Love mysteries? Just like to read a mystery every now and then?  Doesn’t matter; if you haven’t already, you need to pick up Howard Owen’s Willie Black mysteries.  I have been a big fan since the first one was published; the award winning “Oregon Hill.” I have just finished the fourth, “The Bottom” which is a breathtaking read.                 

    Willie Black is a jaded, almost alcoholic, chain smoking, but for a good woman is working toward personal redemption, dogged, newspaper man.  In the city of Richmond, VA, Willie Black has a nose for gritty news which almost always involves unsolved murders that he tries to solve as a journalist no matter that the pursuit puts him at risk of losing his job, and sometimes puts his friends and family members in danger.  His almost uncanny ability to find people who will talk only to him is due in part to his long history in the city and to his being mixed race in a city that still has racial borders. 

    A former newspaper sports editor himself, Howard Owen writes these Willie Black mysteries with an insider’s understanding of modern newspapers and the challenges those newspapers face from waning readerships because of the influence of the internet.  Filled with memorable characters like Awesome-Dude, the novels are written in language that is concise and hardboiled, with a rough, sometimes poetic eloquence that makes the story sing with humanity and unexpected, but welcome, humor. 

     I cannot recommend the Willie Black mysteries more highly.