When the Thrill Is Gone

Book excerpt: African-American noir is at its finest in this gripping crime novel from Walter Mosley’s New York Times bestselling series, in which a strange young woman hires Detective Leonid McGill to protect her from her allegedly murderous husband. The economy has hit the private investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as “a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe” (The Boston Globe). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he’s worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his personal life is growing more complicated, with his stepson mysteriously dropping out of school, a friend getting diagnosed with cancer, and his unfaithful wife taking another new lover. So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She’s an artist who has escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life and needs Leonid’s help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn’t a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that sorting out the woman’s crooked tale might bring him straight to death’s door.