Mosley retains the same themes of alienation and racism through novels which maintain chronological continuity. The character Easy Rawlins is introduced in Devil in a Blue Dress (1990), and his background defined as ex-soldier of World War II and the object of a racist-motivated firing from aircraftassembly work in 1948. Financial necessity impels him to work for a white gangster seeking a blond woman known to circulate in Watts, the central setting of the detective series. The process establishes Easy in the business of doing detecting "favors" for people, involves him with a recurring, homicidal friend Mouse, and provides him the windfall of money whereby not only to keep his house but to purchase new properties.

A Red Death (1991) follows the earlier novel by showing Easy in trouble for tax evasion in 1953, the result of owning properties bought with money he could not legally declare in 1948.

Easy's detecting...