Down the river unto the sea / Walter Mosley.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year: bestselling author Walter Mosley "is back with a whole new character to love...As gorgeous a novel as anything he's ever written" ( Washington Post ).



Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why.



On a quest for the justice he was denied, King agrees to help a radical black journalist accused of killing two on-duty police officers. Their cases intertwine across the years and expose a pattern of corruption and brutality wielded against the black men, women, and children whose lives the law destroyed. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King's client's and his own.



"A wild ride that delivers hard-boiled satisfaction while toying with our prejudices and preconceptions." --Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The first thing Mosley (Charcoal Joe) devotees will want to know is whether Joe King Leonard is getting a series of his own. That future seems currently unclear, but should King proliferate on the page, then Dion Graham must be conscripted to continue his glorious aural interpretation. A former cop, King now runs King Detective Service with office coordination provided by his smart, savvy, 17-year-old daughter. Nine months in prison for a crime he didn't commit means King has experienced plenty he'd rather forget. Although charges were mysteriously dropped, King's badge is forever gone, but he has other connections-both legal and not-to continue his crusade for justice. Two cases keep him up at night-finding out who really sent him to Rikers and exonerating a militant journalist on death row for killing two corrupt cops. Prostitutes, dealers, addicts, and "-vicious criminal" Melquarth Frost prove to be King's most reliable allies and informants. Graham's vocal range shows no limits, regardless of gender, race, age, occupation, or other attributes. His richly resonating narration, infinitely capable of effortless chameleonic adaptations, never disappoints. VERDICT Libraries should prepare for high demand. ["Mosley fans will welcome another imaginative page-turner from a mystery grand master": LJ 12/17 review of the Mulholland: Little, Brown hc.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Graham's low, whispery voice is a perfect match for the protagonist of Mosley's standalone about a former NYPD detective turned private eye whose police career unraveled after he served nine months in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Joe King Oliver lives in the shadows as he tries desperately to clear his own name while seeking justice for his client, a black journalist who been framed for supposedly killing two cops. Graham is totally convincing as the perpetually scared and often drunk Oliver, who, despite all his sordidness and depression, also manages to sound kind and caring, especially when interacting with his teen daughter. Graham gives her and each of the other secondary characters-Oliver's violent enemies, his loyal friends, and his ex-wife and love interest, among others-a subtly identifiable voice. Graham, like Mosley, is a master of depicting the complexity of the human spirit. Both author and actor work to enthrall listeners in Oliver's story. A Mulholland hardcover. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Since Mosley launched his Easy Rawlins series to universal acclaim with Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), he has published more than 50 books across multiple genres. Now he begins a new series, starring PI Joe King Oliver, and it rekindles some of the remarkable energy that drove the early Rawlins novels. Oliver was an NYPD detective until he was framed by parties unknown for sexual assault and wound up at Rikers, looking at serious time. His one remaining friend on the force gets Joe released and sets him up with a PI agency, where Joe has been toiling in desultory fashion for the last decade, supported at the agency by his teen daughter. Two new cases change everything. First, the woman Joe was accused of assaulting contacts him, admitting to taking part in the frame-up and prompting Joe to investigate his own case. Meanwhile, he takes on another case every bit as politically incendiary as his own: helping a radical African American journalist escape the electric chair. Mosley writes with great power here about themes that have permeated his work: institutional racism, political corruption, and the ways that both of these issues affect not only society at large but also the inner lives of individual men and women. And he has created a new hero in Joe Oliver with the depth and vulnerability to sustain what readers will hope becomes a new series. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With the Easy Rawlins series, though still strong, showing some signs of aging, it's the perfect moment for Mosley to unveil an exciting new hero and a series set in the present and confronting the issues that drive today's headlines.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Mosley (Charcoal Joe, 2016, etc.) begins what looks to be a new series with a protagonist whose territory covers New York City's outer boroughsand, yes, that means Staten Island, too.Joe King Oliver was an ace investigator with the NYPD until his roving eye helped him get framed for sexual assault. "Trouble ambushed me with my pants down and my nose open," as he explains to an acquaintance. He is kicked off the force and thrown into Riker's Island, where he faces the kind of demeaning and vicious attacks a jailed cop would expect from inmates until a stretch in solitary confinement and an abrupt release save his life. Eleven years later, King (as some of his friends call him) is making a living as a private eye based on Brooklyn's Montague Street when his mundane existence is jolted by two events: a letter from a woman admitting she was coerced into setting him up years before and a case involving a radical black activist who's been sentenced to death for killing two corrupt, abusive officers. King sees serendipity in the convergence of these two cases, believing that if he could exonerate the activist, it'd be a way of finally exorcising his rueful memories. His dual inquiries carry him from glittering Wall Street offices to seedy alleyways all over the city, and he encounters double-dealing lawyers, shady cops, drug addicts, hired killers, and prostitutes along the way. The only people King can count on are his loyal and precocious 17-year-old daughter, Aja-Denise, and an equally loyal but tightly wound career criminal named Melquarth "Mel" Frost, whose capacity for violence will remind Mosley devotees of Mouse, the homicidal thug who either helps or hinders Easy Rawlins in the author's first and best-known series. Indeed, so many aspects of this novel are reminiscent of other Mosley books that it tempts one to wonder whether he's stretching his resources a little thin. But ultimately it's Mosley's signature stylerough-hewn, rhythmic, and lyricalthat makes you ready and eager for whatever he's serving up.It's getting to be a bigger blues band on Mosley's stage, with Joe King Oliver now sitting in with Easy Rawlins and Leonid McGill. But as long as it sounds sweet and smoky, let the good times roll. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.