Book Review: Fear of the Dark

By Sandy Amazeen Oct 24, 2006, 2:50 GMT

Fearless Jones and Paris Minton return in a fast-paced thriller about family and revenge. ...more

Fearless Jones is back in this third volume of the series that sees him coming to the assistance of Paris Minton, a mild mannered bookseller who would rather quietly read then deal with customers. In an act at self-preservation, Paris turns away perpetual troublemaker and cousin Ulysses, “Useless” to all who know him when he turns up begging for help. Thanks to an ill advised affair Paris finds himself trying to figure out what to do with a body that has turned up in his bookshop and things just continue to go downhill from there when Useless’s mom, Aunt Three Hearts shows up at his door. Useless has vanished and his mom wants Paris to find him. Paris would like nothing better then to turn his back on the entire family but as Aunt Three Hearts is known to have the evil eye, he doesn’t dare incur her wrath.

Paris and Fearless must face their inner fears as they attempt to track down a blackmail deal gone horribly wrong. Paris draws upon his extensive book reading while Fearless continues to live up to his name in this thriller set in L.A. during the 1950’s when a black man had to be careful around whites. The racial tension is credible, the storyline reads like a classic mythic hero quest and the characters fully developed in typical Mosley style. A bit jerky at times but an entertaining read all the same.