Fearless Jones (Fearless Jones Series #1)

From Barnes & Noble

When a stunning and sexy woman saunters into his dusty second-hand bookstore looking for a previous tenant, Paris Minton is nearly engulfed by lust. But before long, his pursuit of this irresistible woman has destroyed his modest business and is endangering his life. Only one man, Fearless Jones, can help Paris, and he is in prison. This mystery, set in Los Angeles black neighborhoods of the '50s, is an instant noir classic.

Portland Oregonian

...begins with a bang...moves along at a clip...

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Mosley writes with characteristic punch and power, and as always, with a subtext of smoldering anger of black Americans in a pre-civil rights white world...

Dallas Morning News

...the beginning of what is sure to be another successful crime series...

Black Issues Book Review

Mosley's characters are full of emotions that are felt by the reader. There is mature love, hot lust and real people that share in both.

Kirkus

...fans starved for the mean streets of Watts...will rejoice in a prose style richer and more artfully stripped down than ever in the genre's first must-read of the year...

From The Critics

Talk about having some good news and some bad news: Paris Minton sleeps with the most irresistibly sexy stranger imaginable, only to awaken to find his lover gone, his car stolen and his used bookstore burned to rubble. Fortunately for Paris, this friend in need has a friend in Fearless Jones, who is both the most soft-hearted and the toughest man around. Paris, the narrator of this breezy and engaging thriller, knows his own limitations—moral as well as physical. Fearless, meanwhile, combines the soul of a saint with the fists of a natural-born killer. As the two become entangled in a search for a mysterious foreign currency bond that may or may not be worth the effort, Fearless proves time and again that he's a better friend than Paris deserves. Conspiracy piles upon complication as Paris and Fearless find themselves involved with a sinister religious sect, a cop of dubious allegiance and the Israeli secret service. Even though it becomes increasingly difficult to keep straight just who is double-crossing whom, Mosley remains more concerned with character development than plot machinations, just as he was in all of his Easy Rawlins novels. The reader never doubts that the larger-than-life Fearless and the all-too-human Paris will prevail. After all, this is the first of a series, and it's hard to envision either of these guys without the other.
—Don McLeese

(Excerpted Review)

Library Journal

Everything is going fine for Paris Minton: he has his own used book store turning a profit and hassles from the LAPD are not too hard to handle. The setting is Watts in the early 1950s, when few blacks own businesses and overt racism and police brutality are a terrible fact of life. A beautiful woman named Elana Love comes bursting into Minton's bookstore looking for a preacher from a church down the street. She is followed shortly by a violent, threatening man wanting to know which way she went. The situation is soon completely out of control: the bookstore is burned to the ground, very nasty bad guys are cropping up everywhere, and several innocent people are murdered. Clearly needing help, Minton arranges bail for his good friend Fearless Jones a well-named character who will remind Mosley's many fans of Mouse from the Easy Rawlins's novels. Patrons who have been waiting for Mosley to return to hard-boiled mystery writing will rejoice to meet Paris and Fearless. Reader Peter Francis James does a wonderful job with the voices in the story; the transition from one cassette to another is smoothed with some very cool jazz. A terrific production, recommended for all mystery collections. Barbara Valle, El Paso P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.