Fear of the Dark

by Walter Mosley

Book Overview

Fearless Jones and Paris Minton, stars of the bestsellersFearless Jones and Fear Itself, return in a fast-paced thriller aboutfamily and revenge.For Paris Minton, a knock on his door is often the first sign of trouble.So when he finds his lowlife cousin, Ulysses S. Grant, or Useless, on theother side of his front door, Paris keeps it firmly closed. With family like Useless, who needs enemies? Yet trouble always finds anopen window, and when Useless's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316734586
• ISBN13: 9780316734585
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Fearless series catching up to Easy Rollins

I just wanted to say that each Fearless Jones book gets better with each new release.I antisipate their releases now as I once antisipated a new Easy Rollins mystery.

New Characters, Familiar Entertainment!

While I enjoyed the Easy books, I prefer the new characters of the Fearless Jones books. I purchased this book on unabridged audio while on a business trip, and soon lost all bearings on the road. Don Cheadle is a masterful reader, combining the many voices seamlessly on CD. The audio quality is superb. We are taken through many eccentric characters, including Paris Minton, the first. Fearless Jones, his best friend and co-conspirator in his adventures, is a man expertly skilled in the art of survival in racist Los Angeles in 1955. I won't divulge the plot, but their adventures take them into the world of black wealth and white criminals. It is Mr. Moseley's mix of humor-Paris's self-professed weaknesses-with a labyrinthine plot that kept me listening for the many hours required. In the couple of months since I purchased the book I have listened to it again, simply for the pleasure of Mr. Cheadle's voice. I have since purchased his third Fearless Jones mystery on CD and am awaiting shipment on the first.

Another winner from one of the genre's best

For sixteen years now, Walter Mosley has been producing some of the finest mystery novels the genre has ever seen. That streak continues with his latest, another top-notch novel from one of literature's most gifted observers of race, crime and life on the rough side of America's streets. "Fear of the Dark" is the third book to feature mild-mannered bookstore owner Paris Minton, and once again this gentle man is taking part in an adventure against his will, with his stalwart friend Fearless Jones along for the ride. Paris is a fascinating hero for a crime novel, as he's neither brave nor ambitious, nor especially honest. He wants nothing more than to be left alone among his beloved books, but there's no way that the shadier residents of L.A.'s South Central are going to let that happen. The stories featuring Paris Minton are so good that they have begun to outshine even Mosley's superb series featuring detective Easy Rawlins -- and that's high praise indeed.

Fearless faces his fears

In 1956 Watts, Ulysses "Useless" S. Grant IV visits his cousin bookseller Paris Minton with his usual request; he needs his help to extract him out of a potentially lethal but definitely dangerous situation that he insists is a misunderstanding that got out of control. With a personal philosophy to avoid trouble, Paris, who refuses to allow Useless into his home or store, knows he needs to say no because assisting his cousin means you bought into strife you do not need. Still he loves his aunt, Useless' mom, so cannot refuse the creep; needing a hero, he turns to his friend Fearless Jones. Fearless has his own problems at the moment as he fears the dark ever since he was buried in a crawl space with a dead Tiny Bobchek, former boyfriend of his lover Jessa Brown and all he could think of when he was in the crawl space was sharing eternity with this loser. Still he will do anything for his friend Paris even saving the sorry butt of blackmailing trickster Useless. Enlisting the dirty dozen, Fearless and his allies seek the leader of the blackmailing ring leaving behind with each clue a corpse or two. In his latest appearance (see FEARLESS JONES and FEAR ITSELF) Fearless faces his fears as he assists his friend Paris help his useless cousin out of love for the cretin's mom, Aunt Three Hearts. The violent exciting story line contains an interesting philosophical underpinning that ties ancient Mythos musing to 1950s street corner thinking as the hero, his loyal sidekick, and the fool do what it takes to survive, thrive, and jive in pre Dodger Los Angeles. Harriet Klausner

Just Listen To It

Los Angeles, 1955. Paris Minton is a retiring and none too courageous owner of a tiny bookstore. Fearless Jones is his best friend, but whenever he appears trouble is sure to follow. Milo Sweet is a conniving, double-dealing bail bondsman and disbarred lawyer. Kit Mitchell is missing. That's where the trouble starts, for it seems everyone is looking for Kit, and looking for him turns out to be extremely dangerous. And there are many, many more characters--the eccentric, the mad, the wealthy, the warm-hearted, the wicked. Things go from strange to dangerous to deadly as Paris and Fearless navigate the web of deceit and double-crossing spun by the characters. So, what is the big secret everyone's looking for? Who is Kit Mitchell and why does everyone want to find him? Will Paris, the fearful book-lover, survive this dangerous web of intrigue? Author Walter Mosley is a brilliant writer with a unique African-American voice. If the story doesn't make complete sense, if the plot doesn't quite hang together, if the characters are hard to keep track of, well, who cares? You can just listen to this book as if you were listening to jazz. It just rolls right along from one outrageous complication to another. The sentences, the words, the scenes, the dialogue--unbelievably good. I recommend this book, but, don't try to hard to follow the plot. Just listen to it! Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber