What a terrific novel. Provocative, compelling, original, startling and completely satisfying, it concerns a black man living in an inherited, crumbling house who takes a white man into his basement. It turns into a tense psychological battle in one of the most powerful pieces this great American crime writer has written. You’ve got to read it.
Charles Blakey is a young black man whose life is slowly crumbling. His parents are dead, he can't find a job, he drinks too much, and his friends have begun to desert him. Worst of all, he's fallen behind on the mortgage payments for the beautiful home that's belonged to his family for generations. When a stranger - a white man - offers him USD50,000 in cash to rent out his basement for the summer, Charles needs the money too badly to say no. He knows that the stranger must want something more than a basement view. Sure enough, he has a very particular - and bizarre - set of requirements, and Charles tries to satisfy him without getting lured into the strangeness. But he sees an opportunity to understand the secrets of the white world, and his summer with a man in his basement turns into a dark game of power and manipulation.
Walter Mosley is the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries; the novels Blue Light, RL's Dream, Futureland, Fearless Jones and Fear Itself; and two collections of stories - Always Outnumbered and Outgunned and Walkin' the Dog. He was born in Los Angeles and lives in New York.
