| Three black party girls have been tortured and murdered, but no one seems to care until a white girl is also murdered. Then the police ask Easy Rawlins for help. They feel he would be more likely to get cooperation in the ghetto than they would.
Easy refuses at first, but changes his mind when they threaten to start arresting people if he doesn't help. He discovers that one of the black women was last seen with a crazy black man from Oakland, and he thinks that he has his man. With his sidekick, Mouse he pursues the killer, but then he begins to suspect that the white girl may not have been killed by the same man. He discovers that despite the fact that she came from a 'good' family, she was living like a tramp and also that she was pregnant. Although the police are not interested, Rawlins continues to pursue the matter to find out what really happened to the girl. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - Dry-cynical How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given Time/era of story: What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 40% Special suspect? - relative Murder of certain profession? Misc. Murder Plotlets - character killed during/after sexing - "All in the family" murder - Killer purposely leaves clues Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Any non-mystery subplot? descript. of violence and chases - 30 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: The antagonists are: - government bureaucracy How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor Intelligence - Average intelligence Setting United States Yes The US: - California Misc setting - prison Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture Explicit sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - descript. of breasts - rape (yeech!) Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript |
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