Easy Rawlins eyes Hearst-like case

Walter Mosley evokes the curious turns of the Patty Hearst kidnapping saga and the fractured culture of that era in Rose Gold, his latest Easy Rawlins crime thriller.

Rawlins, a black private investigator based in Los Angeles, follows leads from poor, simmering LA streets to secluded beachside mansions and laid-back hippie encampments. His search recalls a time when a California heiress like Hearst could be abducted by a band of oddball militants calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army.

The heiress whom Rawlins is hired to find is the "Rose Gold" of the title - Rosemary Goldsmith is her name - the daughter of a wealthy, secretive armaments magnate. The SLA-type cell that holds her is Scorched Earth, whom authorities view as a crime-prone revolutionary band created by a black former boxer.