure profession. Leonid and his friends (he seems to have hundreds of close friends who are happy to help him, even at the risk of their own lives) are all expert and successful at what they do, perhaps the only thing about a Mosley novel that seems a bit contrived. Surely some criminals go to prison and don't become wealthy.
The writing has the expected Mosley intensity, the story is complicated (and multiplexed: as is almost required now, there are parallel stories, major and minor, dual investigations McGill is working on that are not and never will be related,) and the finish has satisfying twists that the reader will not quite see coming.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third entry in the literate PI Leonid McGill series shows how this detective project is really hitting its stride. We can now quit lamenting how Easy Rawling is no more since Leonid McGill is proven a worthy successor. I've always admired how Mr. Mosely handles his back story, human relationships, and flawed protagonists. Leonid often recalls snatches of his father's Communist credos. Pay attention to them. Leonid also deals with his troubled offspring, especially Twill and Dimitri. When the Thrill Is Gone is a delight to read over a few days in May, especially since I'm a sucker for an inventive private eye novel.

[Karen Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins and Socrates Fortlow have enticed me, engaged, yes, thrilled me for years. But this Leonid McGill mystery presents a much less engaging protagonist, who flits about constantly, meeting, it seems, a new character on every page. I miss the well-limned characters of Mosley's earlier work and find myself not really, at the end, caring about any of these flimsy paper people. If, as Raymond Chandler once said, the best mysteries are those we would read even if the final chapter were missing, then this is surely the opposite--as I haven't cared enough about this book to even read the final 11 pages for over a week!

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm grateful to discover Mosley. Saw "Devil in a Blue Dress" but did not read the book. I just finished a Lawrence Block Matthew Scudder book, so this noir crime story fit my hand beautifully. And I'm delighted to have a whole bunch of books by Mosley still to read. Topnotch entertainment, with rich, troubled characters and a couple fistfuls of rage, dark city streets and danger in the corners. Edgy prose that carves the characters masterfully, with dialogue that puts the voices in the room so that their agitation is your anxiety. Excellent.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thrill is definitely not gone. This is Walter Mosley in top form. The intertwined stories are all interesting, but the psychology of the protagonist is the deepest and best of any detective I have read in years. I love these books.

[Lizzie Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘When the Thrill is Gone’ by Walter Mosley
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 28 April 2011. ISBN: 978-0-297-86547-6

This is the third in the series featuring Leonid McGill an ex-boxer turned PI. With the economic recession times are hard for everyone and Leonid is having trouble finding the rent, so the appearance of the beautiful Mrs Chrystal Tyler offering him a stack of money to protect her against her rich husband whose former two ex-wives are dead but not from natural causes is a case he cannot turn down. But he has a bad feeling about it – things don’t stack up, so he does some digging, with surprising results.

Leonid is fifty-one-years-old, with a chequered personal life. His wife Karen is playing around with younger man. His stepson Twill is leaning towards a life of crime, and his other son Dimitri is also giving cause for concern. And sadly his old friend Gordo, also an ex boxer is dying of cancer.

A request from the gangster Harris Vartan, a former colleague of his father’s has Leonid looking for his angle. Leonid suspects a hidden agenda but in memory of his father he hesitates to say no.

Whilst pursuing the interests of his moneyed client, which brings him into contact with his ex-girlfriend Aura, his missing persons case produces some surprising revelations.

Written in the first person, the narrative is peppered with the wisdom of Leonid’s father Tolstoy McGill. As the story progresses we learn that Leonid has a criminal related past which he is now doing his best to red-dress, or maybe atone is a better description, producing a feel-good factor book. If the character of Leonid McGill has a flaw it seems to be related to his height, we learn early on that he is of short statue, or in this pc world maybe I should say virtually challenged. In any confrontation, and there are many, he draws attention to his own lack of height but his incredible power and strength, once or twice would have been enough.

