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An Easy Rawlins Mystery — by Walter Mosley
Easy Rawlins Series in Order: 17 books
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Devil in a Blue Dress
Book - 1
Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will ...
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A Red Death
Book - 2
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 the favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him for tax evasion. Special Agent Da...
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White Butterfly
Book - 3
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 preci...
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Black Betty
Book - 4
1961: Los Angeles' mean streets were never meaner ... or more deadly... .For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins the present looked bleak, the future worse. Ordinarily, he'd have thrown the two bills in the sl...
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A Little Yellow Dog
Book - 5
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 h...
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Gone Fishin'
Book - 6
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" Ford headed for Pariah, Texas. The volatile Mouse wants to retrieve money from his stepfather so he ...
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Bad Boy Brawly Brown
Book - 7
EASY RAWLINS IS BACK From master storyteller Walter Mosley, author of the New York Times bestsellers Devil with a Blue Dress and Little Yellow Dog, comes the eagerly anticipated return of private eye Easy Rawlins, in a dazzling new novel of passio...
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Six Easy Pieces
Book - 8
The beloved 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." Ea...
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Little Scarlet
Book - 9
Easy Rawlins returns to solve a mystery set amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen. Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965 - when anger is high and fear still smolders everywhere - the police turn up at Eas...
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Cinnamon Kiss
Book - 10
In this thrilling mystery, Easy Rawlins takes a job to find a missing attorney and his beautiful assistant -- and faces danger around every corner. It is the Summer of Love and Easy Rawlins is contemplating robbing an armored car. It's farther outsid...
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Blonde Faith
Book - 11
Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Chrismas 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...
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Little Green
Book - 12
When Walter Mosley burst onto the literary scene in 1990 with his first Easy Rawlins mystery, Devil in a Blue Dress -- a combustible mixture of Raymond Chandler and Richard Wright -- he captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of readers (incl...
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Charcoal Joe
Book - 14
In this latest installment of the Easy Rawlins series from beloved and bestselling author Walter Mosley, the L.A. private eye has his hands full with the investigation of a racially charged murder. Easy Rawlins has started a new detective agency w...
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Blood Grove
Book - 15
It is 1969, and flames can be seen on the horizon, protest wafts like smoke though the thick air, and Easy Rawlins, the Black private detective whose small agency finally has its own office, gets a visit from a white Vietnam veteran. The young man co...
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Farewell, Amethystine
Book - 16
From "master of the genre" (Washington Post) Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins' latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia -- blinding him to reason and risk. January 1970 finds Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, LA's premier Black detect...
Series Premise
The Easy Rawlins series is a historical mystery series centered on Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a Black World War II veteran living in Los Angeles. What begins as occasional investigative work gradually evolves into a career solving murders, disappearances, and other complex cases. As Easy moves through different decades, his investigations expose the realities of race, class, crime, and power in twentieth-century America.
Easy Rawlins Series Reading Order
🔄 Best Read in Order · Start with Book 1: Devil in a Blue Dress
Standalone stories, but characters and relationships develop across the series.
Publication order provides the best reading experience because Easy Rawlins ages and changes throughout the series. Each novel features a complete mystery with its own investigation and resolution, making the individual plots easy to follow. However, Easy's family life, friendships, finances, and personal outlook evolve significantly from book to book. Readers who begin later in the series can understand the mystery, but they will miss important context about Easy's life and the long-term development of recurring characters.
Explanation of reading order types
Easy Rawlins Series Characters
Easy Rawlins is the central protagonist, serving as both investigator and narrator throughout most of the series. Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, Easy's unpredictable and dangerous friend, is one of the most important recurring characters and frequently plays a major role in the stories. Family members, neighbors, police officers, criminals, and community leaders also recur throughout the series, reflecting the changing world around Easy. The relationships between these characters deepen as the series progresses.
Setting of the Easy Rawlins Series
The series is set primarily in Los Angeles, particularly within Black communities that were often overlooked in traditional crime fiction. As the books move through different decades, readers see changes in neighborhoods, politics, law enforcement, and social attitudes. The city itself becomes an important part of the narrative, shaping both the mysteries and the characters' experiences.
Tone & Themes of the Easy Rawlins Series
The Easy Rawlins series combines historical mystery, crime fiction, and social commentary. Common themes include racial injustice, economic inequality, identity, friendship, family, corruption, and survival. Many investigations reveal broader social issues beyond the immediate crime. The tone is thoughtful, atmospheric, and character-driven while maintaining the suspense expected of detective fiction.
Is the Easy Rawlins Series Worth Reading?
The Easy Rawlins series may appeal to readers who enjoy detective fiction with strong historical and social context. It is particularly suited to readers interested in postwar American history, noir-inspired mysteries, and character-focused crime novels. Fans of private investigator stories that explore larger cultural issues often find the series especially rewarding.
Content Warnings and Heat Level
Readers can expect murder investigations, violence, racism, discrimination, corruption, and discussions of social injustice. The books portray difficult historical realities and sometimes feature mature subject matter. Romantic content appears occasionally but is generally secondary to the mystery and historical elements, resulting in a low-to-moderate heat level.
The Easy Rawlins series combines detective fiction with a detailed portrait of changing American society. Readers looking for Easy Rawlins books in order will get the fullest experience by following publication order, allowing them to watch Easy's life develop alongside the historical backdrop. The series offers both compelling mysteries and a rich exploration of twentieth-century Los Angeles.
Books in this series fall into the following genres
Genres
People / Creatures
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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