On this page

This page lists novels, short story collections and non-fiction by Walter Mosley. Books about Walter Mosley are also included.

In addition to crime fiction Mosley has also written science fiction and young adult novels. Although falling outside the scope of this site these are included for completeness sake.

Cover images are usually, when possible, of the early US edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Walter Mosley:
- novels / short story collections
- omnibus editions
- non-fiction

Edited by Walter Mosley:
- fiction / non-fiction

About Walter Mosley:
- critical / biographical

Devil in a Blue Dress

Walter Mosley

1990

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"The summer of '48 in the city of Angels and there's heat on the streets when Daphne Monet hits the sidewalk. Heat when she disappears with a trunkload of somebody else's cash. Easy Rawlins is a war veteran just fired from his job. Drinking in a friend's bar, he wonders how to meet his mortgage when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will locate Miss Monet, a blonde with a reputation. It's a simple decision, but for one thing. Nobody warned him - better the devil you know ...."

A Red Death

Walter Mosley

1991

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"It's 1953 in Red-baiting, blacklisting Los Angeles, a moral tar pit ready to swallow Easy Rawlins. Easy is out of 'the hurting business' and into the housing (and favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him for tax evasion. Special Agent Darryl T. Craxton, FBI, offers to bail him out if he agrees to infiltrate the First American Baptist Church and spy on alleged communist organizer Chaim Wenzler. That's when the murders begin . . ."

White Butterfly

Walter Mosley

1992

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"The police don't show up on Easy Rawlins's doorstep until the third girl dies. It's Los Angeles, 1956, and it takes more than one murdered black girl before the cops get interested. Now they need Easy. As he says: "I was worth a precinct full of detectives when the cops needed the word in the ghetto." But Easy turns them down. He's married now, a father - and his detective days are over. Then a white college coed dies the same brutal death, and the cops put the heat on Easy: If he doesn't help, his best friend is headed for jail. So Easy's back, walking the midnight streets of Watts and the darker, twisted avenues of a cunning killer's mind."

Black Betty

Walter Mosley

1994

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"1961: For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins, Los Angeles's mean streets were never meaner...or more deadly. Ordinarily, Easy would have thrown the two bills in the sleazy shamus' face -- the white man who wanted him to find the notorious Black Betty, an ebony siren whose talent for all things rich and male took her from Houston's Fifth Ward to Beverly Hills. There was too much Easy wasn't being told, but he couldn't resist the prospect of seeing Betty again, even if it killed him."

RL's Dream

Walter Mosley

1995

"Soupspoon Wise is dying on the unforgiving streets of New York City, years and worlds away from the Mississippi delta, where he once jammed with blues legend Robert "RL" Johnson. It was an experience that burned indelibly into Soupspoon's soul - never mind that they said RL's gift came from the Devil himself. Now it's Soupspoon's turn to strike a deal with a stranger. An alcoholic angel of mercy, Kiki Waters isn't much better off than Soupspoon, but she too is a child of the South, and knows its pull. And she is determined to let Soupspoon ride out the final notes of his haunting blues dream, to pour out the remarkable tale of what he's seen, where he's been -- and where he's going."

A Little Yellow Dog

Walter Mosley

1996

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"November 1963: Easy's settled into a steady gig as a school custodian. It's a quiet, simple existence -- but a few moments of ecstasy with a sexy teacher will change all that. When the lady vanishes, Easy's stuck with a couple of corpses, the cops on his back, and a little yellow dog who's nobody's best friend. With his not-so-simple past snapping at his heels, and with enemies old and new looking to get even, Easy must kiss his careful little life good-bye -- and step closer to the edge."

Gone Fishin'

Walter Mosley

1997

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"In the beginning...there was Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins and Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander -- two young men setting out in life, hitting the road in a 'borrowed' '36 Ford headed for Pariah, Texas. The volatile Mouse wants to retrieve money from his stepfather so he can marry his EttaMae. But on their steamy bayou excursion, Mouse will choose murder as a way out, while Easy's past liaison with EttaMae floats precariously in his memory. Easy and Mouse are coming of age - and everything they ever knew about friendship and about themselves is coming apart at the seams."

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

Walter Mosley

1997

A Socrates Fortlow novel.

"Socrates Fortlow has done his time: twenty-seven years for murder and rape, acts forged by his huge, rock-breaking hands. Now, he has come home to a new kind of prison: two battered rooms in an abandoned building in Watts. Working for the Bounty supermarket, and moving perilously close to invisibility, it is Socrates who throws a lifeline to a drowning man: young Darryl, whose shaky path is already bloodstained and fearsome. In a place of violence and hopelessness, Socrates offers up his own battle-scarred wisdom that can turn the world around."

Blue Light

Walter Mosley

1998

"In San Francisco in the mid 1960s, a cosmic blue light strikes people in its path, quickening their DNA, and greatly enhancing their strengths and understanding. They become the Blues, powerful yet vulnerable. And Blue Light is their story. Narrated by Chance, a half-black, half-white follower of the Blues, the novel traces their desperate conflict with one of their own, a man who - struck by the light at the moment he died - has become the living embodiment of death. Blue Light refracts questions of identity, race and humanity - hallmarks of Walter Mosley's writing - through a gripping adventure that puts a dazzling new spin on the relationship between past, present and future."

