lives in semi-retirement in a posh gated enclave in the hills, courtesy of a very grateful, very wealthy white client. Out of boredom, he shows up for work at his detective agency one day and takes the case of a scruffy-looking Black man looking for his aunt, Lutisha James, who disappeared recently. As Rawlins investigates, James’s trail leads to the estate of a wealthy white widow, where the missing woman had gone to work as a domestic. Rawlins doesn’t find James at the estate, but he does find the bodies of three other residents of the home, killed in an apparent home invasion gone bad.

The mystery surrounding those murders is good, although the author waits until two-thirds of the way through Gray Dawn before Rawlins resumes his search for the missing James in earnest. Before that, he’s involved in several unrelated subplots, including his efforts to train his secretary to become a private investigator. Rawlins also has to help his son, a fishing boat captain, who gets involved with some crooked federal agents in a drug-smuggling scheme. Normally, I don’t approve of authors trying to pad what should be a shorter work to novel length by the addition of unrelated storylines. However, Gray Dawn isn’t just a story of a private investigator trying to solve three gruesome murders while searching for a witness who has understandably gone to ground. Other authors could have placed a white investigator in the same situation as Rawlins and eventually entertainingly solved the case.

Instead, Gray Dawn is the story of a streetwise Black man trying to make his way through a post-Watts-riots Los Angeles and do his job without getting killed or thrown in jail for years. That task is far easier said than done, since Rawlins encounters cops at crime scenes who assume his guilt simply because of his race. Each time, he first thinks about what he must do to avoid personal disaster. Similarly, he has a humiliating encounter with a security guard in the lobby of a swanky office building. His task is to figure out how to gain access to an upper-floor office in a building where he “doesn’t belong” for an interview with a vital witness. As the author points out, a white investigator wouldn’t have the problems Rawlins does. However, the author makes his sociological points not in a strident, political manner, but in the same low-key way Rawlins faces them. The murder mystery’s eventual solution involves matters of class distinction as well as the racial issues Rawlins faces. Again, the author brings the issues to the attention of readers without becoming overbearing.

Gray Dawn is the first Rawlins novel I’ve read, and I was at a bit of a disadvantage here because the author includes many characters from previous books in significant roles. Although I occasionally got confused about who some characters were, I could follow the storyline fairly easily. My task was somewhat simpler in this regard because these characters were integral parts of the various subplots and storylines at play here. The author didn’t add these storylines for padding; instead, they formed an integral part of his examination of Black street life of the era. Those storylines were, if anything, more interesting and entertaining than the central murder mystery.

Of course, I would never spoil the solution to the central murder mystery. However, Rawlins and readers eventually learn that the mystery of Lutisha James’s identity and whereabouts depends on two huge coincidences that I could never quite believe, even in the relaxed reality of mystery story plotting. Those revelations move the last few chapters of Gray Dawn in an unexpected and unsatisfying direction. The information Rawlins learns will affect future novels in the series, but this book would have worked just as well without the surprises.

Readers like me who have never read an Easy Rawlins novel before may prefer starting with one of the author’s earlier books. However, Gray Dawn works well on its own and provides a fascinating picture of race relations in Los Angeles in the 1970s without turning into a lecture. The book is an excellent mystery featuring an exciting shootout towards the end and several other entertaining set pieces. Walter Mosley has taken Easy Rawlins through three decades of Los Angeles history without missing a beat. Readers will enjoy being along for the ride in this story as well.

 NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.