SOURCE: "Play Mystery for Me," in San Francisco Review of Books, Vol. 20, No. 4, September-October, 1995, pp. 12-13.

Woods is an editor, short story writer, and critic. In the following review, she sees connections between RL's Dream and the Easy Rawlins novels but deems it able to stand on its own, concluding that the book is "without doubt the author's finest achievement to date."

Countless fine writers have been diminished by being pigeonholed into the category of "mystery writer." But what, ultimately, do mysteries do but reveal the secret passions and fears within the human heart? On four fascinating, previous occasions Walter Mosley, one of the more recent investigators of the human condition, has guided us into the postwar world of immigrant Southern blacks in that dream state called California. Through reluctant detective Easy Rawlins' vision, we are shown a heretofore unknown world where black men love their children, protect...