Every Man a King: words of truth

By Sophia Doshi

Some books are a perfect concoction of pace, plot, and themes, and Every Man a King by Walter Mosely is an ideal example of this. It balances out the imbalance of power without oversaturating the reader with pity or anger for and towards the characters that don't have enough of it, and characters that have too much.

Reading the book was like reading a report on our society. Joe King Oliver is a black man investigating the validity and reasoning for a white supremacist being supposedly kidnapped and wrongly thrown into prison—the realism of this situation just goes to show how certain communities of people will always be at the behest of other groups because of societal, political, and economic history. You can assume for yourself what I'm getting at. 

Joe is not a man to be trifled with, and he demonstrates an acute awareness of his morals in any and every situation. Yet he is still a human, which Mosely does a masterful job of addressing throughout the book. Aside from this, Mosely's pacing and writing are easy to read. Sometimes, I find that mystery/noir writers incorporate too much inner dialogue or gray character-ness which throws off the main purpose of the character, which is to investigate someone else. Mosely does not turn the investigation into a self-reflection, but effectively keeps it an investigation of a different character. 

I also appreciate how Mosely explores Joe's PTSD and sudden memories from prison. It's realistic and does not stigmatize mental health struggles, which for some authors, is hard to do. Major kudos for that. 

Joe King Oliver is the ultimate protagonist. No matter what he does, I was rooting for him all the while, because he's such a good, well-written character. He's tough but he's vulnerable, he's a hard worker and a family man, and he's a kick-ass cop. I'm a big fan of this book—go read it!

Cover image from Vectors