Down the River unto the Sea

I certainly enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good detective type of novel.  However, this is not a typical approach to that type of story.  Here a disgraced police officer, who was framed, jailed and lost everything, fights to survive in the real world once he is released and back on the street.  working now as a Private Investigator, we follow him on a couple of cases, one of which reflects on his own case and who framed him.  

The author teases out little bits of history and background as the story develops, building a nice web of intrigue.  The book is easy to read and follow and was enjoyable.  I think a couple of the situations and chapters could have been expanded and developed further but in the end our hero comes through and saves the day and the life of Man.

As always with Walter Mosely, I appreciate and value the insight into Black American life. Especially with this new detective working in the 21st century. His writing deftly informs my understanding of white privilege. And thank you for that.

There's a lot of series potential here. Like others I felt there was something awkward. Perhaps this was early work brushed off and updated? Doesn't matter much to me. I'll read anything he writes.

Down the River unto the Sea introduces a new character in the pantheon of Walter Mosley heroes. Ten years past, Joe King Oliver (his father loved, just loved jazz) was a cop. Then he was framed, thrown into prison and almost killed there and then he was released, under a deal that made the charges against him disappear but left him without his natural resting place, the police force. The stay in Rikers, coupled with the breakup of his marriage, left him broken. Now he's a private investigator. His teenage daughter helps out in the office whenever she can: she refused to join her mother in condemning Joe. But where once he was sure of himself, now he's not, and where once, he wasn't ashamed to show himself in public, now he avoids the limelight, shadowing adulterers and snapping photos to help in divorce cases. He's hardly the old Joe. Then two things happen. A woman comes to him: she wants him to dig into the background behind an infamous, still hot murder case. A radical black journalist has been arrested and put on trial for the murder of two on-duty police officers. He faces the death sentence for sure -the city doesn't approve of cop killers. She alleges he didn't do it, or if he did, it was self-defense. The cops were corrupt and they were killing off the small band of followers who flocked around the journalist. At the same time, Joe gets a letter from the woman whose testimony against him ten years ago had sent him to prison: she admits she framed him. But there's no indication who ordered the frame or why. Joe takes on the paying case and uses it to investigate his own case at the same time. He has to tread carefully. Whoever set him up has clout and the cops who brought down the journalist have a lot of police brothers who would be all too happy to make life miserable for Joe. There's a fair amount of violence in what happens after that --threats against Joe's family, present and ex, and a near successful attack on Joe himself. His only ally is a homicidally insane career criminal -there's an echo here of Mouse in the Easy Rawlins stories-who for complicated reasons, feels he owes Joe undivided allegiance.

Mosley isn't successful in tying all of the story together or making all parts of it equally credible but he's a solid storyteller who writes out of a justifiable bank of anger at the way people with black skins are treated in this country. The ending, not uncommonly for a Mosley crime novel, is morally ambiguous. I greatly admired the early Easy Rawlins stories, but have felt less enamored of some of Mosley's more recent work. I'm delighted to see him back on track with this book and I hope to see Joe Oliver in a book again soon.

New York Detective First Class Joe Oliver was a good and fair cop who played by the book. A family man who loved his wife and his daughter, Aja-Denise. However, Joe had one weakness that he could never shake; the opposite sex. His infidelity caused the downfall of his career as detective and landed him in Rikers. After being released from a place which broke his spirit he begins to heal. He opens a private detective agency and his daughter is helping him run it. However, when he gets involve with two new cases, the fair and good cop who once played by the rules has a new set of rules.

I enjoyed the relationship between Joe and his daughter. She helped pull him out of some dark moments when he thought about the injustice and brutality he suffered while in prison. She brought him pure happiness and helped in his healing.

Although the two plots in the story were strong, I felt they were competing against each other to see who will win at capturing my attention. There were too many characters to try and keep up with. I found myself having to go back and read a section again to understand the reason behind that character.

The recipe for a great mystery was included with the police corruption, unsavory characters and graphic violence. Even with all these components, there was a lull in the story that was hard to overcome.

Thank you Netgalley and Mulholland Books for the arc for my honest review.

