BOOK REVIEW: "The Long Fall (1st Leonid McGill Mystery)" by Walter Mosley

If there is one thing that Walter Mosley does well, it’s developing strong, flawed male characters that move the reader enough to give a damn about the outcome. From Easy Rawlins to Socrates Fortlow to the trigger-happy Mouse, each one occupies a space in the imagination that allows for the possibility that he just might exist. And that right there is the hook, that element of Mosley’s works that intrigues his audience and keeps it salivating. We either know someone who knows someone who used to tangle with an Easy-like figure, or we wish to the literary gods that our friends were that interesting. Or that resourceful. Or that true to life.


Leonid McGill is Mosley’s latest creation, a 50-something detective living in New York, whose past indiscretions have a way of reappearing whenever he commits to going straight. McGill used to handle his opponents in the ring, fighting well enough to command respect, but these days, all he seems to be doing is shadowboxing with his demons. He has a once-beautiful wife, Katrina, whom he doesn’t love or care much about, a woman with the cojones to birth two babies that share DNA with everyone but him. Her only reason for being around is a failed attempt to leave him for another man. His only reason for being around is to keep Twill, one of those other-man’s kids, from losing himself to his own demons. Theirs is an arrangement of, well, convenience, and the burden of that convenience leaves him emotionally twisting in the wind, all day, every day.


The McGill adventure starts off with the usual Mosley blast; a mysterious figure hires the detective to track down four guys who may or may not have been involved in a murder as teenagers. When the third one is found dead shortly after McGill contacts him, the private eye digs around to uproot the killer. What he finds en route to solving the case is classic Mosley: a litany of shady characters too outrageous to not be real; tainted cops only too happy to break their own laws; and double the violence found in a typical wild west flick.


The Long Fall has its shortcomings, primarily in that the main plotline lands kind of flat. The run-up itself is superb—action-packed and insanely suspenseful, and the subplots involve a pedophile taken down by a techno-savvy misanthrope and a mob-tied flunky searching for revenge. But the revelation at the end of who was pulling the strings of the four men’s deaths, and why they had to be manipulated, is a big disappointment; it’s way too far-fetched and beneath Mosley’s talent. Does that mean you should pass on this book? Not at all. Fall is still worth the time, and Leonid McGill is worthy of his boxing gloves.


--Dianha Simpson
imagineatrium.com

The Long Fall is released on March 24. Pre-order your copy today at your local independent bookstore.

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