Series guide · 17 books, in order
Easy Rawlins Books in Order
The Easy Rawlins series follows Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a Black private investigator navigating Los Angeles from the 1940s through the 1970s. Walter Mosley uses Easy's cases to examine race, class, and survival across pivotal decades of American history. Each book works as a standalone mystery, but reading in publication order reveals Easy's evolution as he ages and the country transforms. The series spans 17 novels and one collection, making it one of the most important detective series in American crime fiction.
Updated 2026-07-13
Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley · 1990
Easy Rawlins, a Black man navigating 1948 Los Angeles, takes a job finding a missing white woman for reasons that will haunt him. The search becomes a map through the city's racial boundaries, corrupt police, and the machinery of casual, institutional violence that structured post-war American life.
The book that introduces Easy Rawlins and establishes the series' core tension between personal survival and moral ambiguity.
A Red Death
Walter Mosley · 1991
Easy becomes entangled with the IRS while caught between a murdered woman, organized crime, and government agents. As pressure mounts from multiple sides, Easy must navigate bureaucratic power with the same cunning he uses on the street.
Shows how systemic forces beyond traditional criminals can trap Easy, expanding the series beyond simple whodunits.
White Butterfly
Walter Mosley · 1992
A serial killer preys on young Black women across Los Angeles. The police ignore the murders until white society takes notice. Easy is drawn into a hunt that exposes the LAPD's indifference to Black lives and the cost of justice deferred.
Uses a serial killer plot to interrogate systemic racism and the hierarchy of whose deaths matter to law enforcement.
Black Betty
Walter Mosley · 1994
Easy is hired to find Elizabeth Eady, a strikingly beautiful woman whose presence has left a trail of chaos through wealthy Beverly Hills households. Her search takes Easy from Houston's working-class roots to the mansions that overlook the city.
Explores how power and beauty intersect across class lines, with Betty becoming a mirror for society's contradictions.
A Little Yellow Dog
Walter Mosley · 1996
Working as a custodian at a Los Angeles high school, Easy tries to build a respectable, law-abiding life with his adopted children. A murder at the school shatters his quiet existence, pulling him back into investigation and danger.
Shows Easy's desire for normalcy constantly undermined by the cases that find him.
Gone Fishin'
Walter Mosley · 1997
A prequel returning to a younger Easy and Mouse before Los Angeles, when the two set out on their first adventure in rural Texas. Their journey reveals the bond and moral compromises that will define their friendship.
Origins story that deepens the Easy-Mouse relationship central to the entire series.
Bad Boy Brawly Brown
Walter Mosley · 2002
It's 1964, and a teenage Brawly Brown has joined a Black revolutionary political group. Easy, now 44 with a job, a house, and children, is hired to find the boy and assess whether the group poses a real threat to the powerful.
Shifts the series into the Civil Rights era, with Easy caught between radical change and establishment control.
Six Easy Pieces
Walter Mosley · 2003
A collection of seven interconnected stories featuring Easy handling various cases while working as a high school custodian. From arsons to murders to missing people, the stories show Easy's world beyond the scope of any single novel.
Offers a varied portrait of Easy's day-to-day work and his internal struggle between his job and his nature.
Little Scarlet
Walter Mosley · 2004
Easy Rawlins takes a case during the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. Hired to find a missing woman, he navigates the chaos of the uprising and confronts the racial violence tearing his city apart, discovering that personal mysteries and historical catastrophe are inseparable.
Places Easy at the center of one of America's defining racial uprisings, with the riots as more than backdrop.
Cinnamon Kiss
Walter Mosley · 2005
Easy investigates a case with deep personal roots, tracing a path through betrayal and lost time. The case challenges Easy to confront what he has sacrificed and what cannot be recovered.
Deepens Easy's emotional complexity through a mystery rooted in his own history and desires.
Blonde Faith
Walter Mosley · 2007
Easy's friend Christmas Black disappears, and the trail leads back to Vietnam and a blonde woman. The search forces Easy to reckon with the wars that have shaped his generation and fractured his circle.
Introduces America's wars as a force shaping Easy's world and his relationships.
Little Green
Walter Mosley · 2013
A young Black man called Evander disappears during an acid trip on the Sunset Strip in the psychedelic 1960s. Easy, grounded in his working-class perspective, must navigate the counterculture to find him.
Contrasts Easy's practical worldview with the radical transformations of the era.
Rose Gold
Walter Mosley · 2014
A white heiress is kidnapped by a Black revolutionary group. Easy is brought in to negotiate a dangerous standoff that exposes the gulfs between worlds and the fragility of the structures that divide society.
Examines how Easy's ability to move between seemingly incompatible worlds makes him invaluable.
Charcoal Joe
Walter Mosley · 2016
An aging prisoner named Rufus Tyler asks Easy to prove that an innocent man has not committed murder. The investigation becomes a study of loyalty, institutional corruption, and second chances.
Returns to Easy's core commitment to the wrongly accused and those society has abandoned.
Blood Grove
Walter Mosley · 2021
Easy moves through a California increasingly populated by hippies, tycoons, radicals, and criminals. The boundaries between these worlds blur, forcing Easy to adapt his methods to an era of unprecedented chaos.
Demonstrates Easy's resilience and ability to remain effective in an ever-transforming world.
Farewell, Amethystine
Walter Mosley · 2024
A woman named Amethystine asks Easy to find her ex-husband, an accountant who has vanished. The search leads to a casino takeover plot and murder, with stakes higher than anyone anticipated.
Showcases Easy's enduring appeal as someone who solves the intricate human entanglements others cannot.
Gray Dawn
Walter Mosley · 2025
An aging Easy settles into life with his family in a house overlooking Los Angeles. Amethystine returns with new troubles, reminding him that some people from his past never quite leave.
The latest entry, showing the series' continued exploration of Easy's life as time weighs on him.