Six easy pieces - Walter Mosley

With the love of a good woman and two beautiful children, Easy Rawlins has put his past life of trading favors behind him. Following the loss of his best friend and sidekick, Mouse, he wants to set an example for his children by earning an honest living. But trouble has a way of finding Easy on the mean streets of Watts.
Easy wanders from schoolhouse to whorehouse as he is drawn into investigating the torching of Sojourner Truth, the Junior High School where he works, then the turning over of a local garage and the death of a prostitute. But no man is an island... His job, his lover, his comfortable house and the children he cherishes all count for nothing when the phone rings and a woman asks if he knows where Mouse is. Easy soon discovers that Mouse is as much of a moral challenge dead as alive.
Rich in character and place, the stories reveal the complex nature of the American experience ? the issues of class and race, hope and despair, light and darkness. Six Easy Pieces is confirmation that Mosley?s vision continues to stretch and redefine the American canon.