Easy Rawlins Mystery Series

1. Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
   Easy Rawlins, a tough World War II veteran and detective, is hired by a financier and gangster to locate Daphne Monet, a search that leads him from elegant boardrooms to the raucous jazz joints of late 1940s Los Angeles.

2. A Red Death (1991)
   In order to avoid a prison sentence for a trumped-up tax evasion charge, Easy Rawlins agrees to infiltrate the First African Baptist Church and spy on alleged communist organizer Chaim Wenzler.

3. White Butterfly (1992) -- Nominated 1993 Edgar Award for Best Novel
   When a white co-ed is murdered in the same way that a series of black women were murdered recently, L.A. police coerce detective Easy Rawlins to become involved in the case.

4. Black Betty (1994)
   Detective Easy Rawlins returns in a mystery set in 1961 Los Angeles as Easy accepts a job searching for a beautiful woman nicknamed ""Black Betty,"" who works as a housekeeper in Beverly Hills.

5. A Little Yellow Dog (1995)
   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 ...

6. Gone Fishin' (1996)
   Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins and Raymond "Mouse" Alexander are coming of age -- and everything they ever knew about friendship and about themselves is coming apart at the seams ...

7. Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2000)
   Dazzling new mystery featuring the black L.A. businessman Easy Rawlins, last seen in the 1995 bestseller A Little Yellow Dog.

8. Six Easy Pieces (2003)
   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. Seven new short stories about Easy Rawlins.

9. Little Scarlet (2004)
   Easy Rawlins returns to solve a mystery set amid the flames of the hottest summer L.A. has ever seen.  ¶Just after devastating riots tear through Los Angeles in 1965 - when anger is high and fear still smolders everywhere - the police turn up at Easy Rawlins's doorstep. He expects the worst, as usual. But they've come to ask for his help.

Fearless Jones Series

1. Fearless Jones (2001)
   As two black men in 1950s Los Angeles, Paris Minton and Fearless Jones have few rights, little money, and no recourse under attack. But they have their friends, their wits, and their knowledge of the way the world really works to help them prevail.

2. Fear Itself (2003)
   Paris Minton doesn't want any trouble, but in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble finds him, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it. When the nephew of the wealthiest woman in L.A. is missing and wanted for murder, she hires Jefferson T. Hill, a former sheriff of Dawson, Texas, to track him down and prove his innocence. When Hill goes missing too, she tricks his friend Fearless Jones and Paris Minton into picking up the case.

Socrates Fortlow Series

1. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997)
   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. In a place of violence and hopelessness, Socrates offers up his own battle-scarred wisdom that can turn the world around.

2. Walkin' the Dog (1999)
   Socrates Fortlow explores life outside the law in modern-day Los Angeles.

Anthologies

• Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (2001)
  Walter Mosley returns to science fiction with nine exceptionally imaginative, interconnected stories set in a high-tech future world reminiscent of The Matrix.

Fiction

• R L's Dream (1995)
  Soupspoon Wise is dying 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. Kiki Waters 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.

• Blue Light(1998)
  Good vs. evil, the nature of humanity, and the ultimate purpose and fate of the human race...

• The Greatest (2000)
  It was never proven that Fera Jones was the product of SepFem-G, the outlawed genetics program that came out of the feminist studies program at Smith College. But one thing was absolutely certain: When it came to boxing, Fera Jones floated like a butterfly and stung like a B-1 Bomber. . . .But would her incomparable skills in the ring withstand an onslaught from the outside world? Her father and trainer, Leon, is addicted to Pulse--a gene drug that slowly kills its users. Her boyfriend, Pell Lightner, is fresh from the streets. Lana Lordess, governor of Massachusetts and head of the FemLeague, wants Fera's political endorsement. The Randac Corporation will pay her a billion dollars to plug an amusement park on the Moon. Meanwhile, Travis Zeletski, the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, is waiting for Fera to step into the ring and meet him in the ultimate battle of the sexes: a twelve-round thrilla that will leave only one fighter standing . . . . (from Amazon)

