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
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
Critiques-
-
Starred review from November 13, 2017
Former NYPD detective Joe King Oliver, now the owner-operator of King Detective Service, investigates two cases of gross injustice in this excellent standalone from MWA Grand Master Mosley (Charcoal Joe and 13 other Easy Rawlins novels). Thirteen years earlier, Oliver was convicted on bogus assault charges, which ended his police career and his marriage. He spent nine months in jail before the charges were dropped and he was released without explanation. Oliver now learns that a crooked cop was behind the frame. Meanwhile, he is approached by Willa Portman, an intern for the lawyer representing Leonard Compton, a militant journalist who’s on death row for the murder of two policemen three years earlier. Portman says the killings were self-defense. Oliver, who faces a corrupt world with unflinching honesty and ruthlessness, enlists the aid of Melquarth Frost, a hardened career criminal, to even the odds in both cases. The novel’s dedication—to Malcolm, Medgar, and Martin—underlines the difference that one man can make in the fight for justice. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency. -
Think rich, dark, smooth red wine--each sip revealing different tones. That is Dion Graham's voice performing Mosley's P.I., Joe King Oliver. His voice projects the violence, fear, and frustration that Oliver, an honest cop, experienced 10 years ago, when he was thrown in jail on fabricated charges. Now as a P.I., he's given the opportunity to get to the truth behind that setup and to help free a black man accused of killing two corrupt police officers. For assistance, Oliver turns to a criminal he busted years ago, Melquarth Frost. Graham is skilled at delivering female voices. The dialogue between people of different races, levels of education, and types of work flows flawlessly, making for highly engaging listening. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
-
Starred review from May 28, 2018
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. -
May 1, 2018
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 Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
November 15, 2017
Mosley (Charcoal Joe, 2016, etc.) begins what looks to be a new series with a protagonist whose territory covers New York City's outer boroughs--and, 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 style--rough-hewn, rhythmic, and lyrical--that 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(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-
Starred review from November 15, 2017
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.) -
September 15, 2017
In this latest from Mystery Writers Grand Master Mosley, a stand-alone and possible series launch, top NYPD investigator Joe King Oliver is framed by bad guys on the force and ends up at Rikers. Now he runs his own agency with teenage daughter Aja-Denise. When a woman confesses that she was paid to sell him down the river, he becomes his own client, determined to find out who wanted him off the force and why. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
December 1, 2017
In Mosley's (Charcoal Joe) engaging stand-alone, Joe King Oliver, a once stellar detective for the NYPD, now runs his own agency in Brooklyn, confronting crooked cops, deceitful bankers, and cowardly lawyers. He diligently seeks justice both for his client, a black civil rights activist accused of killing two dirty policemen, and also for himself, as he struggles to understand why his fellow officers framed him for assaulting a crafty car thief. After serving ten years in solitary at Rikers Island, Oliver lives a quiet life with his daughter Aja-Denise, when a note from a woman the police used to frame him triggers his search to determine who on the force wanted to destroy him. Assisted by Melquarth Frost, a brilliant sociopath, Oliver stalks an underworld of crime and deceit, while shielding his daughter from the filth. VERDICT Mosley fans will welcome another imaginative page-turner from a mystery grand master. [See Prepub Alert, 8/28/17.]--Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