Walkin' the Dog

Walter Mosley

1999

A Socrates Fortlow novel.

"Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict forced to define his own morality in a lawless world, 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 . . . . Walkin' the Dog builds to a stunning climax as Socrates takes on a rogue cop who has terrorized his neighborhood."

Fearless Jones

Walter Mosley

2001

A Fearless Jones and Paris Minton novel.

"When sultry Elana Love walks into mild-mannered Paris Minton's bookshop, he knows she spells trouble. Elana is trying to escape her boyfriend Leon, who is 'three kinds of bad' - which doesn't bode well for Paris when he is seduced by her. Soon afterwards Elana disappears and Paris's shop is burned to the ground. He calls on war hero and jailbird friend Fearless Jones to come to his aid. Together they set off to find Elana so that Paris can get his life back on track again."

Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World

Walter Mosley

2001

"Projecting a near-future United States in which justice is blind in at least one eye and the ranks of the disenchanted have swollen to dangerous levels, Mosely offers nine interconnected stories whose characters appear and reappear in each others' lives. For all its denizens, from technocrats to terrorists, celebs to crooks, Futureland is an all-American nightmare just waiting to happen."

Bad Boy Brawly Brown

Walter Mosley

2002

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"The year is 1964, and though Easy seems settled into honest work as a Los Angeles custodian, he's having other problems - notably, his adopted son's wish to quit school, and lingering remorse over the death of his homicidal crony, Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander. Yet he remains willing to do "favors" for folks in need. So, when Alva Torres comes to him, worried that her son, Brawly Brown, will get into trouble running with black revolutionaries, Easy agrees to find the young man. His first day on the job, however, Rawlins stumbles across Alva's ex-husband - murdered - and he's soon dodging police, trying to connect a black activist's demise to a weapons cache, and exposing years of betrayal that have made Brawly an ideal pawn in disastrous plans."

Fear Itself

Walter Mosley

2003

A Fearless Jones and Paris Minton novel.

"Paris Minton is a man who would rather walk away from trouble, but in 1950s' Los Angeles, it just comes and finds you. Fearless Jones turns up on Paris's doorstep one night asking him to help an attractive woman find her husband. One night later a stranger shows up looking for the same man. It isn't long before Paris is running for his life, and it looks like even his friend Fearless might not be able to save him."

Six Easy Pieces

Walter Mosley

2003

A collection of seven interconnected Easy Rawlins stories.

"Ezekiel Rawlins now has a steady job as senior head custodian of Sojourner Truth High School, a nice house with a garden, a loving woman, and children. He counts the blessings of leading a law-abiding life, but is 'nowhere near happy.' Easy mourns the loss of his best friend, Mouse. Though Easy tries to leave the street life behind, he still finds himself trading favors and investigating cases of arson, murder, and missing people. People who can't depend on the law to solve their problems seek out Easy."The stories are:

• Smoke
• Crimson Stain
• Silver Lining
• Lavender
• Gator Green
• Untitled
• Amber Gate

Little Scarlet

Walter Mosley

2004

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965, the police turn up on Easy Rawlins's doorstep. Easy expects the worst - but they've come for his to ask for his help. A man was wrenched from his car by a mob at the riots' peak and escaped into a nearby apartment building. Soon afterwards, a redheaded woman known as Little Scarlet was found dead in the same building. The fleeing man is the obvious suspect but he has vanished. The police fear that their presence in certain neighbourhoods could spark a new inferno, so now they want Easy and his longtime friend Mouse to investigate. What they find is a killer whose rage echoes the passions that have burned in the city for weeks."

The Man in My Basement

Walter Mosley

2004

"Charles Blakey is a young black man whose life is slowly crumbling. His parents are dead, he can't find a job, he drinks too much, and his friends have begun to desert him. Worst of all, he's fallen behind on the mortgage payments for the beautiful home that's belonged to his family for generations. When a stranger - a white man - offers him $50,000 in cash to rent out his basement for the summer, Charles needs the money too badly to say no. He knows that the stranger must want something more than a basement view. Sure enough, he has a very particular - and bizarre - set of requirements, and Charles tries to satisfy him without getting lured into the strangeness. But he sees an opportunity to understand the secrets of the white world, and his summer with a man in his basement turns into a dark game of power and manipulation."

Cinnamon Kiss

Walter Mosley

2005

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"It is the Summer of Love as Cinnamon Kiss opens, and Easy Rawlins is contemplating robbing an armoured car. It's further outside the law than Easy has ever travelled, but his daughter Feather needs a medical treatment that costs far more than Easy can earn or borrow in time. And his friend Mouse tells him it's a cinch. Then another friend, Saul Lynx, offers a job that might solve Easy's problem without jail time. He has to track the disappearance of an eccentric, prominent attorney. His assistant of sort, the beautiful 'Cinnamon' Cargill, has gone as well. Easy can tell there is much more than he is being told - Robert Lee, his new employer, is as suspect as the man who disappeared. But his need overcomes all concerns, and he plunges into unfamiliar territory."

The Wave

Walter Mosley

2005

"Errol is awakened again by a strange prank caller asking for him by name and claiming to be his father--who has been dead for several years. It feels like a surreal call from the grave, until Erroll hears the unmistakable sound of a handset being put down on a table. Curious, and not a little unnerved, he sneaks into the graveyard where his father is buried. What he finds there will change his life forever. But once Errol's been touched by the Wave, a presence infecting the planet, can anything be the same again?"

