"Trouble is What I Do" by Walter Mosley

I read Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley a while back, and it left a bad taste in my mouth because it involved child exploitation and trafficking, and that issue both revolts and terrifies me.  Even though Mosley's writing was cool and his main character was trying to stop that exploitation and trafficking, I just had a hard time with that book.  Looking back, I'm surprised I didn't just DNF it, which is what usually ends up happening when that subject crops up in a book.  Maybe I didn't because it was a very small part of the story.  Or because it didn't turn up until deep into the story.  Hmm.

ANYWAY, I'm super happy that I tried another of his books, because I liked this so, so much better.  Trouble is What I Do is a novella set in modern-day NYC and revolving around private investigator Leonid McGill.  Like some of the classic hardboiled PIs from the 1930s and '40s, McGill has a tendency to bend rules and stick to his own moral code.  I haven't read any of Mosley's previous books featuring McGill, but I would like to because he is a cool, nuanced character, and I loved his narrative voice.

Leonid McGill takes on the job of delivering a personal note to the daughter of an uber-rich socialite family that will enlighten her as to the truth of her heritage.  That main plot gets sidetracked a few times as McGill tells us about other cases he worked that involve people who also become tangled up in this plot.  After a while, those began to feel just a little like filler, but I was enjoying the writing so much that I didn't mind.

Random note: I picked this one off the shelf because the title reminded me of Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler, which I read recently.  

Particularly Good Bits:

"To paraphrase the great Sugar Ray Robinson," I said, "trouble is what I do" (p. 62).

At one time, I blamed my father's abandonment for these sins, but I had learned that in the end, wrong is wrong and every man has to carry his own water (p. 83).

Some days, when you're sitting alone with the truth, you question whether or not there'll be a tomorrow.  That was one of those days for me (p. 152).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: R for a LOT of bad language, violence, and suggestive/adult dialog/narration.  No sex scenes, though.

This is the fifth book I've read for #AMonthOfMystery.