The story is rich in well-developed characters that leap off the page. The writing is marvellous, and I am amazed to learn that this writer has written thirty-five books and this is the first I have read – something to remedy. Highly recommended.
-----
Lizzie Hayes

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just great as usual. Walter Mosley is a treasure of a writer. I love Leonid McGill and I'm excited by the direction the series seems to be taking.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads Firstreads and I must say it was very exciting to get a book that is an uncorrected proof and not even out to the public yet. Thank you Firstreads! However I did not really enjoy this book. I can see that Walter Mosely is a great writer in the way he describes his characters but there were just too many of them. I found myself getting confused often throughout the book trying to remember who was who. There were too many characters and too many things all going on at once. The main storyline was interesting but hard to follow with everything else thrown in. I like to read a good mystery book and at the end feel like wow I totally didnt see that coming... This did not happen in this book. I was confused in the end, I still dont think I really know what happened completely. It seemed like he tried to wrap up the whole book really quickly at the end and that really didnt work for me.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a very slow start, there are a number of interesting stories woven together here. I especially liked hearing his father's voice offering advice from years earlier. Since he is now thought to be dead, it's comforting to know he is remembered now that Leonid McGill no longer hates him.

The boxing analogies got a little tiresome for me as did his constant descriptions of objects as colors. The use of building roofs was unusual, as were many of the characters, but I never got the feeling any characters, including our hero, were well developed. We keep hearing how scary Leonid or others appear, but I did not feel it.

One thing that bothered me were the very casual sexual relationships: almost to the point of hello, let's go to bed.

I guess I did not like it as well as I first thought, which is interesting, since I remember liking his Easy Rawlings series better. (Note: all those titles have a color in the title, like John D. Macdonald used to do.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walter Mosley is a wonderfully descriptive writer. This is a hardboiled detective story, with Leonid McGill as the main protagonist. I liked the various characters and their unconventional lifestyles. The main story was a bit complex with much of the mystery unraveled at the end. My problem was, like others have noted, too many characters. I really had a hard time keeping them straight. There were also at least 2-3 sub-plots involving his kids, another detective assignment, people at the gym, etc. I think if I was more intelligent I could have followed it all better, or perhaps I should have started with the beginning of the series. I did not do the latter in this case, since it was a first reads book.

Mr. Mosley is a prolific writer; I may check out some of his other novels.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been such a long time since I last read this series, so I was happily surprised to be able to pick up where I left off. It took me a little while to remember some of the characters, but Mosley draws such unique portraits that it's actually harder to forget them. Leonid McGill is such an interesting character than never fails to act on his questionable morals that always happen to make sense. He is the detective who is willing to make exceptions, takes chances and even break the law in the search for justice. His life was endangered too many times for me to recall in just this one book, but I guess that's part of the fun.

In this case, McGill is approached by a woman who claims that her husband is going to kill her. His first 2 wives both died under mysterious circumstances and now she believes that he is losing interest and hence will be next. Only thing is, once the investigation is started, this woman is not who she represents herself to be....Highly entertaining, fast-paced & intelligent. Reminiscent of the fast-talking noir detectives, I love this series.

[Billy Leva · Rating 2 out of 5]

This mystery/thriller/crime tale was my introduction to the world of PI Leonid McGill. Despite not having read the other entries in the series, I was immediately enthralled by Mosley's brand of style, prose and dialogue. Though the characters spoke and engaged in a gritty, real-world manner, keeping track of the massive number of them was a chore.
The sheer volume of characters led to undue confusion in what is already a very complicated whodunit. False identities, characters from the protagonist's past, and new characters alike combined to dilute the immediacy of the narrative and delay the outcome of the tale. The gravity of the story felt undermined by a laundry-list of characters with little to no purpose to the outcome of the tale.

Pros: engaging writing style, with vivid descriptions and witty dialogue.
Cons: a character list worthy of Tolstoy.

[Robert Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Leonid McGill has more problems and cases and isn't sure if he'll get out of them all unscathed. I found the ending and the resolutions deeply moving and surprising, but only because I'd read the previous two novels. Essential to read in order. Set in contemporary Manhattan Leonid has a beautiful woman calling on his Art Deco office claiming his husband is having an affair. Leonid thinks she needs him to find evidence in case he wants a divorce. "What I need is to not get murdered." He's also looking for a missing man, William William for NYC's secret fixit man. And then there's his wife, an affair, blackmail, his oldest son who's run off to Paris and his favourite son, Twill, who's latest scheme is on a hair's breadth of getting him arrested or killed. In Walter Mosley's excellent hands the plot is never confusing and the prose swift and clear.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leonid McGill is hard up for clients in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse. To add to his woes, his stepson Twill has dropped out of school, his wife has a new lover and his sometimes-mistress Aura is back in his life. He is hired by a beautiful woman with a shaky story and a wad of cash. Once again he must sort out the truth both for his client and his family. For only the third book in this series McGill already feels like one of those character who have been around a while. That's a good thing; Mosley has established the Manhattan gumshoe as another of his compelling detectives so well that I look forward to any of his future books.

