DOWN the RIVER unto the SEA (audiobook) by Walter Mosley

Published by Hachette Audio in 2018.
Read by Dion Graham.
Duration: 7 hours, 44 minutes.
Unabridged.

Joe King Oliver is a private detective in New York City. He used to be one of the best detectives in the NYPD, but he was set up for a crime he did not commit. He had a consensual sexual encounter with a woman he was supposed to arrest, but it was videotaped and made to look like a rape (a sexual favor in exchange for not being arrested). He lost his job, he lost his wife and he lost his daughter. He spent a 90 days in the lock up at Rikers Island and it broke him.

Oliver gets his life together with the help of a friend on the force and builds a respectable business. His daughter is in high school now and works as his receptionist in the afternoons.

One day a case comes in his door that changes everything and might offer a chance at redemption...

This is my first Walter Mosley book. You can't be a fan of detective books and not know his name - he is a staple.

But, I didn't like this book much for one simple reason - I didn't like a single character in the book. No one had much going for them except for Oliver's daughter, and I was pretty neutral about her.

And there were a lot of characters in this book. Every chapter seemed to add another character and the audibook listener is given a choice - keep notes or just try to guess who the character is when they come back into the story. Even worse, Oliver has multiple aliases that he uses throughout the book and when a name gets mentioned, I had to wonder if it was an alias or a new character or an old character that has returned.

Mosley turns several clever phrases in this book, but I just didn't care for it.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: DOWN the RIVER unto the SEA by Walter Mosley.