47

Walter Mosley

2005

A young adult novel.

"A young slave boy is named and numbered 47 on a nineteenth-century Georgia plantation and encounters the brutality and injustice of the system of slavery. 47 meets a strange being named Tall John who appears to be another slave boy - a runaway. But as 47 comes to realise, John is an extraterrestrial visitor who believes that his destiny is intertwined with the young slave's. Tall John is a science fiction creation but he is also a reinterpretation of High John the Conqueror - a character taken from old slave myths about a spirit come from Africa to confound the slave masters and (ultimately) to free all slaves."

Fear of the Dark

Walter Mosley

2006

A Fearless Jones and Paris Minton novel.

"Fearless Jones and Paris Minton return in a high-velocity thriller about family, betrayal, and revenge. 'I'm in trouble, Paris.' Paris Minton has heard these words before. They mean only one thing: that his neck is on the line too. So when they are uttered by his lowlife cousin Ulysses S. Grant, Paris keeps the door to his bookshop firmly closed. With family like Ulysses - 'Useless' to everyone except his mother - who needs enemies? But trouble always finds an open window, and before long Paris is paying a call on his long-time friend and bodyguard, Fearless Jones. Criss-crossing the complicated landscape of 1950s Los Angeles, where a wrong look can get a black man killed, Paris and Fearless find desperate women, secret lives, and more than one dead body along the way."

Fortunate Son

Walter Mosley

2006

"In spite of remarkable differences, Tommy and Eric are as close as brothers. Tommy, a delicate black boy, is cursed with health problems and drawn to trouble more often than not. Eric is a Nordic Adonis, graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune. When tragedy rips their makeshift family apart, the two boys are set on courses that diverge astonishingly. In a riveting tale of resilience and redemption that traces their parallel lives, Tommy and Eric ultimately reunite after years apart and draw on their childhood bond as they confront together the forces that threaten to destroy them."

Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel

Walter Mosley

2006

"When Cordell Carmel catches his long-term girlfriend with another man - the thick-necked chauvinist Johnny Fry - something profound happens to him. Overnight Cordell's calm life dissolves. Finding himself prey both to thoughts of murder and an insatiable libido, he begins a dark sexual odyssey in search of retribution and gratification, leading him deep into the erotic heart of New York City."

Blonde Faith

Walter Mosley

2007

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"Easy Rawlins comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems. The love of his life is marrying another man and his friend Mouse is wanted for murder. As he's searching for a clue to Christmas Black's whereabouts, two suspicious MPs hire him to find his friend Black on behalf of the US Army. Easy's investigation brings him to Faith Laneer, a blonde woman with a dark past. As Easy begins to put the pieces together, he realizes that Black's disappearance has its roots in Vietnam, and that Faith might be in a world of danger."

Diablerie

Walter Mosley

2007

"Is there anyone who doesn't wonder now and again about how differently their life could have turned out? About a more interesting, more adventurous, more dangerous past they could have had? Ben Dibbuk is married to the beautiful Mona, has a lovely daughter and a well-paid job in NYC - but he's been locked in this dream for more years than he can say. But nothing can prepare Ben for his chance meeting with Star, a mysterious woman at a launch for the hip magazine Diablerie - because Star claims to share a gruesome secret that Ben just can't remember. Has Star spun a diabolical web of lies, or could it be that something terrible really did happen back in June 1979? Ben's grip on the truth begins to falter, and the line between what really happened and what might have done becomes harder and harder to negotiate."

The Right Mistake

Walter Mosley

2008

A Socrates Fortlow novel.

"Living in South Central L.A., Socrates Fortlow is a sixty-year-old ex-convict, still strong enough to kill men with his bare hands. Now freed after serving twenty-seven years in prison, he is filled with profound guilt about his own crimes and disheartened by the chaos of the streets. Along with his gambler friend Billy Psalms, Socrates calls together local people of all races from their different social stations - lawyers, gangsters, preachers, Buddhists, businessmen - to conduct meetings of a Thinkers' Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in life. The street philosopher enjoins his friends to explore - even in the knowledge that there's nothing that they personally can do to change the ways of the world - what might be done anyway, what it would take to change themselves. Infiltrated by undercover cops, and threatened by strain from within, tensions rise as hot-blooded gangsters and respectable deacons fight over issues of personal and social responsibility. But simply by asking questions about racial authenticity, street justice, infidelity, poverty, and the possibility of mutual understanding, Socrates and his unlikely crew actually begin to make a difference."

The Tempest Tales

Walter Mosley

2008

"Tempest Landry is neither a good nor a bad man, but an average man trying to survive. Sure, he stole money from his mother's church, but he used it to pay for his aunt's groceries while she was recovering from pneumonia. And yes, Tiny Henderson went to jail because of Tempest's white lie, but the brutal rapist and murderer deserved it. After a cop 'accidentally' kills Tempest, Tempest is denied access to heaven for his sins. But he brazenly refuses St. Peter's command to proceed to hell - he would just as soon settle for his old life in Harlem. Temporarily stymied, St. Peter grants Tempest his wish - but in a different body and with a guardian angel following him around who is determined to convert him to righteousness. But the devil is also in the running for Tempest's soul - and he wants it in a bad way. In this episodic and humorous homage to Langston Hughes' prescient narrator Jess B. Simple, readers are lured into the never-ending debate on the nature of good and evil. The Tempest Tales explores the provoking questions: Is sin the same for people of different races? Is sin judged the same for the poor as it is for the rich? And ultimately, who really gets to decide?"

