Here are 83 books that Easy Rawlins fans have personally recommended once you finish the Easy Rawlins series.
Book DNA is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I grew up watching old Bogart movies on TV with my father. From Phillip Marlowe to Sam Spade, I was taken with the life of the P. I. Once I was old enough to read and enjoy the irony as well as the sex and violence in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer tales, I’d pull the detective novels from under my old man’s bed and spend time with all the lowlifes. Guess I’ve never grown out of my love for noir. That’s why I started writing P. I. novels as well as reading them. I hope they bring as much entertainment to others as those old-school sagas brought to me.
While all of Raymond Chandler’s books are loaded with intricate plotting and word wizardry, I really enjoyed how this one explored the nature of friendship.
How much are you willing to do to help a friend? And what, if anything, does that friend owe you by going out on a limb for him?
Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in a powerful and atmospheric full-cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler's classic noir novel. The first time Marlowe sets eyes on Terry Lennox, he is lying drunk in the passenger seat of a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith. The next time, he's on Skid Row. After they share a few Gimlets, Marlowe thinks he seems like a nice guy, but he's had a hard life - his white hair and scarred face testify to that. Or could it be marriage to Sylvia Lennox that has turned him prematurely grey? Although beautiful and rich, she plays the field…
I have always been a writer—and hence—a reader. I was an American historian and published eight books on twentieth-century American history. But, dissatisfied with the rigidity of historical research and composition, I became a novelist and have, since retirement, published eight novels, several of them in the Amanda Pennyworth Mystery Series.
Many of the books I read are mystery stories, a genre which I believe often gives the writer an opportunity to explore subjects and characters who are beyond the scope of ordinary literature. The books I have chosen are all classics, each in its own way a wonderful example of the variety and depth of mystery literature. My passion begins with such books.
Dashiell Hammett is one of the great stylists in American literature.
His characters are absolutely real, and the plot is a wonderful tour of the seamy side of 20th-century America. What I absolutely love about this story is that it ends, not with the apprehension of a killer, but with the sense that the pursuit of mystery in the first place was not worth it.
To pull this off—to undercut the idea of a mystery at all, is a great achievement. The book, then, is stunning for its characters, descriptions, and serpentine plot.
One of the greatest crime novels of the 20th century.
'His name remains one of the most important and recognisable in the crime fiction genre. Hammett set the standard for much of the work that would follow' Independent
Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a…
Flannery O’Connor once said that all fiction is ultimately about the “mystery of personality.” I agree. In fact, I have always suspected that all good novels, genre-based or otherwise, are secretly mystery novels, if only in the psychological sense. Conversely, many so-called genre novels have just as much depth, insight, and realism as any literary work. I have read a lot of genre and literary fiction in my time, and I have long been fascinated by works that blur the line between the two. My favorite kind of book is one that feels like a genre novel (that is, it has a great plot) but also has the depth and vividness of a literary novel.
If there is one central defining quality of noir crime fiction, it is the main character’s struggle to preserve his moral center in a fundamentally corrupt and evil world. The best P.I. novels are able to render this kind of character in brushstrokes that are both beautiful and subtle.
One of my favorites is Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer, first introduced in this novel. When Archer is hired to find a missing rich guy in a tony, Southern California beach town, he finds himself knee-deep in violence, greed, and deceit, uncertain of who is guilty, who he can trust, and even who is worth saving. A moving target, indeed.
The first book in Ross Macdonald's acclaimed Lew Archer series introduces the detective who redefined the role of the American private eye and gave the crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity only hinted at before.
Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There's the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson's friends may have arranged his kidnapping.
As Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up…
I write what I call civic noir, crime fiction where the real antagonist isn’t a person but an institution: a courthouse, a precinct, a city hall that already knows how the story ends. I’m drawn to these books because the most frightening thing in them is never the gun; it’s the machinery, the procedure, the quiet way a system decides who’s guilty before anyone enters a courtroom. As a writer, I’m less interested in the villain than in the architecture that produces him. These five novels taught me how to make a building feel dangerous, and how to keep ordinary people from disappearing into the gears.
He’s a man doing everything right: a marriage, kids, an honest garage, while the world keeps tightening the screws until the only door left open is the wrong one.
