Signed by author on title page without inscription, first edition with full number line. Bottom corners bumped. Easy Rawlins is out of the investigation business and as far away from crime as a black man can be in 1960s Los Angeles.But living around desperate men means life gets complicated sometimes.When an old friend gets in enough trouble to ask for Easys help, he finds he cant refuse. Young Brawly Brown has traded in his family for The Clan of the First Men, a group rejecting white leadershipand laws. Browns mom asks Easy to make sure her babys okay, and Easy promises to find him. His first day on the case, Easy comes face-to-face with a corpse, and before he knows it he is a murder suspect and in the middle of a police raid. Brawly Brown is clearly the kind of trouble most folks try to avoid. It takes everything Easy has just to stay alive as he explores a world filled with betrayals and predators like he never imagined.