In Easy’s Los Angeles, even in the late 60s, he can be pretty sure of the problems and barriers he will be facing after all he’s a black man seeking equality in a world that wants nothing more than to deny this desire, this claim. Every door that Leonid opens reveals a new set of rules and expectations. Leonid’s New York is much larger and its prejudices less identifiable, though possibly more insidious and duplicitous. There is a definite concept of internationalism in Leonid’s world and economic and social class is more of a defining element than is race or even gender. Money walks, talks, and stalks the streets that Leonid haunts. Separation, segregation, and unequal civil rights are part and parcel of almost every moment and aspect of that world. Africa is considered primitive by most inhabitants of Easy’s United States and people descended from Africa are seen in the same uneducated, ignorant light. This America, though changing rapidly, is dominated by concepts of race and acts of racism.

With the Easy Rawlins stories taking place in the 50s and 60s, and Leonid McGill working in the present day, how would you compare the challenges they face?Įasy lives in an America that, in many ways, is still isolated from the rest of the world. For the release of his latest Easy Rawlins book, Little Green, we asked him to join us for an interview… Bill Clinton named Mosley as one of his favourite authors. The Easy Rawlins books are all the more memorable for the strength of the ever-present supporting players, such as the nondescript but deadly hitman ‘Mouse’ Alexander, and the hypnotically sensual ‘earth mother’ Mama-Jo Compton.

However his most popular creation is the WWII veteran Ezekiel ‘Easy’ Rawlins, who battles crime, corruption and racism in LA during the 1950s and 1960s. Fearless Jones and Socrates Fortlow tread the historical boulevards of Los Angeles, while Leonid McGill plies his trade on the modern-day streets of New York City. It was his mother who inspired him with her love of mainstream European writing and he went on to create four series of novels, each focusing on a different central character. He was born in California in 1952 to an African-American father from Louisiana, and a mother of Russian Jewish extraction. Walter Mosley is the internationally acclaimed author of poetry, plays, essays and, most importantly to us, crime fiction.

Little Green by Walter Mosley