Walter Mosley Books in Order

A group of influential people asks Easy Rawlins to find a woman named Lutisha James, and the request feels more like a warning than a job. As Easy closes in, the search threatens to upend his private life and expose what powerful people want buried.

Joe King Oliver takes a case that starts as a straightforward job and turns into a web of power, money, and betrayal. Working New York’s edges, he has to decide what justice costs when the law won’t help.

Easy Rawlins is pulled into a missing-person case that touches powerful money and dangerous secrets in 1970s Los Angeles. Following the trail means balancing favors, family, and survival in a city that’s changing fast around him.

Ida and Mark are “touched” by something bigger than their lives, pushed into visions, threats, and choices they never asked for. As danger closes in, they have to decide whether the strange force connecting them is a gift—or a weapon.

Joe King Oliver is hired to look into a murder that may have been pinned on the wrong man—a loud, ideological figure no one wants to defend. The investigation pushes Oliver into a thicket of money, politics, and international pressure.

A Marvel collection that follows Ben Grimm, the Thing, as he tries to build a normal life after years of cosmic chaos. Peace doesn’t last long, and he’s pulled back into action by new threats that prove he can’t outrun his past.

A troubled Vietnam veteran hires Easy Rawlins to find a woman linked to a night of violence he can barely remember. Easy’s search cuts through hustlers, wealthy secrets, and the lingering damage of war as Los Angeles heads into a new decade.

Leonid McGill is hired by an aging bluesman to deliver a letter that could rewrite a wealthy family’s history. What looks like a simple errand turns violent fast, and McGill has to protect the truth—and himself—from people who prefer silence.

A collection of stories that moves across America, following Black men in situations that are funny, painful, tense, and deeply human. Mosley looks at awkwardness as a kind of pressure point—where identity, fear, and desire come to the surface.

A practical craft book in which Walter Mosley breaks down what goes into building fiction that works. He focuses on fundamentals like voice, character, structure, and the everyday discipline of finishing stories, with concrete advice writers can use immediately.

Cornelius Jones remakes himself as John Woman, a respected Black studies professor, but the past doesn’t disappear just because you change your name. His new life is shadowed by violence, desire, and the question of whether reinvention can ever be clean.

Joe King Oliver, newly out of prison, takes on a case that forces him to confront the machinery of power in New York City. As he digs into corruption and violence, the investigation becomes a fight for both justice and his own survival.

Walter Mosley sketches “Untopia,” a political and economic framework meant to move beyond old arguments about capitalism and socialism. The book reads like a brief manifesto: direct, argumentative, and designed to spark debate more than comfort.

Easy Rawlins takes a job that starts with a jailed man’s request and turns into a hunt for missing cash and the truth behind a double murder. With cops, criminals, and old enemies closing in, Easy has to protect an innocent man without becoming a target himself.

Journalism student Felix Orlean takes a job with Archibald Lawless, an aging anarchist detective with a taste for truth and trouble. A murder and a cache of red diamonds pull them into a conspiracy where curiosity can be fatal.

Tempest Landry returns in more linked tales of second chances, close calls, and uneasy guidance from the other side. These stories keep the same mix of grit and dark humor, with Tempest stumbling toward redemption one choice at a time.

Two strangers are drawn together by the Silver Box, a powerful object with unsettling, otherworldly intelligence. As they try to understand what it wants, they’re chased by forces willing to kill to possess it first.

A chance encounter on a train pulls Leonid McGill into a case that spreads through New York like a virus. With his son caught in the crossfire and his own family under stress, McGill has to untangle a scheme built on secrets and leverage.

A missing college student and a suspicious ransom demand draw Easy Rawlins into a case with high pressure from police and powerful families. As the trail leads into money, violence, and hidden motives, Easy has to decide who he can afford to trust.

In Las Vegas, a man called Jack Strong moves through life stitched together from other people’s memories. As the voices in his head compete for control, he has to uncover who built him—and what he’s meant to do next.

Debbie Dare is a Black porn star who wants out, and her husband’s sudden death should have been her exit. Instead, she’s pulled deeper into danger, forcing her to navigate grief, money, and people who refuse to let her start over.

Two speculative novellas that move between tense action and unsettling questions about love, power, and control. Mosley imagines worlds where new forces reshape human choices, and the characters have to decide who they’ll become under pressure.

After a mugging leaves him blind, Sovereign James discovers that violence can briefly return his sight—along with unnerving new senses. Drawn into a strange journey, he hunts for answers about what’s happening to his mind and his fate.