As usual Mosley does not disappoint. He tells a really good story that moves along at a page-turning clip. My only complaint is that he sometimes plays a bit fast and loose with his characters. By that I mean it is not always clear who some of the minor characters are and what their function is in the story. Excellent character development between the protagonist and his daughter. This is a new series and I can't wait for the next one to come out!!!

Definitely not my favorite Mosley novel, but worth the payoff if you stick to it. A little Serpico with a definite edge, and written in Mosely's inimitable style, there's a lot to like here but takes a tad too long in getting jump started.

From the publisher: Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD’s finest investigators until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he was framed for assault by his enemies within the force, a charge that landed him at Rikers. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Broken by the brutality he suffered and committed in equal measure behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When King receives a letter from a woman who admits she was paid to frame him years ago, he decides to take his own case: finding out who on the force wanted him disposed of - - and why. As King embarks on his quest for the justice he was denied, he agrees to help a radical black journalist accused of killing two on-duty officers who had been abusing their badges to traffic in drugs and prostitutes in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The two cases intertwine across the years, exposing a pattern of corruption and brutality wielded against the black men, women and children whose lives the law destroyed. To solve them, King must outrun dirty cops, outsmart craven lawyers, and above all protect his daughter from the underworld in which he works. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King’s client’s
and his own.

Our protagonist’s memories of his early/earlier years are mostly painful: “the apartment building where I lived with my mother, brother, and sister after our father was sentenced and before I was old enough ro run away.” More recently, the memories are of his days incarcerated in Rikers: “I’d been at Rikers for only thirtynine hours and already four convicts had attacked me. There was a white adhesive bandage holding together the open flesh on my right cheek.” He thinks: “Just a few days and I’d switched allegiances from cop to criminal. I thought that was the worst thing . . . but I was wrong . . . It’s a terrible fall when you find yourself grateful to be put in segregation.” When he is, unexpectedly, released after about 3 months, he is allowed to shower and shave and “I saw my face for the first time in months in the polished steel mirror next to the small shower where I cleaned up. Shaving revealed the vicious gaping scar down the right of my face. They didn’t always offer stitches at Rikers.”

That experience colors everything that follows in this fascinating and, at times, horrifying novel from Walter Mosley, whose writing is always riveting. At this point in his life, the brightest and most beloved thing in Joe’s life is his 17-year-old daughter, Aja-Denise, who is equally devoted to him. Her mother, now Joe’s ex-wife, has remarried, but Joe is closer to Aja than ever; she helps him run his detective agency, where he is determined to find out who framed him. His daughter’s latest endeavor is to attend “a special school in this Bronx church where good science students teach at-risk kids how scientists do experiments.” Obviously, Joe couldn’t be more proud of her.

The author’s descriptions of his supporting players are always wonderful and fully descriptive, including Joe’s elderly grandmother and her boyfriend of the day, a man worth eight hundred seventy-nine billion dollars, described as a gun enthusiast and a pacifist too. His investigation brings him to a meeting with a man who “weighed well north of four hundred pounds. He could have willed his face to be sewn into a basketball after he died; it was that large and round,” and describes himself as “a man who didn’t even trust his own clients, a man who had experienced betrayal on almost every level.” Hen his “visage was still too cop-like,” he undertakes some small superficial changes till “the transformation was now complete. Rather than a Cro-Magnon cop I was a Neanderthal nerd.” I will leave it to the reader to discover all the other joys of Mr. Mosley’s writing for him/herself. The book is everything one has learned to expect from this author, and it is highly recommended.

I listened to this book and enjoyed the narrators voice. Absolutely believable and it keep me focused. But the book itself is filled with so many themes, to name a few: institutional racism, political corruption and preconceptions. All weaved in a way that possibly only Walter Mosley can.

A Poor Introduction to The Detective and Police Procedural/Detective Novels.

I am primarily a reader of non-fiction and hard science fiction. I read this primarily to understand an intelligent friend's fascination with the detective genre. It has many of the elements of this form of novel, a betrayed police detective gritty city elements, involvement with an activist. Yet there didn't appear to be anything unique and absorbing to keep my interest. I understand Walter Mosley is a well-respected author of detective and mystery fiction. But, I didn't manage to stay absorbed with this mostly boring tale with good neighborhood grit.

Walter Mosley, as usual provides a tightly knit story of suspense and murder. I struggled keeping all the characters straight in this book, but kept at it because he always has interesting characters.