The Long Fall

Walter Mosley

2009

A Leonid McGill novel.

"We follow former rule-breaker Leonid McGill as he's buffeted between the overlords of New York's underbelly, desperate to turn straight, but unable to say no to a nicely paid job. When we're introduced, he's calling in old favours and greasing NYPD palms to uncover seemingly harmless information for a high-paying client. But when the former schoolmates on his list are bludgeoned to death one by one, McGill realises that a friendly reunion wasn't quite what his taskmaster had in mind. And the awkward questions that follow seem almost welcome in comparison to a visit from Willie Sanderson, a trained killer and 'modern-day Frankenstein', now primed to ensure that McGill breathes his last."

Known to Evil

Walter Mosley

2010

A Leonid McGill novel.

"A mystery caller sends Leonid McGill to an uptown address 'just to check a girl's OK'. There's no explanation - just a name, Angelique - a reward, and the chilling knowledge that he's working for Rinaldo Alphonse, the most feared man in New York. What LT finds is a crime scene. A girl lies with her face blown off, her assassin felled by a knife. But the dead girl isn't the one LT was sent to find, and her killer's injuries don't make sense. The next day Alphonse comes calling: LT must find Angelique before the assassin's assassin tracks her down. Alphonse isn't the only one who wants a bit of LT's time - the NYPD, finding his appearance too convenient, think they can finally put away the thorn in their side. But why do so many people want a piece of the apparently normal, clean-living Angelique? And why is the mafia coming after McGill, linking his sons - shy Dmitri and streetwise Twill - to the escape of a sex-trafficked Belarussian girl? As both plots career towards a thrilling finale, McGill must put his street know-how and book of lethal contacts to the test, while haunted by the reappearance of a face from his crooked past and his wife Katrina's continued infidelities."

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Walter Mosley

2010

"Ptolemy Grey is ninety-one years old and has been all but forgotten-by his family, his friends, even himself-as he sinks into a lonely dementia. His grand-nephew, Ptolemy's only connection to the outside world, was recently killed in a drive-by shooting, and Ptolemy is too suspicious of anyone else to allow them into his life. until he meets Robyn, his niece's seventeen-year-old lodger and the only one willing to take care of an old man at his grandnephew's funeral. But Robyn will not tolerate Ptolemy's hermitlike existence. She challenges him to interact more with the world around him, and he grasps more firmly onto his disappearing consciousness. However, this new activity pushes Ptolemy into the fold of a doctor touting an experimental drug that guarantees Ptolemy won't live to see age ninety-two but that he'll spend his last days in feverish vigor and clarity. With his mind clear, what Ptolemy finds - in his own past, in his own apartment, and in the circumstances surrounding his grand-nephew's death - is shocking enough to spur an old man to action, and to ensure a legacy that no one will forget."

When the Thrill Is Gone

Walter Mosley

2011

A Leonid McGill novel.

"The economy has hit the PI business hard, and Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped poverty via marriage to a rich collector. A rich collector with two ex-wives whose deaths are shrouded in mystery. She says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away. Meanwhile, Leonid's personal life grows ever more chequered: his favourite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the whole family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations... Is the client at his door who she seems and - if his family's misadventures don't kill him first - will sorting out the woman's crooked tale bring Leonid straight to death's door?"

Karma

Walter Mosley

2011

A Leonid McGill novella originally published in the anthology Dangerous Women. This edition only published electronically.

"In Karma Walter Mosley tells us the story of the moment Leonid McGill decided to change his ways, when a seemingly classic femme fatale forced him to confront the reality of his life of corruption and betrayal. It was the culmination of a dark and tragic case that reached back through McGill's entire career, plumbing the full, complex history of the soul-scarred figure."

All I Did Was Shoot My Man

Walter Mosley

2012

A Leonid McGill novel.

"Seven years ago Zella Grisham was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder and grand theft. After two years of fruitless negotiations Zella was sentenced to 25 years in prison, mainly because she refused to give up her accomplices in a $6.8 million heist from Rutgers Assurance Corp. But Zella had played no part in that heist. PI Leonid McGill had planted the evidence. All Zella had done was shoot her man, her cheating husband Harry Tangelo, when she'd caught him in bed with her best friend. That was a long time ago, and McGill has regrets. So he hires a hotshot attorney to set her free. Zella's big regret is that she tried to kill Tangelo. McGill agrees to track him down, but the trail leads back to Rutgers Assurance, and the man who paid McGill to plant the evidence is found dead. As Zella is hounded and an attempt is made on McGill's life, the detective realises the case is more complicated than he had ever imagined - but can he live long enough to sort it out?"

Parishioner

Walter Mosley

2012

Only published electronically.

