Tuesday, February 18, 2025, 1:42PM |  12°
MENU
Advertisement
Walter Mosley.
2
MORE

'Down the River Unto the Sea': Walter Mosley introduces a new detective hero

Marcia E Wilson - Widevision Photography

'Down the River Unto the Sea': Walter Mosley introduces a new detective hero

In “Down the River Unto the Sea,” the much acclaimed writer Walter Mosley introduces a new detective, New York City habitué John King Oliver, in this enigmatically titled, problematic novel.


"DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA"
By Walter Mosley
Mulholland Books ($27).

The author of the colorful Easy Rawlins series can be a wonderful writer. Mr. Mosley’s descriptions of New York City denizens, dives and secret places are rich, even pungent. But the interactions of Oliver with too many different kinds of people make the tangled plot lines of this mystery hard to follow.

Oliver, a former city cop named after a legendary New Orleans cornetist, has two mysteries to solve. He’s hired to spring a journalist named A Free Man from prison, where Man has been sent for killing two New York policemen accused of trafficking in people and drugs.

Advertisement

At the same time, prompted by a letter from a woman seeking redemption for framing him years ago, Oliver focuses on finding out why he was expelled from the force and brutalized in prison.

The focus is one of the problems, as Mr. Mosley scrambles those plot lines, putting Oliver in touch with nemeses such as the fixer Augustine Antrobus, the cop facilitator Reggie Teegs, and ambiguous players like a cop apologist named Gladstone. At the same time, Mr. Mosley lavishes too much detail on incidental figures like this man, a way station for Oliver on his way to closure of his own case:

“Kierin Klasky 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. The features of his physiognomy were mostly just fat, as were his bloated hands and ham-round thighs.”

Mr. Mosley could have cut “it was that large and round.” You already had the picture.

Advertisement

If he occasionally overwrites, he also undercharacterizes. Oliver takes the subway one evening. Next to him is a young woman named Kenya Norman, reading a Hermann Hesse book.

They talk about spirituality. Perhaps Kenya reminds Oliver of Aja-Denise, his daughter, who works with Oliver at his detective agency. Who knows? This is Kenya’s only appearance. It goes nowhere.

A more serious flaw: Mr. Mosley portrays Oliver as a sensual man, given to womanizing. A video showing him in flagrante delicto persuaded his wife to bust him, leading to his imprisonment and the coarsening of his own nature. Ironically, however, it seems the only relationships Oliver can enter into with women are transactional; even his bond to Aja-Denise is largely work-based.

Granted, Oliver is a good father, keeping Aja-Denise in line and dressed proper. But for a novel designed to portray a lusty man, “Down the River Unto the Sea” is curiously chaste. Save for an oily massage session with a friend who is a former prostitute, it’s almost prudish; no consummation here.

Still, Mr. Mosley can snap the reader to attention. His dialogue is up-to-the-minute, his gift for the phrase sharp, as in this picture of a world-weary prison guard:

“She was handsome the way beautiful women get after they pass the age of forty. But she was a young woman, in her late twenties, aged by prison and a life that charged more than it gave back.”

Walter Mosley is also timely, salting this with nods to today’s headlines.

Here, Melquarth, Oliver’s satanic helper, muses on the best way to learn how to commit dastardly deeds: get sent to “a prison where there’s a lot of Russians. They always have the most organized gangs and they’re connected to people from the old country and Eastern Europe in general; those people often have ties to intelligence.”

Descriptions, commentary and tantalizing sketches of a host of underground characters make this worth reading despite its shortfalls.

Carlo Wolff is a freelance writer from suburban Cleveland.

First Published: July 27, 2018, 4:00 p.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith watch a receivers and defensive backs drill at Steelers Minicamp at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex Thursday, June 13, 2024.
1
sports
Gerry Dulac: Next season’s major decisions loom this week for Mike Tomlin, Steelers staff
Sidequest on 44th in Lawrenceville on Dec. 27, 2024.
2
a&e
Canceled show finds ex-Misfits singer Michale Graves lashing out about being purged from Pittsburgh
The Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review approved a $25.9 million cut in One Oxford Centre's taxable value for 2025, bringing its new assessment to $54 million.
3
business
Taxable value of Downtown’s One Oxford Centre falls by $25.9M — its 3rd cut in 6 years
A small public audience listened as Pittsburgh Public Schools released final recommendations for its facilities utilization plan during the education committee meeting at the PPS Administration Building in Oakland on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024.
4
news
Pittsburgh Public Schools considering reinstating virtual testimony following months of pushback
A protester waves a sign opposing Trump administration policies during a protest at the intersection of Murray and Forbes Avenues in Squirrel Hill Monday, Feb. 17, 2025.
5
news
Presidents Day protest in Pittsburgh takes aim at Trump policies
Walter Mosley.  (Marcia E Wilson - Widevision Photography)
"Down The River Unto The Sea," by Walter Mosley.  (handout)
Marcia E Wilson - Widevision Photography
Advertisement
LATEST ae
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story