Study Trouble Is What I Do (Leonid McGill #6) Narrated By Walter Mosley Available In PDF

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“I was so hardened to suffering that somehow even the casualties of history fell outside the borders of my selfimposed sovereignty.
”

In spite of its short length Walter Mosleys Trouble Is What I Do packs a punch.
This is noir at its finest, Mosley doesnt waste words, and we can tell that by the fact that each description and dialogue in his novel has a certain significance.

“Slowly, he lowered onto a chair, looking at me as if I was the bad news hed been waiting for his entire life ”

The very first opening pages of Trouble Is What I Do grabbed my attention.
Mosleys first person narrator is Leonid McGill who as a crook turned P, I. is all too familiar with navigating the crime world, When Phillip Worry, known as Catfish, ayearold bluesman, asks Leonid to deliver a letter it would seem like a fairly straightforward task.
Except that this letter is addressed to Penelope Sternman, heiress of one of Americas most wealthy and influential families, and the contents reveal her black lineage.
Her father, Catfishs son, is a corrupt racist who will stop at nothing in order to keep his parentage secret.

Thankfully, Leonid is the man for the job, Aided by old friends, he sets out to deliver this letter,

“Catfish had given

me drink and song and trust, These were sacred gifts and, in a way, I was born again, ”

Leonids distinctive narration makes him stand out from other P, I. s. He is charming, incisive, and, unlike many other detectives, doesnt take himself too seriously, He doesnt need to throw his weight around, his reputation precedes him: “This man youre walking up on is Leonid McGill.
Hell break half the bones in your body for business and the other half for fun, ”
Yet, in spite of his past, readers will be able to see how humane he is.
His moral compass does waver, but only occasionally, Speaking of his past, Mosley manages to give Leonid a lot of history without rehashing his whole life story.

The dialogues are snappy, in equal measure amusing and tense, Leonids lyrical narrative provides us with evocative descriptions that truly bring his world to life,
Leonids engrossing assignment provides a relevant commentary on race that doesnt provide readers with simple answers.
The ending is surprisingly heartrendering,
I would definitely recommend this to fans of James Lee Burke and Dennis Lehane or for those who are interested in reading a more poetic take on noir.

“At one time I blamed my fathers abandonment for these sins, but I had learned that in the end, wrong is wrong and every man has to carry his own water.
”

To Paraphrase The Great Sugar Ray Robinson “TroubleIsWhatIDo” "To paraphrase the great Sugar Ray Robinson," I said, "trouble is what I do.
"

And Walter Mosley knows how to make it rain trouble through his very multifaceted character of Leonid McGill, private investigator hanging his hat in New York City.
Leonid and I had not met before I picked up Trouble Is What I Do, He's caused me to look over my shoulder at the previous five novels from his creator, Walter Mosley.
Will be embracing those very soon,

As I gather, Leonid walks face first into highly complicated cases with characters surrounding situations bathed in complexity.
He knows the individuals who walk on the dark and shady side of the streets because he's been there himself.
And they know him .

Leonid's office is run alongside his son, Twill, and his hovering, takenoprisoners receptionist, Mardi, Through a signal system, Mardi declines visitors to the office, But this time, she escorts ninetyfour year old Catfish Worry down the hall to see Leonid, He's come all the way from Mississippi to ask for a favor from Leonid,

The socalled favor is not as simple as Catfish purposes, Leonid must deliver a letter to a certain bridetobe from an upscale address in New York, Catfish has an unusual connection to this young lady and the sealed letter will explain all that.
But someone very close to the bride doesn't want that letter delivered, Both Catfish and Leonid may pay a steep price for this service,

Walter Mosley is a master writer hands down, He's won numerous awards over the years, My head has turned as well as these pages rapidly, It's a treasure of a read concisely in onlypages, Looks like Leonid, Walter, and I are gonna be on a first name basis, Never Disappointed

Leonid came through again, Uniting am of man with his granddaughter, This time with little violence, yet some intrigue, Loved it! Admittedly, this book was not targeted for me as I do not have much experience reading detective stories.
I have skimmed a book of his previously and enjoyed the writing but this one not so much.
The book is based on a quote from the boxer, "Sugar" Ray Robinson, one of the most revered and arguably the greatest pugilist of alltime.
Apparently, this is a sixth in Leonid McGill series and I should have started from square one.
For me the biggest flaw was a lack of continuity in the characters, Leonid, the protagonist would be engaged with one character than another character with a brief biography attached would be talking or making threats when another character would appear with another brief bio.
The names become a maelstrom with not much difference in action between "good" and "bad" guys, Not that there is anything wrong with ambiguous intentions or characters but it further aided me in my indifference.
I do not know if it was an ode to James Bond but the names were so overthetop that it became comical, such as Foxy Donk.
I guess Foxy Donk would be the modern equivalent of Pussy Galore, The story itself is fast moving and involves a forbidden love from many decades passed, The potential scandal to one of the founding families of the United States is at the heart of this mystery.
While, the story and even its conclusion was okay, the pacing and redundant expositions did you know Leonid wasfootand/ths inches or that he weighslbs watered down an interesting plot.
Perhaps, I'll pick up another Mosley work but it will probably not be from the Leonid McGill series.
"'You know Eckles'
'I know what they say he can do, '
'And you still took the job'
'You should hear what they say about me, '" A great short story that is timely today, yesterday and tomorrow,ofLeonid McGill is a New York P, I. who has a history of working both sides of the law in the name of justice, The black former boxer is approached by Catfish, an old Mississippi blues singer, Catfish wants Leonid to deliver a letter to his granddaughter, a wealthy heiress who has never been told of her black racial heritage.
But there are corrupt people who will go to any length to make sure this letter never gets delivered.
The lives of Catfish, Leonid, and others that know the family secret are in danger,