• Whispers in the Dark (2000)
  Ptolemy Bent--"Popo"--is different. At an age when most babies are cooing "Mama," Popo was speaking in complete sentences. He was reading college textbooks when he was still too young for nursery school. Popo may just be the smartest human being on Earth. And he spends all his time listening to the radio . . . to white noise that comes drifting down from the sky like stardust. Chill Bent is a two-time loser with a hair-trigger temper. After the death of Popo's mother, the ex-con assumes responsibility for his nephew, vowing to protect the boy from a government eager to strip away his African-American heritage and exploit his genius like a natural resource. Together, Popo and Chill are about to embark on an extraordinary journey into the farthest reaches of the mind and the soul . . . a journey you will never forget. (from Amazon)

• The Man in My Basement (2004)
  When a stranger offers him $50,000 in cash to rent out his basement for the summer, Charles needs the money too badly to say no. He knows that the stranger must want something more than a basement view. Sure enough, he has a very particular—and bizarre—set of requirements, and Charles tries to satisfy him without getting lured into the strangeness. But he sees an opportunity to understand secrets of the white world, and his summer with a man in his basement turns into a journey into inconceivable worlds of power and manipulation, and unimagined realms of humanity.

• Cinnamon Kiss (2005)

Non-fiction

• Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History (2000)
  A powerful examination of the American economic and political machine. No matter what your race, gender, politics, or beliefs, this is a book that will profoundly alter the way you think—and the way you act.

• What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (2003)
  "Many of us in Black America are thinkers.  We see the contradictions and the lies.  We know that our taxes fund war and slavery.  We know that our nation's foreign policy is dedicated to imperialist gain, not the spread of democracy.  We know that America was built on the backs of slaves.  ¶If many everyday people in America know these things, then why can't they change the tide of world events?  After all, we are America.  President Bush is our proxy, not our dictator.  The Congress, and even the Supreme Court, are answerable to us.  ¶I wrote this book to be picked apart and dissected, not followed.  I want to argue against the powerful urge for us to dominate our enemies.  I want to bring about some discussion that might lead to action ..." -- from What Next

Young Adult

• 47
  In his first book for young adults, Mosley deftly weaves historical and speculative fiction into a powerful narrative about the nature of freedom.

See also:

• The Best American Short Stories 2003 (2003), Walter Mosley, ed. with Katrina Kenison
  Adam Haslett, Anthony Doerr, Dorothy Allison, Edwidge Danticat, E. L Doctorow, Louise Eldrich, Mona Simpson, and ZZ Packer.

• Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems (1999), Clyde Taylor, Manthia Diawara, Regina Austin, Walter Mosley, eds.
  Thirteen of black America's most eloquent and accomplished voices share their visions for a self-sufficient, self-determined future. Black Genius is both an extraordinary forum of distinguished individuals who have demonstrated intelligence, courage, and the ability to communicate, and a project for sharing among people interested in the future of people of African American descent. Originally a series of community conversations where "visionaries with solutions" explored the role of black people in shaping cultural consciousness, conceived by Walter Mosley and sponsored by the New York University Africana Studies Program, the book of Black Genius reprints these lectures and many responses to questions. The speakers focus on such issues as economics, political power, work, authority, and culture, offering not only broad perspectives but concrete, achievable solutions. It is an exceptional, unique colloquy of voices, one that points the way to enriching black life in the twenty-first century. The speakers: Angela Davis, Anna Deveare Smith, bell hooks, Farai Chideya, George Curry, Haki Madhubuti, Jocelyn Elders, M.D., Julianne Malveaux, Melvin van Peebles, Randall Robinson, Spike Lee, Stanley Crouch, and Walter Mosley.

• The Plot Thickens (1997), Mary Higgins Clark, ed.
  Includes works by Ann Rule, Carol Higgins Clark, Donald E. Westlake, Edna Buchanan, Janet Evanovich, Lauren DeMille, Lawrence Block, Linda Fairstein, Mary Higgins Clark, Nancy Pickard, Nelson DeMille, and Walter Mosley