SOURCE: A review of White Butterfly, in The Armchair Detective, Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter, 1993, p. 113.

Pelecanos is an American fiction writer. In the following review, he notes that in White Butterfly, Easy Rawlins faces more danger from his "psychological demons" than from the numerous hazards of his trade.

In the Los Angeles Watts district of 1956, women are being murdered and mutilated by an apparent serial killer. The cops are aware of the murders but not in any great hurry to see the killer brought to justice. The victims were only good-time girls, junkies and whores. More to the point, the victims were only black.

But when a Caucasian victim with a similar m. o. turns up, a young "exotic" dancer known by the professional name of White Butterfly, the heat is on to find the killer. The cops turn to reluctant detective Easy Rawlins for help.

Rawlins, a black...