"Trouble is What I Do" is a fastpaced book with snappy urban dialogue, It's a short, suspenseful read that kept me turning the pages,.Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
Here is that review:

Four

Fans of Walter Mosley like me will get exactly what they hope for here: an engaging and fast moving plot, the characteristic charm of Leonid, the juxtaposition between visible and invisible players/motives/settings, and a complex investigation of race, family, and human connection.


I love Mosley's work, and this novel despite its brevity reminded me of exactly why.
Im Walter Mosleysfan but this book was just ok, Off the top I didnt like that it was a short book, So I already felt some type of way going in, I loved catching up with usual suspects and meeting new ones, This story overall was good but it left me wanting more, I wasnt on the edge of my seat trying to read it in one day excited about this book.
Maybe next book will do it for me because I love Leonard McGill, Quick, enjoyable read. Ive never read any of Mosleys Leonid McGill series before, I dont know if he is always somewhat political, but I liked his commentary, especially his observations of what it means to be “white” pagesampfor example.


I received a free ARC, prior to publication This is a great little Mosley novel.
It served two purposes for me,

The first was to continue the voyeurism into the lives of the McGill clan, sort of like a soap opera of a loving halfdysfunctional family of people who live just below the line of the law.
The second was as one of Mosley's treatises of his winding philosophies,

While Mosley always includes his philosophies in his writings, some of his books function more as a storytelling vehicle and others as more of a philosophical theory in storytelling clothing.
"Trouble Is What I Do" is definitely more of the latter, along the lines of "The Man In My Basement" from, or "The Tempest Tales" from.


For me, this is no slight, as I equally enjoy both, Even moreso when Mosley manages to mix both the storytelling and the philosophizing in equal measure, He successfully does so here,

My only true disappointment with the book was the ending, The apparent suicide of one of the characters put too pat a bow on the story, It rang untrue. The only way to reconcile that death in my mind is to decide that character was surreptitiously murdered by one of the other characters.
While entirely possible in the setup of the novel, Mosley says nothing to indicate this,

So, I am left with the memory of one bad meal in a vacation ofmeals.
I can live with that and still recognize one bad meal of twenty meals still leaves room for a lot of great vacation time.
Perfect comfort food. I had never read Walter Mosley's work before, This bestselling author is hard to miss as he has penned countless PI novels based on two different main characters: Leonid McGill, a former boxer who is known in the parlance as a “fixer,” and Easy Rawlins, neither of whom play by the rules.
Well, it wouldnt be a good read if they did, now would it

In TROUBLE IS WHAT I DO, Leonid is called upon by ayearold African American blues guitarist, Phillip “Catfish” Worry, who instructs him to deliver a letter to Justine Sternman on the night before her wedding.
Elaborate instructions are included. Discretion is the key no one is to know that the letter is being delivered, or what it contains.
Justine is one of those elegant debutantes, eligible for membership in the DAR, an organization open only to women who can trace their ancestry back to the Revolutionary War.
She is also the daughter of a lilywhite billionaire, a New York big shot known for his racist attitude and brutality in his business dealings.


The explosive letter also contains a page from Justines greatgrandmothers diary, which discloses that the blond, blueeyed young lady and her father are not as purebred as they believed.
Sure, this is unsettling for the recipient, but not that exciting a mission for Leonid, Until he hears a voice from the past, Underworld thug Ernie Eckles, aka the Mississippi Assassin, has been hired to kill Catfish, apparently by Justines father, Charles.


The plot gets a bit murky from there, at least to those who are unfamiliar with Mosleys shelf load of previous books.
But after I read the first two pages, I was reminded of another favorite Southern writer, James Lee Burke, who defines the players through his prose, their dialogue and accents, and how they dress.
A great writer can set the scene and then pull you into it, while their lesser counterparts prattle on as you skip ahead to the action.


As I finished these early pages, I recalled dialing my sister after reading the opening paragraphs of Burkes first Robicheaux novel, THE NEON RAIN.
It so impressed me that I read it aloud over the phone, Mosley has that magical ability to draw the reader into the narrative, I was hooked and willing to sort out the myriad plot twists and intriguing characters, which included none other than Easy Rawlins himself.


Atpages, TROUBLE IS WHAT I DO is a quick and satisfying if somewhat scrambled return to the genre for Leonid McGill.
And the coup de grâce makes it worth what little effort it takes to keep track of the cast.
I will dig deeper to meet at my leisure some of these characters who populate Leonids world.


ed by Roz Shea,

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