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Walter Mosley

(b.1952)

Walter Mosley is one of the most versatile and admired writers in America today. He is the author of more than 34 critically acclaimed books, including the major bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins. His work has been translated into 21 languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and The Nation, among other publications. He is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy and PEN America's Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives in New York City.

Awards: CWA (2023), NBA (2020), LA Times (2019), Nero (2019) see all

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction

New and upcoming books

January 2025

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right
(King Oliver, book 3)

Series

Easy Rawlins
   1. Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
   2. A Red Death (1991)
   3. White Butterfly (1992)
   4. Black Betty (1994)
   5. A Little Yellow Dog (1996)
   6. Gone Fishin' (1997)
   7. Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002)
   8. Six Easy Pieces (2003)
   9. Little Scarlet (2004)
   10. Cinnamon Kiss (2005)
   11. Blonde Faith (2007)
   12. Little Green (2013)
   13. Rose Gold (2014)
   14. Charcoal Joe (2016)
   15. Blood Grove (2021)
   16. Farewell, Amethystine (2024)

Socrates Fortlow
   1. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997)
   2. Walkin' the Dog (1999)
   The Right Mistake (2008)

Fearless Jones
   1. Fearless Jones (2001)
   2. Fear Itself (2003)
   3. Fear of the Dark (2006)

Leonid McGill
   0.5. Karma (2011)
   1. The Long Fall (2008)
   2. Known to Evil (2010)
   3. When the Thrill is Gone (2011)
   4. All I Did Was Shoot My Man (2012)
   5. And Sometimes I Wonder About You (2015)
   6. Trouble Is What I Do (2020)

Crosstown to Oblivion
   1. On the Head of a Pin (2012)
   The Gift of Fire (2012)
   Merge / Disciple (2012)
   2. Disciple (2012)
   Love Machine (2013)
   3. Stepping Stone (2013)

King Oliver
   1. Down the River unto the Sea (2018)
   2. Every Man a King (2023)
   3. Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right (2025)

Novels

   RL's Dream (1995)
   Blue Light (1998)
   The Greatest (2000)
   The Man in My Basement (2004)
   47 (2005)
   The Wave (2006)
   Fortunate Son (2006)
   Killing Johnny Fry (2006)
   Diablerie (2007)
   The Tempest Tales (2008)
   The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (2010)
   Parishioner (2012)
   Odyssey (2013)
   The Further Tales of Tempest Landry (2015)
   Inside a Silver Box (2015)
   John Woman (2018)
   Touched (2023)

Collections

Futureland (2001)
The Awkward Black Man (2020)

Novellas and Short Stories

   Whispers in the Dark (2000)
   Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore (2014)
   Jack Strong (2014)

Series contributed to

Best American Short Stories
The Best American Short Stories 2003 (2003) (with Katrina Kenison)

Transgressions
Chasing Shadows (2006) (with Joyce Carol Oates)

Plays show

Non fiction show

Omnibus editions show

Books containing stories by Walter Mosley

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 (2023)
(Best American Mystery Stories)
edited by
Lisa Unger

New Suns 2 (2023)
Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color
(New Suns, book 2)
edited by
Nisi Shawl

Crime Hits Home (2022)
(Mystery Writers of America Presents)
edited by
S J Rozan

More books

Awards

	2023 CWA Diamond Dagger
	2020 Falcon Award : Down the River unto the Sea
	2020 DCAL Medal
	2019 Robert Kirsch Award
	2019 Nero Award : Down the River unto the Sea
	2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel : Down the River unto the Sea
	2018 The Eye, the PWA's Lifetime Achievement award
	2004 Nero Award : Fear Itself
	1991 Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel : Devil in a Blue Dress
	1991 John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger : Devil in a Blue Dress

