Fearing his friend, Christmas Black, has met his demise when the ex-Marine's daughter is left on his doorstep, reluctant L.A. detective Easy Rawlins finds the challenges of caring for a child further complicated by another friend's murder accusation.

Life for Easy Rawlins is surprisingly ... easy. He's living off the proceeds of his last case, trying to keep out of trouble. Of course it's not going to last. Because Easy's old friend Mouse knocks on his door. Mouse is one of the deadliest men in America. And Mouse wants a small favor. He wants Easy to help a man he says is wrongly imprisoned, a friend of Charcoal Joe. Charcoal Joe is a mythical figure in the LA underworld - he pulls all the strings...

A novel exploring the early years of Easy Rawlins and Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, protagonists in a current black PI series. The setting is Texas, the time is 1939, and the two embark on a car ride which will engulf them in the bayou world of voodoo, sex and murder.

LA's black investigator Easy Rawlins, financially in the hole, must accept $2,000 from the oily white private eye Saul Lynx to track down one Elizabeth Eady, aka Black Betty. From her native Houston to her position as a housekeeper for a wealthy Beverly Hills family Betty's beauty and sensuality have left a trail of chaos. By the author of White Butterfly.

The time is 1956 and, things being what they are, no one in official Los Angeles is much bothered as a serial killer proceeds to murder three black bar girls, leaving a distinctive mark each time. But when a white stripper, Cyndi Starr, aka "The White Butterfly" on stage, is similarly murdered - and she turns out to be a UCLA coed and the daughter of a politically powerful prosecutor - all hell breaks loose. The heat is finally on to find the killer....

Nailed by a racist IRS agent for tax evasion, Easy Rawlins is asked by the FBI to infiltrate the First African Baptist Church to spy on alleged communist union organizer Chaim Wenzler, but the case soon takes a deadly turn, in a mystery set in 1953 Los Angeles.

Trying to locate a family friend who has become involved with a radical resistance group, Easy Rawlins stumbles onto a murder scene only to be named a suspect, and he finds himself exploring a world of betrayal, trying to stay alive.