. . . that I wanted to share, but just kept reading.  This one though, requires me to take a break long enough to post it here.

 

"'I need you to do some research for me.'

'That's what I'm here for.'

'There's supposed to be a law firm in Frisco called Briscoe/Thyme.  I think the last name is spelled like the Simon and Garfunkel song but it could be temporal.'  I liked talking to Zephyra because she knew all the words in five or six dictionaries."

page 89

I really enjoyed this book told in an old timey mystery kind of way. It was like the old TV shows of the '50's and '60' in my mind. Although at first I thought I was going to have to make a spreadsheet due to all the characters and their aliases. However, I found the author would give me a little hint as to who they were if they hadn't been in the story for a while.

This was easy reading and very enjoyable and I truly liked it.

Thank you Doubleday Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this e-galley.

I've never read a Walter Mosley book before and he's supposed to be good, so I picked this one up for a driving-around book. The characters and plot seem OK, though they skirt close to generic lowlifes at times, everyone suspect, everyone with mixed motives, everyone a similar shade of gray.But the reason I abandoned this book two CDs in was the god-awful audiobook narrator, one Mirron Willis. He has a very liquid voice, in the disturbing sense of audible lip-smackings and saliva movements—OK, so maybe some listeners like that? But his accents are inconsistent, unrealistic, and incompetent; his women are all breathy whisperers; and he regularly overpronounces and mispronounces words (I caught "Paul Klee," "zazen," and "satrap"). These are all inexcusable mistakes, and if a professionally-qualified narrator makes them anyway, then his or her producer should find and correct them.It got to the point where I was wincing in anticipation of the narration rather than paying attention to the story, and that's when I gave up. I'll probably try another Mosley at some point, but I will never again subject myself to narration by Mirron Willis.

Rating: 2.5* of fiveThe Book Description: In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present.Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn't remember shooting Harry, but she didn't deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella's innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an ex-prostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias.A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man's attempt to stay connected to his family.My Review: Horrible person that I am, I won this book in a LibraryThing giveaway in DECEMBER 2011 and somehow never posted a review.Probably all for the best, since I thought this book was a hot mess. Too much going on, too little attention paid to too many variables, and as a series entry it fell on its keister. The scatteredness means that the sense of building up to something that a series should have is missing.Leonid runs around and brings justice where it's overdue. In the process we meet every single person, criminal or ex-criminal, in Manhattan. Yay, and boo. Why I should know about some of these wacky ex-crims is beyond me, and because Mosley is chopping and changing the narrative so much, it's just too much for my two-volt nervous system to absorb and call it "pleasure reading."There's a line in here about success making Leonid crave a Coney Island...chili cheese dog with onions...and that, for me, sums the book up: Filling processed food-like substance for the brain, but plan on sleepin' alone because the aftereffects are noisome.

This is my first Walter Mosley book. I enjoyed the mystery and the interactions with various characters.