SOURCE: "How Many Bar Girls Must Die?," in The New York Times Book Review, September 6, 1992, p. 25.

Hall is the author of the "Stanley Hastings" mysteries. In the following review, he labels White Butterfly "standard stuff, to be sure…. But what elevates it is the character [of Easy Rawlins."]

Walter Mosley's first novel, Devll in a Blue Dress, was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award and received the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award. His second novel, A Red Death, proved the success of his first was no fluke. Now, with White Butterfly, Walter Mosley has established himself as one of America's best mystery writers.

What sets these books apart from other suspense novels is, of course, the protagonist, Easy Rawlins. Rawlins is not your ordinary mystery hero. A black man coping with crime, racism and his own personal demons-though not necessarily in that order-he...