SOURCE: Curwen, Thomas. “Smears on a Seamy L.A. Canvas.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (6 July 2003): 2.

In the following review, Curwen praises Mosley's narrative skill in Fear Itself, asserting that the novel fits well into the “larger canvas of Los Angeles that [Mosley's been painting for some 13 years.”]

Nineteen-fifties Los Angeles is a city of lies. Behind the patina of prosperity and the promise of freedom lies a corpse or two in the grass, a man with a gun, a false accusation and enough desperation to keep crime writers in business for years. Hollywood knew this, but noir quickly dated. Chester Himes knew this, but he pulled stakes before tapping its potential. James Ellroy knew this, but he's chasing bigger game now. Walter Mosley knows this, and he can't escape it.

Fear Itself, Mosley's ninth excursion into this postwar maelstrom, picks up where Fearless Jones left off...