Walter Mosley didn't just write detective novels. He wrote a secret history of Los Angeles. When you start looking for the easy rawlins mysteries in order, you aren't just looking for a reading list. You’re looking for a map of a changing city. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a Black World War II veteran who stumbles into the "favor" business. He’s not a licensed P.I. for most of the series. He's a man trying to pay off his mortgage while navigating a city that would rather see him dead or in jail.
The series is a sprawling, decades-long epic. It starts in the smoky, post-war haze of 1948 and pushes all the way into the psychedelic, turbulent late 1960s. Honestly, if you read them out of sequence, you’ll be fine with the individual crimes, but you’ll totally miss the point of Easy’s life. His kids grow up. His hair thins. His relationship with the terrifying, magnetic Mouse Alexander shifts from pure fear to a complex, blood-bound brotherhood.
Where to Start: The 1940s and 50s
Most people start with Devil in a Blue Dress. It’s the obvious choice. Denzel Washington played Easy in the movie, and it’s the book that established the "Mosley style." It’s 1948. Easy just got fired from Champion Aircraft. He needs money. A white man in a linen suit offers him a job finding a woman named Daphne Monet. It sounds simple. It’s never simple.
Then comes A Red Death. It’s 1952 now. The Red Scare is hitting L.A. hard. Easy is rich—or at least, he owns property—but he has to keep it a secret because a Black man with that much land attracts the wrong kind of attention. He gets squeezed by the IRS and forced to spy on a union organizer. This is where Mosley starts showing his hand; these books are as much about the systemic squeeze on Black men as they are about murder.
The Mid-Century Grind
By the time you get to White Butterfly (set in 1956) and Black Betty (1961), the world is shifting. In White Butterfly, Easy is a family man. Sorta. He’s married, he has a daughter, and he’s still keeping his "business" life a total secret from his wife. It’s a heartbreaking book because you see the walls closing in on his personal life even as he solves the murders of young women that the LAPD doesn't care about.
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Black Betty moves the needle to the early sixties. Easy is looking for a woman from his past in Houston. It’s a more nomadic book. It feels dusty and tired.
Easy Rawlins Mysteries in Order: The Full Chronological List
If you want the straight timeline, here is how the books actually fall. Note that Mosley didn't write them in exact chronological order—Gone Fishin' was published much later but serves as a prequel—but for the best experience, I’d suggest following the internal clock of Easy’s life.
- Gone Fishin' (Set in 1939): This is the origin story. Easy and Mouse are young men in Texas. It’s raw, it’s violent, and it explains why Easy is forever tied to a killer like Mouse.
- Devil in a Blue Dress (Set in 1948): The quintessential L.A. noir.
- A Red Death (Set in 1952): Investigations during the McCarthy era.
- White Butterfly (Set in 1956): A serial killer story that deals with the divide between the "White" L.A. and the "Black" L.A.
- Black Betty (Set in 1961): Easy heads back toward his roots to find a missing housekeeper.
- A Little Yellow Dog (Set in 1963): Set around the time of the JFK assassination. Easy is working as a school janitor, trying to stay clean. It doesn't work.
- Bad Boy Brawly Brown (Set in 1964): Easy is looking for a friend’s son who has joined an activist group.
- Six Easy Pieces (Set in 1964): This is actually a collection of short stories. It bridges the gap between the major novels.
- Little Scarlet (Set in 1965): This is a powerhouse. It takes place right after the Watts Riots. The city is literally smoldering.
- Cinnamon Kiss (Set in 1966): The "Summer of Love" is starting, but Easy is just trying to fund a medical procedure for his daughter.
- Blonde Faith (Set in 1967): Easy is spiraling. This one ends on a massive cliffhanger that left fans reeling for years.
- Little Green (Set in 1967): The comeback. After a long hiatus, Mosley brought Easy back to life in the hippie era.
- Rose Gold (Set in 1967/1968): Corporate kidnapping and the rise of Black Power groups.
- Charcoal Joe (Set in 1968): Fearless Jones (another Mosley character) crosses over here.
- Blood Grove (Set in 1969): Vietnam veterans and a bizarre double-cross in an orange grove.
Why the Order Actually Matters
You might think you can just hop in anywhere. You can, technically. Mosley is a pro; he summarizes what you need to know. But you’d be robbing yourself.
Easy Rawlins is one of the few characters in fiction who actually ages in real-time. He gets slower. His knees ache. His worldview gets more cynical, then strangely more hopeful, then cynical again. In Gone Fishin', he’s a kid who doesn't know his own strength. By Blood Grove, he’s a man in his late 50s dealing with a world that looks nothing like the one he returned to after the war.
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If you jump from Devil in a Blue Dress straight to Little Scarlet, you miss the evolution of his "family." Easy adopts children—Jesus and Feather. Watching them grow from traumatized kids into adults with their own complicated lives is the real heartbeat of the series.
The Mouse Factor
We have to talk about Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. He is the most dangerous man in literature. Period. He’s Easy’s best friend and his greatest liability. Mouse doesn't have a moral compass; he has a loyalty compass. If you’re his friend, he’ll kill for you. If you’re in his way, you’re dead.
Reading the easy rawlins mysteries in order allows you to see the terrifying arc of Mouse. In the beginning, he’s a force of nature that Easy tries to control. By the later books, the dynamic shifts. There’s a period where Mouse is presumed dead, and the vacuum he leaves in Easy’s life is palpable. It changes the tone of the books from hard-boiled action to something more elegiac and lonely.
Navigating the 1960s Shift
When Mosley returned to the series with Little Green after a six-year break, the tone changed. The prose became more experimental. Easy is older, and he’s often hallucinating or dealing with the physical aftermath of his "accident" (no spoilers, but read Blonde Faith).
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Some readers find the later books, like Charcoal Joe or Rose Gold, to be a bit more rambling. Honestly? I think they’re more honest. A man who has survived as many beatings and betrayals as Easy shouldn't be a crisp, logical thinker by 1968. He’s a survivor. He’s tired. The world is getting louder, weirder, and more colorful, and he’s just trying to keep his small piece of land.
Final Advice for New Readers
Don't rush it. Mosley’s writing is like good bourbon; it’s meant to be sipped. He has this way of describing a room or a person’s face that tells you everything about the politics of the era without ever sounding like a textbook.
- Start with Devil in a Blue Dress. Don't skip it just because you saw the movie. The internal monologue is way deeper.
- Keep a character tracker. Easy has a huge network of friends—Joppy, Odell, Mofass, Jackson Blue. They pop in and out over thirty years.
- Watch the background. Pay attention to how the city of Los Angeles changes. The disappearance of the streetcars, the rise of the freeways, the shifting neighborhoods. The city is the main character.
If you’re looking for a place to buy these, your local used bookstore probably has a whole shelf of them. There's something special about reading an old, yellowed paperback of A Red Death. It fits the vibe.
Next Steps for Your Reading Journey:
To truly appreciate the scope of the Easy Rawlins series, start by securing a copy of Gone Fishin'. While it was published later, reading it first provides the necessary psychological foundation for Easy and Mouse's lifelong bond. Once finished, move immediately into Devil in a Blue Dress to witness the transition from the rural South to the urban sprawl of post-war California. This two-book punch establishes the recurring themes of land ownership, racial identity, and the "debt" that drives every decision Easy makes for the next twenty years of his fictional life.