What I love is that the antagonist is never a person. It’s the arithmetic of being poor and Black in a place that priced you out before you were born. It reads like a heist and lands like a tragedy, a propulsive, engine-roaring thriller that’s secretly an indictment of the whole system.
*GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2020* *LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER 2020*
'BLACKTOP WASTELAND may be the book of the year.' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Sensationally good' LEE CHILD 'I loved BLACKTOP WASTELAND' STEPHEN KING 'Stunning. Can't remember the last time I read such a powerful crime novel' MARK BILLINGHAM
"Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving family man. He's no longer the criminal he was - the sharpest wheelman east of the Mississippi.
But when his respectable life crumbles, a shady associate comes calling with a one-time job promising a huge payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by…
I grew up watching old Bogart movies on TV with my father. From Phillip Marlowe to Sam Spade, I was taken with the life of the P. I. Once I was old enough to read and enjoy the irony as well as the sex and violence in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer tales, I’d pull the detective novels from under my old man’s bed and spend time with all the lowlifes. Guess I’ve never grown out of my love for noir. That’s why I started writing P. I. novels as well as reading them. I hope they bring as much entertainment to others as those old-school sagas brought to me.
I found the quest for redemption as mesmerizing as the search for the killer.
The concept that one may achieve absolution by righting a wrong unrelated to one’s initial failure is both intriguing and memorable. Plus, the author’s ability to explore inner demons without slowing the overall external hunt is impressive.
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF MOTHERING SUNDAY AND LAST ORDERS, and reissued for the first time on the Scribner list, The Light of Day is both a gripping crime story and a remarkable love story.
On a cold but dazzling November morning George Webb, a former policeman turned private detective, prepares to visit Sarah, a prisoner and the woman he loves. As he goes about the business of the day he relives the catastrophic events of two years ago that have both bound them together and kept them apart.
I grew up watching old Bogart movies on TV with my father. From Phillip Marlowe to Sam Spade, I was taken with the life of the P. I. Once I was old enough to read and enjoy the irony as well as the sex and violence in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer tales, I’d pull the detective novels from under my old man’s bed and spend time with all the lowlifes. Guess I’ve never grown out of my love for noir. That’s why I started writing P. I. novels as well as reading them. I hope they bring as much entertainment to others as those old-school sagas brought to me.
I loved this book because it pitted the criminal’s warped psyche against that of the private detective.
Would the latter be willing to compromise his own moral code to stop the heinous actions of the former? How far is anyone willing to go not only to confront evil but to eliminate it?
Andrew Vachss's implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph—and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power of Strega and his own sense of justice, there is no turning back.
In Strega one of our most acclaimed crime writers gives us a thriller that might…
I’ve been a journalist who’s focused on culture, particularly film, and especially classic film and film noir. That sparked me to write two crime novels, with a third on the way, for Level Best Books. The first came out in February. The next will reach the market in May 2025. The third will come out in 2026. For more information, please go to my website.
Cynicism and fatalism drank heavily together in the hardboiled genre of the private detective novel, but no more so than in this mid-40s book.
I think they even take refuge in the novel’s title: Build My Gallows High. It tells the embittered tale of Red Bailey, a guy in hiding from private detective work after being exploited by a powerful client and betrayed by the beautiful and manipulative woman Bailey loved.
Bailey would never go back to those days—until he would. His ex-client finds him and blackmails him into searching for that woman, who was also once that powerful man’s lover.
I love the way each of the three of them harbor conflicting ideas of how this story will end. That’s perfect—the book’s conflict and bile inspired the creation of what has long been one of the darkest and most celebrated of films noir, Out of the Past.
Retired private eye Red Bailey is happier than he's been for a long time. Living in Nevada, bothered by nobody, he runs a little gas station, gets in a lot of fishing, and might even be falling for a local girl. Then, out of the blue, his past comes back to haunt him. Blackmailed into doing just one more job, he's forced to revisit the life he fled—in particular, the seductive Mumsie McGonigle. It's not long before Bailey realizes that a trap has been set for him. The novel, scripted by the author, went on in the hands of Jacques…
I’ve been fascinated with history and adventure for as long as I can remember. Nothing thrills me more than an epic quest, particularly if the hero is flawed. As an author of historical fiction, I’ve read countless books and spent thousands of hours researching topics and places, from South America to Europe to Asia. I hope you enjoy these epic historical adventures as much as I have! If you have recommendations of your own, please share!