"In a small town situated between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, a simple church of white stone sits atop a hill on the coast. This nameless house of worship is a sanctuary for the worst kinds of sinners: the congregation and even the clergy have broken all ten Commandments and more. Now they have gathered to seek forgiveness. Xavier Rule - Ecks to his friends - didn’t come to California in search of salvation but, thanks to the grace of this church, he has begun to learn to forgive himself and others for past misdeeds. One day a woman arrives to seek absolution for the guilt she has carried for years over her role in a scheme to kidnap three children and sell them on the black market. As part of atoning for his past life on the wrong side of the law, Ecks is assigned to find out what happened to the abducted children. As he follows the thin trail of the twenty-three-year-old crime, he must struggle against his old, lethal instincts - and learn when to give in to them."

The Gift of Fire / On the Head of a Pin

Walter Mosley

2012

Part of the Crosstown to Oblivion series.

"The Gift of Fire: In ancient mythology, the Titan Prometheus was punished by the gods for bringing man the gift of fire - an event that set humankind on its course of knowledge. As punishment for making man as powerful as gods, Prometheus was bound to a rock; every day his immortal body was devoured by a giant eagle. But in The Gift of Fire, those chains cease to be, and the great champion of man walks from that immortal prison into present-day South Central Los Angeles. On the Head of a Pin: Joshua Winterland and Ana Fried are working at Jennings-Tremont Enterprises when they make the most important discovery in the history of this world - or possibly the next. JTE is developing advanced animatronics editing techniques to create high-end movies indistinguishable from live-action. Long dead stars can now share the screen with today's A-list. But one night Joshua and Ana discover something lingering in the rendered footage...an entity that will lead them into a new age beyond the reality they have come to know."

Merge / Disciple

Walter Mosley

2012

Part of the Crosstown to Oblivion series.

"Merge: Releigh Redman loved Nicci Charbon until she left him heartbroken. Then he hit the lotto for $26 million, quit his minimum wage job and set his sights on one goal: reading the entire collection of lectures in the Popular Educator Library, the only thing his father left behind after he died. As Raleigh is trudging through the eighth volume, he notices something in his apartment that at first seems ordinary but quickly reveals itself to be from a world very different from our own. This entity shows Raleigh joy beyond the comforts of $26 million dollars...and merges our world with those that live beyond. Disciple: Hogarth 'Trent' Tryman is a forty-two year old man working a dead-end data entry job. Though he lives alone and has no real friends besides his mother, he's grown quite content in his quiet life, burning away time with television, the internet, and video games. That all changes the night he receives a bizarre instant message on his computer from a man who calls himself Bron. At first he thinks it's a joke, but in just a matter of days Hogarth Tryman goes from a data entry clerk to the head of a corporation. His fate is now in very powerful hands as he realizes he has become a pawn in a much larger game with unimaginable stakes - a battle that threatens the prime life force on Earth."

Little Green

Walter Mosley

2013

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"As Easy wakes from his coma, the last thing he needs is an investigation. But a friend's son is in trouble and old habits die hard. So Easy wades into the squats, clubs and LSD dens of Sunset Boulevard, trying to find the missing boy, Evander. What he discovers will take him on a journey into the dark underbelly of 1960s culture, where Evander's disappearance is only one piece of a far larger puzzle."

Stepping Stone / The Love Machine

Walter Mosley

2013

Part of the Crosstown to Oblivion series.

"Stepping Stone: Truman Pope has spent his whole life watching the world go by - and waiting for something he can't quite put into words. A gentle, unassuming soul, he has worked in the mailroom of a large corporation for decades without making waves, until the day he spots a mysterious woman in yellow. A woman nobody else can see. Soon Truman's quiet life begins to turn upside-down. An old lover surfaces from his past even as he finds his job in jeopardy. Strange visions haunt his days and nights, until he begins to doubt his sanity. Is he losing his mind, or is he on the brink of a startling revelation that will change his life forever - and transform the nature of humanity? Love Machine: The Datascriber was supposed to merely allow individuals to share sensory experiences via a neurological link, but its true potential is even more revolutionary. The brainchild of an eccentric, possibly deranged scientist, the 'Love Machine' can merge individual psyches and memories into a collective Co-Mind that transcends race, gender, species . . . and even death itself. Tricked into joining the Co-Mind, as part of a master plan to take over the world, Lois Kim struggles to adapt to her new reality and abilities. Is there any way back to the life that was stolen from her, or is she destined to lead humanity into a strange new era, despite the opposition of forces both human and otherwise?"

Odyssey

Walter Mosley

2013

Only published electronically.

"Sovereign’s doctors can't find anything wrong with him, nor does he remember any physical or psychological trauma. Unless his sight returns, Sovereign has reached the end of his 25-year career in human resources. A couple of weeks later he is violently mugged on the street. His sight briefly, miraculously returns during the attack: for a few seconds, he can see as well as hear a young female bystander’s cries of distress. Now he must grapple with two questions: What caused him to lose his vision—and, perhaps more troubling, why does violence restore it? As Sovereign searches for the woman he glimpsed, he will come to question everything he valued about his former life."

Rose Gold

Walter Mosley

2014

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"They want him to find Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a millionaire arms dealer. And Easy can't afford to say no. The LAPD think she's with Bob Mantle, a black boxer turned radical. Has she been kidnapped? Is she colluding? When Easy is almost gunned down on his first day on the case, he realises he'll need more than wits to find Rose Gold."

Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore

Walter Mosley

2014

"Millions of men and (no doubt many) women have watched famed black porn queen Debbie Dare - she of the blond wig and blue contacts - 'do it' on television and computer screens in every combination of partners and positions imaginable. But after an unexpected and thunderous on-set orgasm catches her unawares, Debbie returns home to find her porn-producer husband dead, electrocuted in their hot tub in the midst of 'auditioning' an aspiring young starlet. Burdened with massive debt - incurred by her husband, and which various L.A. heavies want to collect on - Debbie must find a way to extricate herself from the peculiar subculture of the porn industry and reconcile herself to sacrifices she's made along the way."

And Sometimes I Wonder About You

Walter Mosley

2015

A Leonid McGill novel.

" Ex-boxer, hard drinker, in a business that trades in cash and favours, McGill's an old-school P.I. working a city that's got fancy all around him. When McGill is approached by a small-time office manager to track down his long lost cousin, he declines the case. He can almost smell the desperation on the man. But then McGill's office is broken into, and his potential client is found dead. Soon, McGill finds himself drawn into the underbelly of an establishment family, and a Pandora's box of secrets and lies. Taking you from the moneyed haunts of Uptown to the shady streets of Downtown, Mosley is the Chandler of Obama's America, and one of the finest crime writers in the world."

Inside a Silver Box

Walter Mosley

2015

"The Silver Box is the most destructive and powerful entity in the universe. lts former master, a member of an alien race known as the Laz, is desperate to control it once more, and the Box itself endeavors to be restored to its former master. Two people must join together to protect the human race from destruction at the hands of the Laz. For the Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means destroying the Earth itself. From life's meaning to the nature of good and evil, Mosley takes readers on a speculative journey beyond reality in Inside a Silver Box."

The Further Tales Of Tempest Landry

Walter Mosley

2015

This edition only published electronically.

"When Tempest Landry was accidentally shot and killed by the police, St. Peter ruled that Tempest’s sins condemned him to hell. But Tempest refused to accept damnation, and even heaven can't overrule free will. Unless he goes willingly, the order of heaven and hell will collapse and Satan will reign over the chaos. The celestial authority sends an accounting angel to earth, to convince Tempest that he should sacrifice himself for the good of the world, and casts Tempest’s soul into the body of a man who has been convicted of serious crimes. While Tempest serves out another man's prison sentence, the angel Joshua is living among mankind. He has been stripped of his celestial powers, yet is still tasked with persuading Tempest to make the right choice. As the angel sees the many injustices his friend suffers, he begins to question the morality and rightness of his position."

Charcoal Joe

Walter Mosley

2016

An Easy Rawlins novel.

"Easy Rawlins has started a new detective agency with two trusted partners and has a diamond ring in his pocket for his longtime girlfriend Bonnie Shay. Finally, Easy's life seems to be heading towards something that looks like normalcy, but, inevitably, a case gets in the way. Easy's friend Mouse calls in a favor--he wants Easy to meet with Rufus Tyler, an aging convict whom everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe's friend's son, Seymour, has been charged with the murder of two white men. Joe is convinced the young man is innocent and wants Easy to prove it no matter what the cost. But seeing as how Seymour was found standing over the dead bodies, and considering the racially charged nature of the crime, that will surely prove to be a tall order."

Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking The Line

Walter Mosley

2016

A novella. This edition only published electronically.

"Young journalism student Felix Orlean is in over his head. Against his better judgment, he is temporarily under the employ of the mad yet charismatic anarchist detective Archibald Lawless, a witness to murder, and under investigation for the theft of millions of dollars in red diamonds. Caught in an impossible predicament, Orlean plunges into an underworld populated by shady denizens. With Lawless, he unravels a big-money conspiracy involving cold-blooded assassination, hide-away real estate in Manhattan, a network of international criminals, a lethal siren named Lana Drexel, and the richest man in Canada."

John Woman

Walter Mosley

2018

" At twelve years old, Cornelius, the son of an Italian-American woman and an older black man from Mississippi named Herman, secretly takes over his father's job at a silent film theater in New York's East Village. Five years later, as Herman lives out his last days, he shares his wisdom with his son, explaining that the person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself - as Professor John Woman, a man who will spread Herman's teachings into the classrooms of his unorthodox southwestern university and beyond. But there are other individuals who are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman, and who might know something about the facts of his hidden past. Engaging with some of the most provocative ideas of recent intellectual history, John Woman is a compulsively readable, deliciously unexpected novel about the way we tell stories, and whether the stories we tell have the power to change the world."

Down the River unto the Sea

Walter Mosley

2018

"Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault, a charge that lands him in the notorious Rikers Island prison. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. When he receives a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid by someone in the NYPD to frame him all those years ago, King realises that he has no choice but to take his own case: figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of - and why. At the same time, King must investigate the case of black radical journalist Leonard Compton, aka A Free Man, accused of killing two on-duty police offices who had been abusing their badges to traffic drugs and women into the city's poorest neighbourhoods. In pursuit of justice, our hero must beat dirty cops and even dirtier bankers. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: Compton's, and King's own."

Walter Mosley Omnibus

Walter Mosley

1990

An Easy Rawlins omnibus that brings together the three novels: Devil in a Blue Dress; A Red Death; and White Butterfly.

Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking off the Dead Hand of History

Walter Mosley

2000

"Though slavery was outlawed nearly a century and a half ago, all of us are still in figurative chains of one kind or another. Thus argues Walter Mosley in Workin' on the Chain Gang, a passionate examination of the social and economic injustices that continue to shackle the American people. Each one of us, Mosley claims, is restrained by a system that values money over humanity, power over truth, and conformity over independent thinking. Yet even as Mosley paints a sobering vision of contemporary economic and political reality, he offers a plan to break the fetters of our oppression. First we must recognize that our history is deeply informed by the black experience. Then we must cast off the all-consuming accoutrements of an economic system that keeps us blind to our own and others' humanity. Only then can we hope to achieve our true potential."

What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace

Walter Mosley

2003

"Starting with a personal memory of his father, Leroy's, war experiences, Walter Mosley writes passionately about the need for Black people to become active in the struggle for world peace. He argues that because of their experience of oppression Black people are crucially placed to build bridges between the affluent first world and the impoverished third world. Based on the personal insights that are the hallmark of his fiction, What Next is Walter Mosley's moving call to action. A generous book that reminds us that we are all part of a wider community of interests that requires nurturing and support."

Maximum Fantastic Four

Stan Lee, Walter Mosley, Jack Kirby

2005

"Ushering in momentous change in comic-book illustration and ingenuity, Jack Kirby's immense artistic contribution to Fantastic Four #1 revolutionized visual storytelling and brought the art of reality to the extraordinary lives of super-heroes. The ripple effects of that single issue continue to influence comic-book art to this day. As a tribute to Kirby's rendering of Marvel's First Family and their first adventure, Maximum Fantastic Four re-presents Fantastic Four #1 as you've never seen it before - highlighted by a super-size, digitally remastered, panel-by-panel exploration of the entire issue that captures every single detail and nuance of Kirby's groundbreaking artwork. The book also contains a substantial introduction and afterword by bestselling author and comic-book enthusiast Walter Mosley; art commentary by Kirby expert Mark Evanier; the stunning design of Paul Sahre; and a scale-sized, high-resolution reproduction of FF #1.This immaculately packaged coffee-table masterpiece is must-have for any Jack Kirby enthusiast, Fantastic Four fanatic, or sequential art fan!"

Life Out of Context

Walter Mosley

2006

"Life Out of Context begins as a powerful, brooding and humorously honest examination of Mosley's own sense of cultural dislocation as an African American writer. But due to a series of serendipitous events the screening of a documentary about Africa, an encounter with Harry Belafonte and Hugh Masakela Mosley, rather like the protagonist in one of his mystery novels, has a series of epiphanies on the role of a black intellectual in America. He asks: What can we do to fight injustice, poverty, exploitation, and racism? What is globalization doing to us? Through these late night meditations, Mosley attempts to transcend his earlier feelings of living a 'life out of context' and seeks instead to find a political context. He ends with a call to arms, proposing that African Americans have to break their historic ties with the Democratic Party, and form a party of their own."

This Year You Write Your Novel

Walter Mosley

2007

"Is that great novel still a seed in your mind, waiting for just the right time to emerge? When school is finished? When the kids have graduated? When you retire? No more excuses! You can write a novel and in this essential book of tips and practical advice for the aspiring writer, bestselling athor Walter Mosley promises you can write a novel in one year. Intended as both inspiration and instruction, Mosley discusses in very simple terms elements of fiction writing, a writer's discipline and the nuances of editing and rewriting."

Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation

Walter Mosley

2011

"In his late teens and early twenties, Walter Mosley was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Drawing from this intimate knowledge of addiction and recovery, Mosley explores the deviances of contemporary America and describes a society in thrall to its own consumption. Although Americans live in the richest country on earth, many citizens exist on the brink of poverty, and from that profound economic inequality stems self-destructive behavior. In Twelve Steps to Political Revelation, Mosley outlines a guide to recovery from oppression. First we must identify the problems that surround us. Next we must actively work together to create a just, more holistic society. And finally, power must be returned to the embrace of the people. Challenging and original, Recovery confronts both self-understanding and how we define ourselves in relation to others."

Folding the Red Into the Black: Developing a Viable Untopia for Human Survival in the 21st Century

Walter Mosley

2016

"Folding the Red into the Black has grown out of Mosley's public talks, which have gotten both enthusiastic and agitated responses. Mosley's is an elastic mind, and in this short monograph he frees himself to explore some novel ideas. He draws on personal experiences and insights as an African-American, a Jew, and one of our great writers to present an alternative manifesto of sorts: 'We need to throw off the unbearable weight of bureaucratic Capitalist and Socialist demands; demands that exist to perpetuate these systems, not to praise and raise humanity to its full promise. And so I propose the word, the term Untopia'."

Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems

Editor: Walter Mosley, Manthia Diawara, Clyde Taylor, Regina Austin

Introduction: Walter Mosley

1999

"In Black Genius 13 of black America's most eloquent voices share their visions for a self-sufficient, self-determined future: Farai Chideya, Stanley Crouch, George Cutty, Angela Davis, Jocelyn Elders, bell hooks, Spike Lee, Haki Madhubuti, Julianne Malveaux, Walter Moseley, Randall Robinson, Anna Deveare Smith, and Melvin van Peebles. Originally a series of community conversations conceived by Walter Moseley where 'visionaries with solutions' explored the role of black people in shaping cultural conciousness, this book reprints the lectures and the many responses to the questions. The speakers focus on such issues as economics, political power and culture, offering broad perspectives and concrete, achievable solutions."

