Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins - Bibliography

Bibliography

• Devil in a Blue Dress. New York : Norton, c1990.

Introduced as a newly unemployed defense plant worker in 1948, Easy Rawlins takes on his first case when he searches for the mysterious Daphne Monet, the mistress of a wealthy man that brings him into a dangerous game of corruption and crime. The help of his childhood friend, the murderous, avaricious, and charming Raymond "Mouse" Alexander is key to his success.

• A Red Death. Thorndike, Me. : Thorndike Press, 1993, c1991.

Rawlins investigates an espionage problem at a major aircraft manufacturer. He is coerced by Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Darryl T. Craxton, who knows that Easy's newly acquired real estate was bought with untaxed income, to prove that labor union organizer Chaim Wenzler is a communist. The story takes place in 1953.

• White Butterfly. Thorndike, ME : Thorndike Press, 1993, c1992.

1956: A black Los Angeles Police Department detective named Quentin Naylor reluctantly taps Easy to investigate a serial killer's murdering spree. The killer has killed his first white woman, a UCLA coed who led a double life as a stripper. Rawlins ends up adopting the stripper's biracial baby girl, Feather, after his wife and daughter leave him.

• Black Betty. New York : W.W. Norton, 1994.

Meeting again the beautiful woman he was in love with when he was a kid back in Texas, Easy Rawlins investigates a complex inheritance feud. This story is set in 1961.

• A Little Yellow Dog. New York : Norton, c1996.

Investigating the murder of twin brothers, Easy Rawlins falls for a beautiful heroin smuggler. He meets Bonnie, his girlfriend for the following episodes. His friend Mouse appears to be mortally wounded in the end but his fate remains nebulous. The story, set in 1963, climaxes on November 22nd, the day of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. This is the first novel in which Easy is working by day as the plant manager at Sojourner Truth Junior High. He holds this job for three more years until the events depicted in Cinnamon Kiss.

• Gone Fishin'. Baltimore : Black Classic, c1997.

Recollection of Easy Rawlins' youth back in Texas, circa 1939, with his friend Mouse. Easy joins Mouse on a journey that results in murder. The plot is described briefly in Devil in a Blue Dress. This is the sole Rawlins novel that is not strictly speaking a mystery, but instead a bildungsroman.

• Bad Boy Brawly Brown. Boston : Little, Brown, and Co., 2002.

Looking for the estranged son of a friend, Easy Rawlins uncovers a plot to rob a bank. After being chased by killers, Easy Rawlins decides to give up smoking. It's 1964.

• Six Easy Pieces. New York, N.Y. : Atria Books, c2003.

A short story collection. Equal time is given between the cases Easy solves and the evolving relationships in his life. The question of Raymond "Mouse" Alexander's fate is finally resolved. These stories are set during 1964, as is Bad Boy Brawly Brown.

• Little Scarlet. Boston : Little, Brown, and Co., 2004.

After the Watts Riots of August 1965, Easy Rawlins investigates the murder of a woman called Little Scarlet. The LAPD hires Rawlins to investigate the crime since it could trigger another outburst of violence.

• Cinnamon Kiss. Boston : Little, Brown, and Co., 2005.

In 1966, the Summer of Love, Easy Rawlins is desperate to find money for the treatment of his adopted daughter, Feather, who is suffering from a rare and potentially life-threatening condition. Initially, Easy considers pulling a heist with Mouse so he can pay for his daughter's treatment, but he declines the offer. Hired by an eccentric private investigator named Robert Lee, Easy sets out to find Philomena "Cinnamon" Cargill, the lover of a disappeared liberal lawyer with secrets harking back to World War II. The case takes him to Haight-Ashbury and Easy has his first encounter with the counterculture.

• Blonde Faith.

Set one year after the previous novel, Easy is no longer working a day job and does detective work full-time. He searches for the ex-Green Beret Christmas Black after his family takes in Black's adopted daughter Easter Dawn. His search brings him into conflict with servicemen who have become drug smugglers, a blonde femme fatale named Faith Laneer, and he must clear his childhood friend Mouse of murder. The novel's ending indicates that a future Easy Rawlins novel is highly unlikely, though not impossible.