get these nets
Veteran
·Q with Tom Power
Walter Mosley says Easy Rawlins exists to testify about Black history in America
The bestselling author is back with his 17th novel in the series, Gray Dawn: An Easy Rawlins MysteryDec 03, 2025
Back in 1990, a new private eye entered the literary world when Walter Mosley published Devil In A Blue Dress, the first novel in his Easy Rawlins series.
Easy is a Black Second World War veteran who falls into detective work by chance. His story sheds light on a different side and history of Los Angeles, bringing the lived experience of Black America to the fore. Now, Mosley has published his 17th and latest novel in the series, Gray Dawn: An Easy Rawlins Mystery.
Though Mosley rarely ever includes an introduction in his books, this time he found it necessary. In his author’s note to Gray Dawn, he writes that “Easy, and his friends, exist to testify about a volatile time in Black, and therefore American, history.”
“When I started writing [the Easy Rawlins books], it's 1990,” Mosley explains in an interview with Q’s Tom Power. “And most people, whether they agreed with my point-of-view or not, they understood, yeah, this stuff is happening in the world.”
Fast-forward to 2025 and Mosley says there are now more people than ever questioning Black history, and whether certain events really happened. He says some people may not know what’s fact and what’s fiction, especially given that the U.S. federal government has retracted content on certain topics, like racism, from school curricula.
“You really have to say, ‘Look, this really happened. People were really having these problems, and they're normal, everyday people, but they had to be almost perfect in their normality in order to make it from here to there,’” Mosley says.
Through Mosley’s books and screen productions, he also celebrates Black culture, showing that multiple things can be true at the same time.
“Not many of the characters in my books would rather abandon their racial identity for more economic, political, or social stability in America,” he says. “Who we are is great, and that's a wonderful thing, but it's also difficult.”
