Most Popular Books by Walter Mosley

It''s 1956 and no one in official Los Angeles pays much attention when three black bar girls are murdered. But when a white stripper is similarly murdered and she turns out to be a UCLA coed and the daughter of a powerful LA prosecutor - all hell breaks loose. The LAPD calls on Easy Rawlins for help, for he can go places and do things the police cannot. Reluctantly, Easy accepts their plea and begins a deadly quest that takes him through the seedy jazz joints of Bone Street and the dingy rooms of Hollywood Row. It is a brutal, dangerous odyssey that jeopardizes his marriage and his life - and leads to a shocking conclusion.

The first novel by “master of mystery” (The New York Times) Walter Mosley, featuring Easy Rawlins, the most iconic African American detective in all of fiction. Named one of the “best 100 mystery novels of all time” by the Mystery Writers of America, this special thirtieth anniversary edition features an all new introduction from the author. The year is 1948, the town is Los Angeles. Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran, has just been fired from his job at a defense factory plant. Drinking in his friend’s bar, he’s wondering how he’ll manage to make ends meet, when a white man in a linen suit approaches him and offers him good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a missing blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs. Easy has no idea that by taking this job, his life is about to change forever. “More than simply a detective novel…[Mosley is] a talented author with something vital to say about the distance between the black and white worlds, and with a dramatic way to say it” (The New York Times).

New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley introduces an "astonishing character" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) in this acclaimed collection of entwined tales. Meet Socrates Fortlow, a tough ex-con seeking truth and redemption in South Central Los Angeles -- and finding the miracle of survival. "I either committed a crime or had a crime done to me every day I was in jail. Once you go to prison you belong there." 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.

The renowned novelist and author of This Year You Write a Novel shares a "compact but insight-rich" guide to fiction writing ( Publishers Weekly). In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools to write a novel in one year. In this complementary follow up, Mosley guides the writer through the elements of not just any fiction writing, but the kind of writing that transcends convention and truly stands out. For writers who want to approach the genius of Melville, Dickens, or Twain, The Elements of Fiction is a must-read. Mosley demonstrates how to master fiction''s most essential elements: character and char-acter development, plot and story, voice and narrative, context and description, and more. The result is a vivid depiction of the writing process, from the blank page to the first draft to rewriting, and rewriting again. Throughout, The Elements of Fiction is enriched by brilliant demonstrative examples that Mosley himself has written here for the first time.

A "taut collection" (USA TODAY) of seven stories featuring Easy Rawlins from New York Times bestselling and award-winning mystery writer Walter Mosley. In the "delectably hard-boiled" (Entertainment Weekly) Six Easy Pieces, 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. Easy mourns the loss of his best friend, Mouse. Though he 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. A bomb is set in the high school where Easy works. A man''s daughter runs off with his employee. A beautiful woman turns up dead and the man who loved her is wrongly accused. Easy is the man people turn to in search of justice and retribution. He even becomes party to a killing that the police might call murder.

A blue light crosses the universe and reaches earth, causing each person it strikes to evolve into the embodiment of their true nature.

Easy finally believes he can lead a simple life and leave his haunted past behind him—until he meets a woman who changes everything. 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.

Everything Easy Rawlins and Mouse Alexander ever knew about friendship, and themselves, comes apart at the seams when they enter a steamy bayou world of voodoo, sex, revenge, and death.

An irresistible story of love and death, this Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots. Easy''s hunt for a killer reveals a new city emerging from the ashes -- and a new life for Easy and his friends.

Annotation ''Conversations with Walter Mosley'' covers the breadth of Mosley''s career & explores many of the influences on his work, including Camus, Shakespeare & Dickens, as well as speculative fiction & the hard-boiled noir of the detective tradition.

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''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 the murder of a father of twelve. 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 U.S. 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 dissappearance has its roots in Vietnam, and that Faith might be in a world of danger.

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.--BOOK JACKET. "In each chapter of Walkin'' the Dog, Socrates challenges a different conundrum of modern life. In "Blue Lightning, " he is offered a better-paying job but has to consider whether the extra pay is worth the freedom he would have to give up. In "Promise, " he keeps a vow made long ago to a dying friend, and learns that a promise to one person can mean damage to another. In "Mookie Kid, " he gets a telephone and,learns that the price of being able to reach others is that others can contact him - whether he wants to be reached or not."--BOOK JACKET. "Walkin'' the Dog builds to a stunning climax as Socrates takes on a rogue cop who has terrorized his neighborhood."--BOOK JACKET.

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year: bestselling author Walter Mosley "is back with a whole new character to love...As gorgeous a novel as anything he''s ever written" (Washington Post). Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD''s finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why. On a quest for the justice he was denied, King agrees to help a radical black journalist accused of killing two on-duty police officers. Their cases intertwine across the years and expose a pattern of corruption and brutality wielded against the black men, women, and children whose lives the law destroyed. All the while, two lives hang in the balance: King''s client''s and his own. "A wild ride that delivers hard-boiled satisfaction while toying with our prejudices and preconceptions." —Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

From New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley, this life-affirming novel about an aging bluesman in New York City and the neighbor who takes him in after he’s evicted is “a mesmerizing and redemptive tale of friendship, love, and forgiveness” (San Francisco Review of Books). Soupspoon Wise is alone and dying of cancer 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. A hard-drinking, swearing redhead from Arkansas, neighbor 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. Mosley creates a “a meditation on the history and meaning of the blues” (Entertainment Weekly) in R L’s Dream, which practically sings a soulful blues song itself.

Pressured by a racist IRS agent, Easy Rawlins agrees to infiltrate the First American Baptist Church for the FBI and soon finds himself playing the roles of betrayed and betrayer as well as suspect

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. In Debbie Doesn’t Do it Anymore, the creator of the Easy Rawlins series has painted a moving portrait of a resilient soul in search of salvation and a cure for grief.

A new mystery series from the author of the classic work "Devil in a Blue Dress" offers a new character, a new city, and a new era.

In the latest from "mystery master" Walter Mosley, a family member''s terminal illness leads P.I. Joe King Oliver to the investigation of his life: tracking down his long-lost father, and meanwhile, a new case pits King''s professional responsibility against his own moral code. (TheWashington Post) Praise for the novels of Walter Mosley: "A master of the genre...Mosley''s writing is so rich, and his characters are not like anyone else''s, anywhere. It''s noir with a social conscience, noir with its thinking cap on... revelatory." - Tracy Clark, Washington Post "Skitters across the spectrum between orthodox and radical like a polygraph needle wired to a nervy accomplice. . . deliciously gritty noir."―Daniel Nieh, New York Times Book Review "The evocative prose and astute observations about human nature, race relations and family bonds that have distinguished Mosley''s writing for some 30 years."―Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times "As knotty as the plot can get, the book is consistently lifted by the intelligence of its characters...Mosley is in top form as a social observer: Absolute poverty, muses his protagonist, is being imprisoned: ''the experience of being slowly murdered by a state of being.'' Mosley''s reportorial eye is equally sharp in making details count..."--Kirkus Reviews "a modern master of the noir form, ... Mosley knows exactly how to craft a mystery that keeps you at the edge of your seat all the while forcing you to reckon with sinister forces at the heart of American society." -- Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads "Mosley is a master of craft and narrative, and through his incredibly vibrant and diverse body of work, our literary heritage has truly been enriched."--National Book Foundation "Few mystery writers can examine issues of race--how it divides and binds people--as clearly and unflinchingly as Walter Mosley."―Oline Cogdill, Associated Press