Joe King Oliver was a policeman who liked women. All women, despite having a wife and child at home. When he is dispatched to the scene of a crime he is deeply indiscrete, and his fall from grace is imminent. More than a decade later, Joe King Oliver is a private detective. He is still angry at what happened to him and what he sees as his wife’s betrayal. He wants vindication. He wants reinstatement. Then two things happen. One, a client asks for help with an activist and accused cop killer whose case has been dumped suddenly by the lawyer who was had been helping him. Two, he gets tangible proof that he is innocent of the crime that led to his ouster from the New York Police Department. He covers the breadth of New York and meets the richest and poorest as he solves both cases with the support of his daughter and some help from a career criminal and looks, finally, for justice. This book was just okay for me. Why? I never warmed up to Joe King Oliver, who seems more fixated on the sins done to him than any analysis of his own failings. His search is Big-Sleep-level convoluted and violent (often disturbingly so). The cast of characters is endless and many are repulsive and one-dimensional. (I could have done without the rats, too). For me, following the story was too much work for too little reward, but I suspect fans of Mosley will not have this problem.

Walter Moseley once again captures the undeniable essence of struggle of a black man in America and that man's continual drive to get up no matter how hard the fall or betrayal. To say a black man does not step up to raise his own despite the obstacles is artfully destroyed by Mr. Mosley. Bravo!

‘My maternal grandmother always tells me that every man gets what he deserves’

13 years ago Joe King Oliver was a cop. Not just any cop, one of the NYPD’s finest officers. When he is framed for a sexual assault and thrown in Rikers. Jail isn’t easy for any man, but it’s certainly not easy, when you come face to face with convicts you apprehended. Rikers will chew up and spit out dirty cops or leave them for dead……

‘Just a few days and I’d switched allegiances from cop to criminal. I thought that was the worst thing….. but I was wrong’

We then learn of Joe’s present-day life. The life he has managed to build after his police record and good name was ruined. He is now a private detective, working mostly mistress cases or whatever comes his way. His teenage daughter Aja helps him with his business and he has an often-volatile relationship with his ex-wife Monica. His best friend and fellow cop Goldstone, has helped him get on his feet and thrown some cases his way.
But his life changes the day he receives a letter from his alleged victim. She claims she was forced into testifying and now she has turned her life around, she wants to make amends.
Joe is given the chance to clear his name!

‘The law is a flexible thing – on both sides of the line – influenced by circumstances, characters, and of course wealth or lack thereof’

At the same time Joe is also accosted to take on the case of Leonard Compton aka A Free Man. The case is one that strikes at the heart of what Joe believes. As Leonard claims he was set up my two dirty cops.
Eugene ‘Yolo’ Valence and Anton Pratt are the two cops in question. When Joe does some digging, he quickly learns of their criminal endeavours, selling drugs to kids and kids to child molesters. It’s a murky world we live in and one Joe can’t clean-up on his own!

“I learned that reading is important, that law is an ever-changing variable equation, and that a man is fool if he works alone” – Joe

The introduction of new characters, is something always relished in any Walter Mosley novel. They always have a backstory and usually described with a witty one liner such as ‘wise as a prophet and crafty as a fox’. Mosley’s writing is second to none!
Walter Mosley writes about his characters with such exceptional detail, you get the impression he has observed people and the various ways they carry themselves.

‘There comes a time when a man has to stand up and be heard; a time when their hearts do not outweigh his freedom’ – Joe

The plot has added suspicion, suspense and mistrust. When Joe also discovers the downfall of his past, may be linked to another dirty cop! Where does he go from here? How does he solve corruption that has spread with the police force?

“I learned that anyone can be brought low no matter how high or powerful they are”

The novel explores Joe’s past, Yolo & Pratt’s child victims, police corruption and the real meaning of justice. This is without a doubt diverse literature for the intelligent eye. The dialogue is first-rate, the characters are authentic not ‘perfect’ examples but flawed real people with deep pain. The novel continues to develop right to the last page. I love the way Walter Mosley writes. He adds his iconic style and wisdom to every sentence. In my opinion, he really is a writing legend! 5*

“You have to love what you do or you end up hating yourself” – Joe

Walter Mosley, as usual provides a tightly knit story of suspense and murder. I struggled keeping all the characters straight in this book, but kept at it because he always has interesting characters.

