In this new book, Socrates confronts wrongs that most people would rather ignore and comes face-to-face with the most dangerous emotion: hope. It has been nine years since his release from prison, and he still makes his home in a two-room shack in a Watts alley. But he has a girlfriend now, a steady job, and he is even caring for a pet, the two-legged dog he calls Killer. These responsibilities make finding the right path even harder--especially when the police make Socrates their first suspect in every crime within six blocks.

In each chapter of Walkin' the Dog, Socrates challenges a different conundrum of modern life. In Blue Lightning, he is offered a better-paying job but has to consider whether the extra pay is worth the freedom he would have to give up. In Promise, he keeps a vow made long ago to a dying friend, and learns that a promise to one person can mean damage to another. In Mookie Kid he gets a telephone and learns that the price of being able to reach others is that others can contact him - whether he wants to be reached or not.

Walkin' the Dog builds to a stunning climax as Socrates takes on a rogue cop who has terrorized his neighborhood. Writing with the same lyricism and insight that have made bestsellers of his Easy Rawlins mysteries, Walter Mosley has brought us a brilliant new book and one of the most enduring fictional characters to come along in years.

Contents:

• Blue Lightning
• Promise
• Shift, Shift, Shift
• What Would You Do?
• A Day In The Park
• The Mugger
• That Smell
• Walkin' The Dog
• Mookie Kid
• Movin' On
• Rascals In The Cane
• Rogue