Switching gears to a modern publication, Silk Road by Colin Falconer follows the journey and travails of a Templar knight on the famous spice highway.
Impeccably written, it’s a richly realized world filled with danger, intrigue, and cultures that collide along one of history's most fascinating trade routes. Falconer brings the era to life with vivid settings, compelling characters, and a story that balances action with genuine emotional depth.
I especially enjoyed the constant sense of discovery as the journey unfolded across distant lands, where every new destination introduced fresh allies, formidable enemies, and unexpected twists. Beyond the adventure, the novel explores themes of ambition, loyalty, faith, and survival in a world shaped by commerce and conquest.
By the final page, I felt as though I had traveled the Silk Road myself, something that’s been on my bucket list for years.
Bestselling historical thriller, Silk Road, paints a captivating story of courage, daring and human frailty onto the grand canvas of the medieval East. The Holy Land, 1260: Josseran Sarrazini is a Templar Knight, trained for war. But as the Christian garrisons in the Holy Land begin to fall to the Saracen, he is sent on a mission of peace. Haunted by the things he has done, he sees it as a way to escape his past.
His task is formidable. To forge an alliance with Kublai Khan, ruler of the greatest empire in history and commander of the invincible Mongol…
I grew up in a troubled, violent family in a violent, Mafia-controlled neighborhood. I did a tour in the Air Force and spent some time in Vietnam, surrounded by unseen enemies. When I got out, I stayed in London, surrounding myself with unsavory characters, narrowly avoiding trouble and wondering if I would ever see the twenty-first century. Having lived through so many troubled times, I can identify with those people in history who have overcome overwhelming odds to accomplish their goals, and I enjoy reading about them. They give me the strength to face each day.
I really like Jack Higgins, a world-renowned author of mysteries and historical novels. As a history buff, I particularly liked this one because it is a thriller set during WW2, and I couldn’t put it down. WW2 was an amazing time filled with heroism, danger, and the constant threat of death, and Higgins makes me feel like I was there in the midst of it all.
From the New York Times–bestselling author Tom Clancy called “the master”: In war-torn Lisbon, a bartender and a nightclub singer are caught up in a treacherous Nazi plot.
As the Nazi war machine prepares to invade England, Hitler plots to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor while they travel in Portugal, and install them as puppet monarchs under the thumb of his fascist regime.
But when an American bartender and a young Jewish nightclub singer catch wind of the scheme, they set out to derail the Nazi conspiracy. As Hitler’s henchmen close in, their thrilling rescue mission—and…
Flannery O’Connor once said that all fiction is ultimately about the “mystery of personality.” I agree. In fact, I have always suspected that all good novels, genre-based or otherwise, are secretly mystery novels, if only in the psychological sense. Conversely, many so-called genre novels have just as much depth, insight, and realism as any literary work. I have read a lot of genre and literary fiction in my time, and I have long been fascinated by works that blur the line between the two. My favorite kind of book is one that feels like a genre novel (that is, it has a great plot) but also has the depth and vividness of a literary novel.
One thing I really like about this mystery novel is the way it is told from multiple points of view, which is a very unusual technique in mystery fiction. That’s one reason that it felt, to me, so much like a literary novel.
The first character is a brilliant, tortured artist named Margot, who is already dead at the start of the novel. The second character is Kate, an ex-cop turned P.I. who is hired to find Margot’s killer.
Both women are compelling, interesting characters, but I especially liked the way Kenna renders the hero, Kate. She’s a single mom in recovery from a drug addiction. Her ex is a creep, and most of her old (male) cop colleagues are, too. Her struggle in solving the case felt completely real and human to me. And that’s the signature quality of literary fiction.
From debut author Alex Kenna comes a pulse-pounding tapestry of secrets, retribution, and greed for fans of Jeffrey Archer.
Kate Myles was a promising Los Angeles police detective, until an accident and opioid addiction blew up her family and destroyed her career. Struggling to rebuild her life, Kate decides to try her hand at private detective work—but she gets much more than she bargained for when she takes on the case of a celebrated painter found dead in a downtown loft.
When Margot Starling’s body was found, the cause of death was assumed to be suicide. Despite her beauty, talent,…
