Known to Evil (A Leonid McGill Mystery) Review

"For My people are foolish,
They have not known Me. They are silly children,
And they have no understanding.
They are wise to do evil,
But to do good they have no knowledge."

--Jeremiah 4:22 (NKJV)

Known to Evil is the second mystery in the Leonid McGill series, featuring the former "anything goes" fixer and Private Investigator for "anyone who will pay." In The Long Fall, Walter Mosley lovingly developed a most unusual anti-hero, a deeply fallen man who is trying to redeem himself, but is constantly pulled back into the muck of his past.

With the character now well established, Known to Evil has a better pacing and doesn't try so hard to update Raymond Chandler. As a result, I thought Known to Evil worked quite well . . . floating forward like the surging rhythms and alternating solos of good jazz.

As the book opens, Leonid is still at odds with his wife and cannot resist the call to serve the city's most powerful political fixer, Alphonse Rinaldo. Leonid does decide to put some limits on the assignment, hoping to avoid a bloody body count that would leave his hands covered in gore. No sooner does he start the assignment, to check on a young woman, Tara Lear, than everything goes badly wrong. There are two corpses where Lear is supposed to be. Life quickly becomes even more complicated.

On the home front, Katrina, Leonid's wife, has a sudden need to discuss their marriage. In addition, his two "sons" disappear, putting one of them at risk for incarceration. A young woman he saved from a horrible life returns and needs a job. Will he hire her?

At the office, his lover has sent Leonid packing, and he's torn apart by seeing Aura Ullman with her new man.

Like a one-armed paper hanger, Leonid finds himself balancing all these problems (and a few more that develop along the way) while trying to save everyone he can . . . including himself. It's quite a challenge, and one that you'll enjoy following, I'm sure.

The writing is wonderful, especially for setting the scene and capturing emotion. Here's a gem from the book's opening: "Standing up in my chair and moving into the hallway, I felt as if I were displaced, another man, or maybe the same man in a similar but vastly different world: the working-poor lottery winner who suddenly one day realizes that riches have turned his blood into vinegar."

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