SOURCE: A review of A Little Yellow Dog, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LXIV, No. 8, April 15, 1996, p. 565.

In the following review, the critic describes the plot of A Little Yellow Dog as "only average for this celebrated series," but praises the author's ability to convey the tenuousness of his characters' lives.

Easy Rawlins has been working for two years as a supervising custodian in Sojourner Truth Junior High School when he finds alluring math teacher Idabell Turner in her classroom much too early one morning for anything but trouble. Armed only with a wild story about how her husband, Holland Gasteau, has threatened to kill her dog, she's got Easy (Black Betty, 1994, etc.) in her arms within minutes, and his carefully constructed life in a shambles. By the end of the day, the Watts police will discover the corpses of both Holland and his twin brother Roman, and they'll...