Mosley's use of first-person narration enhances the sense of immediacy in his novels. A Red Death demonstrates the care for historical detail and realistic portrayal that mark this mystery series. Mosley describes Watts and its environs with a knowledge that comes partly from childhood memories, partly from the talk of his parents and their friends. Mosley has been praised for his realistic and vivid characterizations, undoubtedly because many of the characters are based upon the people Mosley or his family knew in South-Central Los Angeles after World War II.

Occasionally a character is assigned a quality or occupation known to members of Mosley's own family or childhood community. Mofass's sister Roberta Jefferson and her husband George, for example, work for the Los Angeles Board of Education as Mosley's parents once did. Odell Jones is a school custodian, the occupation once held by Mosley's father, Leroy Mosley.

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