Books Like Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley | Suggested Reading

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Related Titles

Mosley's critically acclaimed and popular Easy Rawlins mysteries are also set in South Central Los Angeles. The novels treat similar social themes of isolation, racism, urban blight and crime, police brutality, poverty, troubled gender relations and neglected children. Compared to Socrates, Easy Rawlins is an African American hero who has somewhat better living conditions and greater mobility in terms of access to white businesses and neighborhoods. Easy also typically solves problems as a detective hero should, while Socrates seems doomed to face chaotic situations that allow him to effect only few, very modest improvements for himself and others. Marvane Street's Right Burke and Easy are both World War II veterans, but the mystery hero is much younger in age when first seen.

Devil in a Blue Dress (1990; see separate entry) introduces Easy as an unemployed aircraft worker who turns reluctantly to sleuthing in 1948. The novels that...
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