THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS by Ocean Vuong

Hai is a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American on the brink of suicide when an elderly Lithuanian immigrant, Grazina, talks him out of jumping from a bridge.  Ultimately, Hai saves her as well, by moving in with her and becoming her de facto caretaker.  Grazina is still having flashbacks of Russians and Nazis, and Hai plays along during these episodes to calm her down, calling himself Sgt. Pepper.  Hai still has a drug problem after rehab and has convinced his mother that he is in medical school.  In reality he is working a minimum wage job at HomeMarket, whose menu sounds a lot like the now almost defunct Boston Market.  The misfit employees of HomeMarket, including Hai’s cousin whose mother is incarcerated, become Hai’s family, along with Grazina.  The characters in this novel are well-developed, colorful and poignant, as all are struggling with an assortment of problems—mental, physical, financial, you name it.  However, the tone never descends into melancholy.  The writing is mostly good but is occasionally overdone and pretentious, and the pace is glacial.  The opening chapter in particular is purely descriptive of the setting, and we have to make it to Chapter 2 to get to the aborted suicide.  A road trip near the end has the potential to provide a spark but doesn’t really deliver. 

DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK by Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie, private investigator, is back, along with the author’s usual clever dialog.  His conversation partner here is Reggie, a cop who views Brodie as sort of a know-it-all father figure.  However, the book gets off to a rather slow start, except for the chapter about Simon Cate, the vicar.  His calling to the ministry is somewhat in doubt, and now he makes an effort not to disclose his atheism to his meager congregation.  Anyway, back to the crime-solving duo, Reggie and Jackson, who are each investigating an art theft, and their two heists may be related, as the housekeeper is the prime suspect in both cases.  Several other characters wander into the plot, which culminates in a murder mystery weekend at the estate from which one of the paintings was stolen.  A series of madcap misadventures, some caused by a blizzard, lands most of the characters at the castle as the audience for the mystery performance.  Yes, this is somewhat Agatha Christie-like and somewhat entertaining but totally outside the realm of believability, what with the dead nanny’s body in the pantry, bricks being thrown, and fireplace pokers being wielded as weapons.  Jackson has a reputation, with Reggie at least, for differentiating between what is legal and what is just, and he demonstrates that distinction quite clearly here.

EVERY MAN A KING by Walter Mosley

Ex-cop Joe Oliver is now a private investigator.  His very wealthy friend, Roger Ferris, who also happens to be Joe’s grandmother’s boyfriend, has asked Joe to look into the detainment of Alfred Xavier Quiller.  This job has two unpleasant aspects that give Joe the willies. First and foremost, Quiller is a white nationalist.  Secondly, he is currently locked in a private cell at Riker’s Island where Joe did a stint of solitary confinement.  Then another onerous task comes along.  Joe’s ex-wife’s husband, Coleman Tesserat, has been arrested, and Joe has to bail him out for the sake of his daughter.  Joe enlists a variety of friends to assist in both of these cases, calling in favors as necessary.  A third mystery involves Ferris’s interest in the Quiller case and his motivation for hiring Joe.  Mosley’s writing style is always enjoyable, but I find that I can barely keep up with all the characters, and the plot gets a little overly convoluted, especially since there are two cases, which may or may not be intertwined.

THE LAST DAYS OF PTOLEMY GREY by Walter Mosley

I hate to be the dissident in thinking this book is not great, but it moved along as slowly as its 91-year-old protagonist.  Ptolemy Grey’s apartment has become a cesspool, and he is too feeble to clean it up.  Plus, Reggie, a nephew (several times removed) who checks on him every few days and takes him to buy groceries, has been killed in a drive-by shooting.  Seventeen-year-old Robyn, who is not a blood relative, steps in and takes over Ptolemy’s care with aplomb.  Ptolemy has some unfinished business that he wants to address before he dies, not the least of which is avenging Reggie’s murder. However, his dementia is interfering with his ability to express himself, and his memory is fading fast.  If only there were a miracle cure.  Well, guess what?  There’s a doctor who can restore Ptolemy’s faculties temporarily, but the drug will ultimately hasten his death.  (This reminds me of the book Flowers for Algernon, but this one is not nearly as poignant.)  Ptolemy likens the doctor to Satan, but he has sold only his body, which he must donate for scientific research, not his soul.  The remainder of the novel is about Ptolemy’s newfound clarity and his mission to right a number of wrongs.  Ptolemy and Robyn develop a bond that evolves into a sort of May-December romance—platonic, thankfully.  Frankly, I found this aspect of the novel to be a little creepy, particularly when they become jealous of each other’s age-appropriate relationships.

FEAR OF THE DARK by Walter Mosley

This third novel in the Fearless Jones series features a new character—Ulysses S. Grant IV.  “Useless,” as he is commonly known and with good reason, is the cousin of our first-person narrator and used book store owner, Paris Minton.  Where Useless goes, trouble follows, and Paris won’t even let him in the door when he comes knocking.  Still, Paris is soon up to his ears in Useless’s dangerous doings and comes across multiple dead bodies in the process.  Paris’s good friend Fearless once again provides muscle and moral compass, while the book is otherwise littered with a vast cast of thieves, murderers, con men (and women), blackmailers, embezzlers, and kidnappers.  The plot is complicated but entertaining, and Mosley has a way with words.  He also reminds us that in the 1950s cops were white and Blacks were suspicious characters, even if they were just sitting on a park bench reading a book.

FEAR ITSELF by Walter Mosley

Paris Minton and Fearless Jones are back for the second installment in this series, which is named for Fearless, even though Paris is the main character and narrator.  Paris, small of stature, is a used bookstore owner in Watts, and Fearless is his best friend and occasional protector, who is not book-smart but can read people like a book.  Fearless gets Paris involved in a search for Fearless’s missing employer that mushrooms into a whole lot more, of course.  This novel has a lot of moving parts, both in terms of characters and venues.  The lightning pace is a plus, but I had trouble keeping up with who did what when to whom and why.  Everything comes together in the end, but by then I just wanted to make sure that Paris was still in one piece; Fearless is a cinch to come out OK.

FEARLESS JONES by Walter Mosley

I love mysteries, but this one just did not grab me.  It’s a bit convoluted, and the suspense level is running on empty.  Paris Minton is a Black man who owns and operates a used book store in the 1950s.  A beautiful woman comes rushing in, and she then steals his money, his car, and his dignity.  A big angry man comes looking for her, and the next thing you know Paris is trying to solve murders.  Oh, and someone burns down his bookstore.  All this chaos leads Paris to ante up the bond to spring his buddy, Fearless Jones, from jail. Fearless may be the brawn of this pair, but Paris is the brains.  Actually, Fearless’s primary advantage seems to be his good looks rather than his violent tendencies.  This book is the first in a series of three, but I am hoping to be more inspired by the other two, as the pace here is not as “blazing” as the dust jacket suggests.