1996 "First Edition" stated; "An Easy Rawlins Mystery"; W.W. Norton & Company publishers; hardbound with ebony boards and yellow dog image on cover; red lettering on spine; very good condition - book appears unread; dust jacket very good as well.
 
Author -
Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California; they are perhaps his most popular works.
 
Plot -
It's 1963.  Easy Rawlins has given up the street life that has brought him so much trouble and grief.  He's taken on a job as supervising custodian of Sojourner Truth Junior High School in Watts.  For two years he's been getting up early and going off to work.  He wears nice clothes and puts all his energy-and love- into his job and his adopted children....Easy comes in early one morning to find one of the teachers already in her classroom.  She has a dog with her and a story about a husband gone mad.  Before he knows what's happening, the teacher is in his arms...