You can somewhat think of being from the "wrong side of the tracks" when you read Mosley. Good storyline with a touch of larceny and a touch of fair play. I felt like reading this book was not a waste of my time. 4 stars.

After fifty (50) pages and six (6) chapters, a mystery forms either as intriguing or uninviting. Walter Mosley’s “Down By the River Unto the Sea” bores; meandering, directionless, implausible and not worthy of the time to read its three hundred plus (+) pages. The reviewer enjoyed his Leonid McGill series and admirably read his Easy Rawlings books, but his “Joe King Oliver” hero, while likeable and a good father misses the mark; the book lacks the gripping opening theme, is replete with a challenging “hip hop” patois and a slew of characters and names which drags on the story line as it might exist. The reviewer decided not to complete the book and wisely laid it aside.

Joe King Oliver used to be an NYPD detective, and a good one too, until somebody set him up to take a fall. Then he was a prisoner and what he experienced in Rikers Island would change him and his life forever. Years later, Joe is a private detective with a teenage daughter, an ex-wife, and a wounded soul. Then he gets a letter from the woman who helped set him up and he decides it’s time to find the person who orchestrated his downfall and set things right. Along the way there’s a kidnapped young girl to find, an ex-con comes to his assistance, and his daughter’s life is put in danger. The question is, can Joe connect all the dots before more people get hurt?

This is a gritty story that takes the reader into some really dark places. That being said, I enjoyed it very much. Joe King Oliver is a great character. He’s obviously damaged by his experiences and doesn’t try very hard to hide it. He’s also a very thorough and effective detective. The bright spot in this story is his daughter. She is a typical teenager but she worships her father. I really loved the way the author wrote their relationship. Joe’s devotion to her equals her love of him and it was refreshing to see a teenager who had a good relationship with a parent. The same can’t be said for her relationship with her stepfather though. I found all the players in this drama to be unique and felt true to life. The story is written at a really good pace that keeps the reader engaged throughout. Overall, I think this is a well-crafter first novel.

The narration of this story really shines. Dion Graham has voice like honey and I kept listening as much for the sound of his voice as for the story itself. I will definitely be watching for this narrator on future books.

DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA is another excellent private investigator novel from Walter Mosley. The plot is extremely complicated, and there are a gazillion characters to keep straight. However, main character Joe Oliver’s love for his daughter (Aja-Denise) sustains the story as surely as that love sustains Joe and keeps him alive.

In the novel, PI Joe is a disgraced former cop who’s eking out a living as a private investigator. Straight-arrow Joe was getting too close to some dirty cops’ criminal activities, so he was framed, imprisoned in solitary for 83 days, released, and booted off the force. The prison sojourn broke him; but when he receives a confessional letter from the woman who framed him, he decides to finally investigate his own case.

He does this under cover of investigating a case for a real client. The objective there is to exonerate a black man (A Free Man) who killed two cops and is awaiting execution. It’s hard to say which of the two investigations is more likely to get Joe killed. But Joe carries on with both after enlisting the aid of a truly evil psychopath (Melquarth) who thinks he owes Joe a big favor. The police corruption that Joe uncovers is truly shocking, and even puts daughter Aja in danger. Can Joe work out a solution when all seems lost?

The book is generally well-written, but a tad sloppy in places. Sometimes you need more of a reminder than the text supplies about who a previously-introduced character is. However, Joe, Aja, and Melquarth are memorable characters; the plot is a page-turner if you enjoy police procedurals; and the ending is both believable and satisfying.

Joe King Oliver was a police officer. Then he was framed for a crime he didn't commit. After serving time in Riker's, he's now a PI investigating a case for someone else who was framed.

On the one hand, this is a typical Mosley novel, with all the gritty and interesting characters one would expect. On the other hand, this is a very modern novel that explores what it means to be falsely accused of a crime and what it means to believe or disbelieve someone else.

Oliver is an interesting character I'm sure we'll see more of. Beaten down, but not defeated, he is a defender of justice in the truest sense, a man who represents the last hope for those who have been let down by the system.

Both a great detective story and an examination into the nature of the system. Highly recommended.