White Butterfly. - book reviews

American Visions, Feb-March, 1993 by Gary A. Puckrein

White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (W.W. Norton & Company. 1992. $19.95) - Fans of Easy Rawlins, the main character in Mosley's mysteries, will not be disappointed. The time is 1956, and, things being what they are, no one in official Los Angeles is much bothered as a serial killer proceeds to murder three black bar girls.

But when a white stripper is similarly murdered, the heat is on. Rawlins, a tough black private detective, is drawn into the case, which puts his marriage, his business, and his cunningly constructed secret life in jeopardy. Cleverly woven throughout the story is a discussion of black male/female relations, a topic that too few black male novelists explore in any depth.