[Anita Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love, love, love Walter Mosley. Such a master of words.

[Jenny]

Leonid McGill is a character in a book but continues to be one of the most human and engaging characters I've read. I tell myself I won't read the next one straight away, but I'm probably lying.

[Melvin Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3rd book was slower to me. It was interesting enough to keep going but probably the weakest book so far. I did enjoy the exciting ending though.

[Jim Leffert · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, the thrill is mostly gone from Mosley’s Leonid McGill New York-based noir series. Leonid is a PI and reformed bad guy who exudes attitude and ingenuity. He has a network of friends and helpers but ultimately he’s one guy against some powerful and wealthy opponents.

Leonid has a dysfunctional nuclear family—his wife is unfaithful, and he is unfaithful to her. One of his sons, a teenager, is a budding conduct-disordered criminal whom one of Leonid’s minions, Tiny “Bug” Bateman, tracks electronically so that Leonid can keep him in line. The other son has run off with a ne’er-do-well damsel of Eastern European extraction. (There’s a daughter also, although Leonid isn’t actually her father, and a close friend who is a well-to-do contract killer).

This book is a cut above the previous McGill volume, Known to Evil. To my mind, though, there’s a certain cardboard quality to many of the characters, with the notable exception of Gordo, the boxing gym owner/manager who is Leonid’s surrogate father. In this book, Gordo is gravely ill from cancer, and camped out in Leonid’s apartment. Another drawback of the book, from my perspective, is that New York City is portrayed in a stylized fashion that makes it more of a stage set for the story that Mosley is telling, rather than a flesh and blood place.

Oh, the plot…A woman visits Leonid and asks for help in protecting herself against her billionaire husband, whose first two wives died under mysterious circumstances. Then, it turns out that the woman isn’t who she says she is. The ensuing tale provides an opportunity for Leonid to bluster his way into places where he is not welcome and overcome powerful individuals, to exude a lot of attitude, to meet a beautiful woman, exercise ingenuity, rely on electronic equipment, fight with a killer, and show a certain amount of heart.

[Shuriu · Rating 3 out of 5]

That's when Chrystal reached across the table and touched my left wrist.
"Thank you."
Aura took in this intimacy. I noticed her and she saw this regard in my eyes. It was the way Escher probably saw the world: an endless reflection of awareness advancing and receding. (p. 262)

".... you have to remember that when it comes to love, men are less experienced than women -- much less. If a woman falls in love she knows just where she is. Her mind as well as her body comes into bloom. When a woman feels love it's like a great mind opening, like Karl Marx when he first understood capital. When men fall in love, we just turn stupid. A man in love is a man operating without the benefit of history. He thinks that today is different from every other day, that the woman he's lookin' at is different, fundamentally, from all other women.
Love will beat you down worse than any bull or truncheon. Love will rob you of your reflexes and everything you know. And because of all that, it will be the greatest challenge you ever meet." (p. 265)

Usually I like lying in wait. That's what detectives do, they sit and watch and wait. If you spend enough time in any one spot you begin to notice patterns. After mapping out the geometrical design of the activity of any room or street you start to see where the model breaks down. It is at this point that your job begins. (p. 324)

[Ronald Roseborough · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Winston Churchill spoke of, "a riddle wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in an enigma", he might well have been describing Walter Mosley's fictional detective, Leonid McGill. Everyone keeps secrets from him. Everyone tells him lies or half truths. His dad quoted him communist manifesto instead of reading him bedtime stories in the relatively few years he was around. He was last seen just before leaving his wife and young Leonid, to go fight in some South American revolution. Leonid knows his wife is seeing another man, but it seems to be improving her self image. Her attitude towards Leonid and her kids is getting better. At the office where McGill trys to run his detective business in a down economy, his clients are few and far between. So when a beautiful woman comes in telling him that she needs protection from her husband who may be out to kill her, he takes it with a grain of salt and a hand full of cash. His initial investigation reveals she is not who she said she was. Leonid, however, has to rethink everything when her body turns up colder than the cash she gave him. Riddles, puzzles, enigmas. You need to be open to all the clues if you want to stay on top of this one. Be prepared, the more Walter Mosley you read, the more you will want to read. This book provided for review by the well read folks at Shelf Awareness and Riverhead Books