Manic Monday: Clue

The word for this week is clue. Detectives are people that use clues for a living. My television tastes include a number of fictional detectives such as Rockford (James Garner) and Magnum (Tom Selleck). Garner and Selleck are both on my list of all-time favorite actors. I used to enjoy watching a show called Banacek (George Peppard), however Peppard never became a favorite actor for me ... probably because of his work on a show called the A-Team.

Over the past year I have become very much in tune with British mysteries that show on either the Biography Channel or BBC channel, such as Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Prime Suspect, Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Foyle's War. I didn't have a clue that I watched so many British mystery movies until tonight.

There are not many fictional African American detectives. Shaft and Hawk are two African American detectives that come to mind.

However villagers, my all-time favorite detective of all time is Easy Rawlins, an unemployed Black vet who falls into the detective trade quite by accident. The character was created by Walter Mosley in his 1990 book called, Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley continues the series, jumping ahead a few years at a shot, with each book offering a vivid snapshot of the Black experience in America -- and particularly Los Angeles, in the latter half of the 20th century.

Easy is a cool character. We watch him complete his education. We see him build a real estate portfolio. We admire his sense of right and wrong as he adopts two abandoned children into his life. He knows -- as a Black man living in the last half of the twentieth century in the United States, and from his own experiences -- how easiliy it can all be stripped away.

Last year, I gave away Easy Rawlins' novels as gifts during the holiday season. I encourage all villagers to experience the Easy Rawlins experience if you haven't done so already --> Red Death (1991), White Butterfly (1992), Black Betty (1994), A Little Yellow Dog (1996), Gone Fishin' (1997), Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002), Six Easy Pieces (2003), Little Scarlet (2004) and Cinnamon Kiss (2005).