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This page lists novels that feature Easy Rawlins, a Los Angeles based private investigator during the 1940's - 1960's period.

Cover images are usually of an early US edition and a more recent digital or paperback edition.

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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.