The Best American Short Stories 2003

Editor: Walter Mosley

Series editor: Katrina Kenison

2003

"The acclaimed annual short fiction series showcases the work of such notable authors as Louise Erdirch, Dorothy Allison, Edwidge Danticat, Dan Chaon, Mona Simpson, and Rand Richard Cooper, from such publications as Esquire, The New Worker, and McSweeney's."

• Rationing (Mary Yukari Water)
• Mines (Susan Straight)
• Coins (Mona Simpson)
• Heaven Lake (Jess Row)
• Kavita Through Glass (Emily Ishem Raboteau)
• Ghost Knife (Sharon Pomerantz)
• Marie-Ange's Ginen (Marilene Phipps)
• Moriya (Dean Paschall)
• Every Tongue Shall Confess (ZZ Packer)
• Further Emergencies (Nicole Krauss)
• Devotion (Adam Haslett)
• Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down (Ryan Harty)
• Shamengwa (Louise Erdrich)
• The Shell Collector (Anthony Doerr)
• Baby Wilson (E. L. Doctorow)
• Night Talkers (Edwidge Danticat)
• Johnny Hamburger (Rand Richards Cooper)
• The Bees (Dan Chaon)
• Space (Kevin Brockmeier)
• Compassion (Dorothy Allison)

Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction

Woody Haut

1999

"From the Kennedy assassination to the Vietnam War and Watergate, through Reaganomics to Irangate and Whitewater, Neon Noir is a roller-coaster ride through the American nightmare. Haut investigates the dark side of America through the work of crime writers such as James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, James Sallis, George Pelecanos, Charles Willeford, Jerome Charyn, Sara Paretsky, Vicki Hendricks, KC Constantine, George V Higgins and James Crumley. Mapping the fissures and scars of America's psychogeography, its morally ambiguous shadowlands, Neon Noir also considers the difference between past and present hardboilers, the impact of war and journalism on noirists, the portrayal of cities, the aesthetics of crime fiction, and the changing relationship between the books and the films."

New Hard-Boiled Writers: 1970s-1990s

Leroy Lad Panek

2000

"Beginning in the 1970s, a new generation of writers took over the hard-boiled story and transformed it to fit the realities of their world - a universe infected by violence, greed, racism, sexism, war, and commercialism. The author comments both on the way the hard-boiled story has changed over the past three decades and examines the work of ten significant contemporary hard-boiled writers. Chapters on Robert B. Parker, James Crumley, Loren Estleman, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaasen, Earl Emerson, Robert Crais, James Lee Burke, and Walter Mosley demonstrate how these writers have used the hard-boiled hero to make powerful statements about life in the last quarter of the twentieth century."

Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion

Charles E. Wilson Jr

2003

"This is the only book-length study of Mosley's fiction, covering eight of his key novels, including his most recent, Bad Boy Brawley Brown (2002). In addition to comprehensive plot synopsis, character portraits, and thematic discussions for each work, historical contexts are considered. Terms and concepts are clearly explained for the student and general reader. A select bibliography cites biographical sources, interviews, criticism, reviews, and related works of interest."

Conversations with Walter Mosley

Editor: Owen E. Brady

2011

"The interviews in this collection cover Walter Mosley's career and reveal an overarching theme: a belief in the transformative power of reading and writing. …. Conversations with Walter Mosley covers the breadth of Mosley's career and reveals a craftsman and wryly witty conversationalist. Conscious of his forebears as well as literary techniques, he discusses favorites and influences including Camus, Shakespeare, and Dickens as well as writers in popular genres, especially speculative fiction and the hard-boiled noir detective tradition. He also discusses how his work modifies the crime tradition to engage it with black experience."

Understanding Walter Mosley

Jennifer Larson

2016

"Larson examines how Mosley’s writing interrogates, complicates, and contextualizes recurring moral, social, and even personal questions. She also considers the possible roots of Mosley’s enduring popularity with a diverse group of readers. Larson then traces key themes and claims throughout the Easy Rawlins series to show how Mosley’s beloved hero offers unique perspectives on race, class, and masculinity in the mid-to-late twentieth century; explores the ways in which Fearless Jones, Mosley’s second detective, both builds on and diverges from his predecessor’s character; and looks at how the works featuring Leonid McGill, Mosley’s junior detective, center on understanding the complex relationship between present-day social dilemmas and the personal as well as the communal past. Regarding Mosley’s other genres, Larson argues that the science fiction works together portray a future in which race, class, and gender are completely reimagined, yet still subject to an oppressive power dynamic, while his erotica asks readers to reconsider the dynamics of power and control but in a more personal, even intimate, context. Similarly, in Mosley’s nongenre fiction, stories are revived through a reconnection with the past, a reclaiming of cultural heritage and lineage, and a rejection of classist visions of power. Finally, Mosley’s nonfiction, which persuades his audience to act through writing, humanitarian efforts, or social uprising, offers a mix of lessons aimed at guiding readers through the same questions that inform his fiction writing."