Award nominations

	2013 Edgar Award for Best Novel (nominee) : All I Did Was Shoot My Man
	2012 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel (nominee) : When the Thrill is Gone
	2006 Shamus Award for Best PI Novel (nominee) : Cinnamon Kiss
	2006 Prometheus Award (nominee) : 47
	2005 Barry Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Little Scarlet
	2002 Locus Award for Best Collection (nominee) : Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World
	1995 Anthony Award for Best Novel (nominee) : Black Betty
	1994 Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story (nominee) : The Watts Lion
	1993 Macavity Award for Best Novel (nominee) : White Butterfly
	1993 Edgar Award for Best Novel (nominee) : White Butterfly
	1992 Macavity Award for Best Novel (nominee) : A Red Death
	1991 Edgar Award for Best First Novel (nominee) : Devil in a Blue Dress

Walter Mosley recommends

Promise (2023)
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
"At its core, Promise concerns the illusion of security that we, Black Americans, harbor in our souls - that generational ache to believe that we can finally lay down the fear of what potential tragedy awaits us around the next corner, and the one after that. Poetic and powerful, Promise slices through self-delusion with its many faces of heroism, loss, and the grace it takes to find a sense of equality in our hearts."

An Honest Living (2022)
Dwyer Murphy
"Dwyer Murphy's debut novel, An Honest Living, is a noir love letter to New York City. It is a sublime trip through a city teeming with professional idlers, hustlers, poets, politicians, insurance scammers, and real estate developers, all vying for their share of New York's divinity."

The Ballad of Perilous Graves (2022)
Alex Jennings
"A hallucinatory wonder of a debut."

Mecca (2022)
Susan Straight
"The grasslands and desert, the endless blue skies torn by the Santa Ana winds and the fires that will burn it all away. Susan Straight has written a hymn to all that have called the Golden State home. Spoken in a multitude of languages, Mecca is about America's dream and finding the perilous pathways through its history."

Like a Sister (2022)
Kellye Garrett
"A murder mystery that tests all the boundaries of family love, friendship, and the ephemeral trap of social media fame. Smart with twists you never see coming, Garrett's novel delivers all that you want in a read you can't put down."

The Other Black Girl (2021)
Zakiya Dalila Harris
"Witty, inventive, and smart, The Other Black Girl goes deeper to take on class privilege, race, and gender in a narrative that slyly plays along the edges of convention. Zakiya Dalila Harris’s debut is a brilliant combustion of suspense, horror, and social commentary that leaves no assumption unchallenged and no page unturned."

Blacktop Wasteland (2020)
S A Cosby
"...S. A. Cosby reinvents the American crime novel. Blacktop Wasteland thrums and races - it's an intoxicating thrill of a ride."

Your House Will Pay (2019)
Steph Cha
"In Your House Will Pay, Steph Cha fearlessly explores the duality of LA's promise and betrayal, its vision of new beginnings and the brutal divisions that cut between race and class. Cha takes her place as one of the city's most eloquent storytellers in this soul-searching illumination of one of the tragedies at the heart of the 1992 LA riots."

Bluebird, Bluebird (2017)
(Highway 59, book 1)
Attica Locke
"Attica Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird reads like a blues song to East Texas with all its troubles over property, race, and love. Taut where it has to be to keep a murder investigation on its toes, this novel is also languid when you need to understand just what would keep a black woman or man in a place where so much troubled history lies. This novel marks Love's (and Hatred's) comings and goings amongst black and white, and all the shades between. Locke's small town murder investigation reveals what lies at the heart of America's confusion over race."

The City & the City (2009)
China Miéville
"Daring and disturbing."

The Virgin of Flames (2007)
Chris Abani
"Chris Abani reveals Los Angeles as we have never seen it before - magical and crumbling, a place of deserted rooftop oases and intersections where new identities are bought and sold. He has rewritten our American story and brought the world into our streets, our most private negotiations and confessions."

Perdition U.S.A. (1996)
(Ivan Monk, book 2)
Gary Phillips
"It takes a certain kind of hard-boiled hero... Ivan Monk is that hero."

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