All I Did Was Shoot My Man

By: Walter Mosley

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present.

Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn't remember shooting Harry, but she didn't deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.

For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella's innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an exprostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias.

A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man's attempt to stay connected to his family.

Critic reviews

Praise for All I Did Was Shoot My Man

“The best [McGill] book yet.”—The Boston Globe

“Like the city he works in, and the Mosley books he inhabits, Leonid McGill is complicated, savvy and full of surprises: a would-be champ who can't win for losing, a fighter who can never be counted out.”—The Wall Street Journal

“A big city never looks the same once you've walked its streets with a hard-boiled private eye. preferably someone as perceptive and thoughtful as Leonid McGill…[He] doesn't so much walk the city as case it for danger. Keeping pace with him is as much an education as an adventure.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Mosley ratchets up the tension with each new installment in his compelling series.”—Star-Ledger

“Walter Mosley has proven over and over again during the past two decades that he is not only one of America’s greatest mystery writers, but is one of America’s greatest writers period—an American literary treasure. And in All I Did Was Shoot My Man…Mosley has given us one of his best works ever. In Leonid McGill, Mosley has created a character Dostoyevsky would have loved. [He] has written a mystery novel that transcends the genre—a private-eye story for the new, uncertain and constantly dangerous century. All I Did Was Shoot My Man is one of the best books of [the year] and you can’t help but root for Leonid McGill. We have much to look forward to with this series. Kudos to Walter Mosley.”—BookReporter.com

“The best in the series to date…complex, satisfying.”—Publishers Weekly

“Exceptional storytelling.”—Library Journal

Lone Wolf and Life

Good read...Good performance!
Mosely in his genre! Gritty with danger, anger and a heart beat rhythm.

More please!

Mosley doesn’t disappoint! I look forward to more with Till and dad Sr. Always difficult to find my next read. I’m invested in these characters.

Learn quick why she shot her man

I always enjoy Walter Mosley's stories. This one was good, but I feel as though the story is a transitional piece between two other books. There is much history behind this story and Mosley tries to make sure the listener knows some of it. Why Zella shot her man is revealed early in the story. Good for her. Mystery solved early. However, some other pieces of the story are not as clear. I am concerned about LT's wife. LT's father and his brother. No answers here, but perhaps possible storylines for other stories. Which is a good thing. Mirron Willis as narrator is outstanding. Love his voice which is perfect for LT. Makes me laugh when impersonating the wife though. The foreign accent is a hoot. LT is no EZ Rawlings but a nice substitute or change with a different kind of craziness. I will probably listen to the story again before moving on to the one in the series. Really good story if one does not try to analyze the heck of the motivations of the characters. Don't think, just sit back and enjoy. 4 stars because the ending bought no closure for me.

best one so far

I liked this story better than the other Leonid McGill Mysteries. Very good read. I hope tge next one is as good

Perhaps the best of the series.

*NOTE: SPOILER INCLUDED (if you've read the previous book "When the Thrill", then it's not a spoiler)

I have long been a fan of Walter Mosley, and perhaps the only one I know of who liked Leonid McGill almost as much as Easy Rawlins from the start. This is because, though Easy tells a more base, raw story (having a racist, Civil-Rights world around him), Leonid is much more multi-faceted and complex, with a highly intelligent voice and dealing with many more problems than Easy. For this reason, McGill stands as the more relevant of the two heroes, if not the more popular. Hopefully (if Mosley gets his wish) Jeffrey Wright can bring McGill to HBO's small screen with all the intelligence Mosley has poured onto his pages. "All I Did" has been criticized as being too convoluted a story, but if you read it quickly, you won't get lost, and Mosley keeps you reading quickly. Every member of McGill's family brings problems for him to solve (the wife is a drunk, his oldest son moves out, his daughter is sleeping with an older married man, and his criminal genius youngest child works for him but makes his own decisions on his first case). Not to mention he has to solve a decades-old robbery, keep himself and his client alive, and is still searching for a father who has been resurrected*. And why should it not be this way? Don't we all have a myriad of trials and victories each day we live?
Mosley weaves his six or seven subplots better than most, and gives us a hero we can believe in, because despite his external windmills, this dark-skinned Quixote is a man from our time, seeking the same redemption we are all searching for (as Americans, as humans)...to be ever better than we were the day before.
Mirron Willis, though he emphasizes EVERY letter, reads clearly, with the intelligence deserving of Leonid McGill's voice.

With further character and story development, and leaving us with a cliff-hanger ending, this is the best of the series thus far.