Best Novel: Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley is one of the most beloved and celebrated mystery authors working today. After wowing fans and critics alike with his Leonid McGill and Easy Rawlins series (among many, many other works), Mosley introduces a new character in Down the River Unto the Sea: Joe King Oliver, a former cop framed for the rape of a white woman who now works as a private investigator alongside his teenage daughter. The book earned a windfall of positive reviews, including one from Richard Lipez at the Washington Post, who writes that Mosley’s latest is “As gorgeous a novel as anything he’s ever written. And with Joe King Oliver I’m betting, and hoping, he’s given us a character we haven’t see the last of.”
