Fear Itself: Summary and book reviews of Fear Itself by Walter Mosley, plus links to an excerpt from Fear Itself and a biography of Walter Mosley.

Paris Minton doesn't want any trouble, but in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble finds him, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it. When the nephew of the wealthiest woman in L.A. is missing and wanted for murder, she hires Jefferson T. Hill, a former sheriff of Dawson, Texas, to track him down and prove his innocence. When Hill goes missing too, she tricks his friend Fearless Jones and Paris Minton into picking up the case. Paris steps inside the world of the black bourgeoisie and it turns out to be filled with deceit and corruption. It takes everything he has just to stay alive through a case filled with twists and turns and dead ends like he never imagined. Written with the voice and vision that have made Walter Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, Fear Itself marks the return of a master at the top of his form.

Media Reviews

Ebony ...a colorful crime noir story with vivid characters that keeps the reader guessing until the very end...   Washington Post ...the profound pleasures here are in his masterful evocation of a long gone Los Angeles...   San Francisco Chronicle ...vibrant, colorful language...Mosley can still dazzle with an unexpected turn of phrase...   The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio It's a tossup which gives more pleasure in Mosley's vibrant views of neighborhood life, the high-stepping, free-talking characters who bob and weave their way through this convoluted plot, or the colorful local haunts like Henrietta's Gumbo House where they do their shuckin' and jivin'.   The Los Angeles Times - Thomas Curwen We've seen pictures of black and white, even brown and white Los Angeles from the '40s and '50s, but seldom from the inside out. In Fear Itself, Mosley taps into this world and shows us a city where opportunity is less than it seems and violence a measure of frustration. The sad thing is it's a picture of a city not unlike Los Angeles today.   The Washington Post - Laura Lippman Paris Minton is his third protagonist within the crime genre, and while Paris has some obvious parallels to Easy, he is very much his own man.   Entertainment Weekly ...visceral moments are so plentiful that the question of whodunit feels almost irrelevant...A-   Booklist - Keir Graff After a slow beginning, the ending just misses being great when a last twist softens what would have been a perfect noir judgment on Paris. Not Mosley's best, but still plenty good.   Publishers Weekly The author depicts 1950s Los Angeles with his usual unerring accuracy.   Library Journal It is a rare thing for an author to release three books in a year's time and to have each outgun its predecessor....Fearless and Paris make a grand duo who can give Easy and Mouse a run for their money. You won't be able to turn the pages fast enough while hoping it never ends. Highly recommended.

Recent Reader Reviews

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