Walter Mosley Summary

Mosley, Walter (1952—) Since the publication of Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990, African American novelist Walter Mosley's books have been known as "The Easy Rawlins Mysteries.�... Read more

"A good private-eye novel . . . is not really about violence; it's about the fallibility of people, about the grotesqueries of modern life, and not least it is about one man, the detective, who define... Read more

Adler is an American author and critic. In the following review, Adler finds "some prime observations about racism, as true to today's times as they are to [Mosley's period"... Read more

In the following excerpt, Mitgang determines that Mosley has grown "deeper and richer" with White Butterfly, noting that the author emulates the masters of the detective-fiction genre bu... Read more

Hall is the author of the "Stanley Hastings" mysteries. In the following review, he labels White Butterfly "standard stuff, to be sure…. But what elevates it is the charact... Read more

Pelecanos is an American fiction writer. In the following review, he notes that in White Butterfly, Easy Rawlins faces more danger from his "psychological demons" than from the numerous ... Read more

In the following interview, Mosley and McCullough discuss the character Easy Rawlins and the author's development from his first novel through his expansion into writing outside the Rawlins ser... Read more

Gaines is an American novelist whose works include A Lesson before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. In the following review of Black Betty, he detects a weariness in the aging Easy Ra... Read more

In the following excerpt, Lyall reviews Mosley's life and career through the publication of Black Betty. Walter Mosley describes Los Angeles so precisely in his detective novels that it is a... Read more

In the following review of Black Betty, Jones discusses the ironies that drive Mosley's writing. Driving around Los Angeles a few weeks back, Walter Mosley had every reason to be in a fine m... Read more

Giddins is an American critic and biographer. In the following review of RL's Dream, he applauds Mosley's "superb reportorial eye" and notes that "several episodes a... Read more

Woods is an editor, short story writer, and critic. In the following review, she sees connections between RL's Dream and the Easy Rawlins novels but deems it able to stand on its own, concludin... Read more

In the following review, the critic describes the plot of A Little Yellow Dog as "only average for this celebrated series," but praises the author's ability to convey the tenuousn... Read more

Champlin is an American author, columnist, and critic. In the following excerpt, he remarks that A Red Death shows the success of Mosley's first book "was no accident. The new novel may ... Read more

In the following essay, Lomax describes Mosley as possessing a "special talent for altering time and place with words and ideas" which "ripples across every page of his novels.&#x... Read more

In the following review, Alexander compares Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History with David J. Dent's In Search of Black America, arguing that Mosley's ... Read more

In the following essay, Smith discusses Blue Light in terms of the intersection of transcendental thought and the African American experience, arguing that Blue Light's lukewarm critical recept... Read more

In the following interview, Mosley discusses his protagonists, his decision to publish Gone Fishin' with Black Classic Press, and the comparisons between Fearless Jones and his Easy Rawlins ser... Read more

In the following essay, Ulin offers a positive assessment of Bad Boy Brawly Brown and discusses how Mosley's Easy Rawlins series recreates the landscape and social climate of mid-twentieth-cent... Read more

In the following review, the critic argues that the partnership between Paris Minton and Fearless Jones in Fear Itself should appeal to fans of Mosley's previous crime-fighting duo, Easy Rawlin... Read more

In the following review, Curwen praises Mosley's narrative skill in Fear Itself, asserting that the novel fits well into the “larger canvas of Los Angeles that [Mosley's been pain... Read more

In the following review, the critic commends Mosley's accomplishment with The Man in My Basement, asserting that Mosley “again demonstrates his superior ability to tackle virtually any p... Read more

In the following review of A Little Yellow Dog, Adler asserts that the strength of Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels lies in their depiction of the African American community in post-World War II Lo... Read more

In the following review, Stewart comments that Mosley's experiment with speculative fiction in Blue Light will be a disappointment for readers who enjoy Mosley's crime novels. Imagine... Read more

In the following review, Taylor characterizes Blue Light as a transitional novel, noting that “the spectacle of the writer trying to work out what he wants to write about can be glimpsed from o... Read more