Book Review: A private eye searches for his missing father while protecting a runaway wife

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Marigold Hart walked out on her billionaire husband, taking their 7-year-old daughter with her. She moved cross country to New York City and has been living under an assumed name.

Her husband, Anthony Orr, hires Joe King Oliver, former NYPD officer turned private detective, to track her down.

Joe, however, has problems of his own. His beloved, 94-year-old grandmother has cancer, and she wants to see her only son, Joe’s father, before consenting to surgery. But no one seems to know where to find Chief Odin Oliver, who has been estranged from his family ever since he was convicted of robbing a convenience store when Joe was just 13 years old.

In “Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right,” Walter Mosley’s third novel featuring Joe King Oliver, the author alternates between the two plots, making Joe the narrator of his own story.

Joe has little trouble finding Marigold Hart but is quick to recognize that a reunion with her husband is not in her best interest. In fact, the brute probably intends to kill her. So the missing person case quickly turns into a dangerous game of keep away.

Finding Joe’s father proves to be more challenging, in part because he’s hiding from the police who suspect him of a recent murder. Joe’s search leads readers into a dense tangle of Chief’s old friends, former girlfriends, and family members, many of whom are protective of him. So many new characters are introduced, and the plot grows so complex, that at times it can be difficult to keep everything straight.

As usual, Mosley’s fine prose often turns lyrical. Along the way he passes on Joe’s thoughtful reflections on friendship, love, justice and the mutual obligations between a father and a son.

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Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.”

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