After waking from a coma, Easy Rawlins is asked to find a young man who vanished with money, drugs, and trouble close behind. Moving through the psychedelic edges of 1960s L.A., Easy has to track the missing man before the wrong people do.

Two speculative novellas that blend noir tension with big ideas about technology, faith, and responsibility. In each story, a disruptive discovery puts ordinary lives at risk and forces characters to decide what they owe to others—and what they’ll do to survive.

Xavier “Ecks” Rule is a reformed criminal asked by a priest to help a woman seeking forgiveness for a terrible crime. Ecks follows her story into violence and exploitation, where doing the right thing could get him killed.

A speculative novella in which a strange opportunity promises connection and transformation—but at a cost. As forces gather around the change, the characters have to decide whether merging with something new is salvation or a trap.

A speculative novella in which devotion and manipulation can look uncomfortably similar. When a charismatic force draws people into its orbit, the central character has to decide whether belief is liberation—or another kind of captivity.

Leonid McGill tries to help a woman in prison who insists she only did one thing: shoot her man. The investigation uncovers a deeper plot involving stolen money, hidden players, and people willing to kill to keep the story straight.

With work drying up and criminals offering the only pay, Leonid McGill takes a job from a woman afraid of her powerful husband. As the case twists, McGill’s home life frays, and he’s forced to choose between survival, loyalty, and the truth.

A short political book that uses the rhythm of a “twelve steps” program to talk about civic life, power, and responsibility. Mosley invites readers to examine what they believe, how they act, and what real change demands.

A play that follows Tempest Landry as he’s given an unexpected chance to return and set things right. Mixing the earthly and the supernatural, it’s a fast-moving moral tale about choices, consequences, and what redemption could look like.

Hired for what should be a simple check-in on a young woman, Leonid McGill walks into a bloody scene and a disappearance no one wants solved. The deeper he digs, the more he realizes his client is the danger—and his own past makes him easy to threaten.

This short Leonid McGill story drops you into the moment his old way of life starts to crack. A case with a sharp edge forces McGill to face the damage he’s done—and what it might take to change before it’s too late.

Leonid McGill, an ex-boxer turned private investigator, tries to go legit in New York after years of dirty work. His first big case pulls him into a tangle of corruption and violence that threatens his family and the fragile life he’s rebuilding.

Ninety-one-year-old Ptolemy Grey is slipping into dementia when a sudden death forces him to face unfinished business. Given a brief window of clarity, he sets out with a young ally to make sense of his past and claim justice before time runs out.

Tempest Landry dies and expects judgment, but he’s not interested in taking the punishment he’s assigned. Sent back to earth with an unlikely guide, he stumbles into trouble and second chances in a story that mixes humor, grit, and moral questions.

Socrates Fortlow tries to keep living by his hard-won code, but the world keeps presenting him with messy choices. As violence threatens people around him, he has to decide what “doing the right thing” means when there’s no clean option.

A compact, motivating guide that breaks the novel-writing process into manageable steps. Mosley focuses on discipline, daily habits, and practical craft advice, encouraging writers to start now and keep going until the draft is done.

Easy Rawlins is pulled into a case that tangles family, old loyalties, and a fresh death that threatens to land on the wrong person. As he chases answers across Los Angeles, the lines between friend and enemy blur in dangerous ways.

A chance encounter pulls an ordinary man into an obsession that won’t let go, and the line between accident and intention starts to blur. This dark, off-kilter novel follows a spiral of desire, fear, and consequences in modern Los Angeles.

Two Los Angeles families are drawn together by a child and a chain of choices that won’t stay private. Mosley builds a tense, intimate drama about responsibility, privilege, and what people will do to protect the stories they tell themselves.

Paris Minton is asked to help find a missing con man who’s left trouble behind in multiple directions. As Paris and Fearless Jones chase leads through Los Angeles, the case turns darker—and fear becomes both a theme and a weapon.

Ben Dibbuk senses that something is dangerously off in his marriage, and he can’t shake the feeling that he’s being set up. As he digs for the truth, he’s pulled into a paranoid maze where faith, betrayal, and survival collide.

A man’s life is knocked off balance by an event that blurs reality and paranoia, pushing him to question what he knows about himself and the people closest to him. Mosley turns psychological suspense into a story about fear, trust, and survival.

Walter Mosley argues for a new way of thinking about Black politics and identity in America, challenging readers to step outside familiar party lines. It’s a provocative, personal meditation on power, community, and self-determination.

Facing steep medical bills, Easy Rawlins takes a job finding a missing woman known as Cinnamon. The search pulls him into a web of secrets that reaches from the streets to powerful men who don’t like loose ends.

