BLACK BETTY

The early 1960s find sometime-detective Easy Rawlins struggling to make a life for himself and his adopted children. When he's offered two hundred dollars to find "Black Betty," a missing housekeeper who enthralled him years earlier, he reluctantly agrees. The seemingly simple case sends Easy to jail and brings him perilously close to death. Narrator Stanley Bennett Clay is masterful in vocalizing a challenging cast of characters, ranging from prostitutes to millionaires, lawyers, and street people of every description. His depiction of the murderer who adds to Easy's troubles is both amusing and appropriate. J.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]