A CHARACTER ARC OVER 35 YEARS

As author Walter Mosley's vision of L.A. evolved, his literary creations did too. His most recognizable protagonist, Easy Rawlins, navigates a changed landscape in upcoming mystery novel 'Gray Dawn.'

- BY PAULA L. WOODS

WALTER MOSLEY has penned more than 60 novels in the course of about four decades, but the Easy Rawlins mysteries are arguably his most readily recognized body of work. After writing about Easy, Raymond “Mouse” Alexander and other memorable characters in the series since their 1990 debut in “Devil in a Blue Dress,” the Los Angeles native is certainly entitled to sit back and enjoy the significant milestone in Easy’s history. But neither the success, the accolades nor the 35-year anniversary matter to Mosley as much as the work itself. It’s funny,” he muses over Zoom from his sun-drenched apartment in Santa Monica where he’s working one August afternoon. “Everyone has a career. Bricklayer, politician, artist, whatever. But what you think of as a career, for me it’s ... I just love writing.” It’s a good thing that he does. In the 17 mysteries in the series, Easy has given readers a front-row seat to Mosley’s vision of L.A.’s evolution from a post-World War II boom town proscribed by race and class to the tumultuous ’70s, with seismic social shifts for Black Americans, women and the nuclear family. These are the long-term changes that Easy must navigate in “Gray Dawn,” out Sept. 16.

Of his latest novel on the celebrated Pl, Walter Mosley says he wants readers "to see how Easy has developed and changed over the years."