A boy known only as 47 lives under harsh rules until a strange benefactor draws him into a wider world of ideas and danger. Blending history, adventure, and discovery, the story follows his search for freedom and a life of his own making.

Down on his luck in a small Long Island town, Charles Blakey rents out his basement to a mysterious man with a disturbing request. The arrangement becomes a tense moral test that forces Charles to confront race, guilt, and complicity.

In the aftermath of the Watts uprising, Easy Rawlins is pushed to investigate the murder of a Black woman when the official case doesn’t add up. Moving through a city on edge, he’s forced to weigh justice against survival at every step.

A short, personal political essay in which Walter Mosley reflects on war, power, and the possibility of peace. Part memoir and part argument, it’s written in a direct voice that challenges readers to rethink what comes next.

Walter Mosley edits this annual collection of standout American short fiction, with a wide range of styles and voices. Along with the stories, it offers a snapshot of what the short story form was doing at the start of the 2000s.

This collection gathers several Easy Rawlins cases, from arson and blackmail to sudden, senseless killings. Each story is short, but together they show how Easy works: patient questions, quick instincts, and the constant need to keep danger away from home.

When a wealthy woman’s nephew disappears, Paris Minton and Fearless Jones get pulled into a search that leads far beyond their usual streets. The case drags them into money, respectability, and corruption—and staying alive becomes the first priority.

A collection of speculative stories set in futures that feel uncomfortably close to our own. Mosley uses sci-fi to explore race, technology, identity, and survival, moving from sharp satire to tense, street-level dread.

Paris Minton just wants to run his used-book store in 1950s Los Angeles, but trouble finds him anyway. After his shop is attacked, he turns to his tough friend Fearless Jones, and the two are pulled into a mystery built on secrets and violence.

Easy Rawlins is asked to find a missing teenager, Brawly Brown, and the search opens up a tense world of activists, hustlers, and people watching from the shadows. What begins as a rescue becomes a race against forces that don’t want Brawly found.

A collection of essays and commentary where Walter Mosley takes on race, politics, culture, and the American criminal justice system. Personal reflections mix with sharp arguments about power, work, and what it means to be free.

Chill Bent is a reformed ex-con trying to raise his brilliant nephew, Popo, away from the traps of the street. When powerful outsiders want to exploit the boy’s mind, the pair are pushed into a dangerous fight over freedom, family, and control.

In a near-future world, the most electric boxer on the scene is Fera Jones—a woman built for the ring and shaped by forces beyond her control. As fame and violence tighten around her, she fights not just opponents but the story written for her.

Socrates Fortlow is still in Watts, still trying to live by his own rough moral code. In these linked stories, he crosses paths with people on the edge—kids, couples, hustlers, and neighbors—and each encounter asks what doing right really costs.

A strange “blue” event changes a group of people, altering how they see, feel, and connect to the world. Years later, they’re hunted and exploited, and survival depends on whether they can trust each other more than the forces trying to control them.

Before he was a fixer in Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins was a teenager in Texas with his dangerous friend Mouse. A trip to a small town to confront an abusive stepfather becomes Easy’s first close look at how quickly violence can change a life.

Fresh out of prison, Socrates Fortlow tries to build a decent life in Watts by working, thinking, and helping when he can. These linked stories follow his hard-won code as he faces violence, poverty, and the daily tests of staying human.

Now working a steady job, Easy Rawlins is drawn into a school scandal when a teacher is found murdered and heroin starts surfacing in unlikely places. A rookie cop targets Easy, so he has to investigate fast to clear his name and keep his family safe.

In New York City, a young man befriends an aging blues guitarist whose life echoes the myth and pain of American music. As the old musician fights failing health and fading opportunities, the friendship becomes a last chance at dignity and one final song.

Easy Rawlins searches for a missing woman tied to a powerful family and a past that won’t stay buried. The closer he gets, the more he’s pushed into L.A.’s underworld of nightclubs, scams, and lethal secrets.

This Easy Rawlins short story drops him into a quick case in mid-century Los Angeles, where one small request opens a door to bigger trouble. With danger close and time short, Easy has to rely on instinct and nerve to get out alive.

Two young women are murdered in Los Angeles, and the police only panic when one of the victims is white. Pulled into the investigation, Easy Rawlins follows a trail of fear and exploitation that forces him to confront what the city ignores.

Easy Rawlins is leaned on by federal agents who want his help with a suspected Communist in postwar Los Angeles. To protect himself and the people around him, Easy has to dig into a case where everyone has something to hide.

In 1948 Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an out-of-work Black WWII veteran hired to find the elusive Daphne Monet. The quick job turns into a maze of crooked cops, political secrets, and murder.