Walter Mosley: Black Betty (UK 2018)

From the Publisher:
1961: For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins, Los Angeles's mean streets were never meaner... or more deadly. Ordinarily, Easy would have thrown the two bills in the sleazy shamus' face - the white man who wanted him to find the notorious Black Betty, an ebony siren whose talent for all things rich and male took her from Houston's Fifth Ward to Beverly Hills. There was too much Easy wasn't being told, but he couldn't resist the prospect of seeing Betty again, even if it killed him...

Walter Mosley: Black Betty. Orion Books, ISBN 9781474608565 (April, 2018), eBook, 1.26 MB (ca. 368 p.), £,8.99.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
1961: For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins, Los Angeles's mean streets were never meaner... or more deadly. Ordinarily, Easy would have thrown the two bills in the sleazy shamus' face -- the white man who wanted him to find the notorious Black Betty, an ebony siren whose talent for all things rich and male took her from Houston's Fifth Ward to Beverly Hills. There was too much Easy wasn't being told, but he couldn't resist the prospect of seeing Betty again, even if it killed him...

Walter Mosley: Black Betty. Featuring An Original Easy Rawlins Short Story "Gator Green". Washington Square Press, ISBN 0743451783 (October, 2002), 360 p., $14.00.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
Walter Mosley numbers President Clinton among the many fans of his mystery series, acclaimed as the best thing to happen to the American crime novel since Raymond Chandler "With White Bufferfly, Mosley has established himself as one of America's best mystery writers" said Parnell Hall in The New York Times Book Review about the most recent novel in Mosley's acclaimed mystery series. Now, Easy Rawlins returns in the bestselling BLACK BETTY

1961: Los Angeles' mean streets were never meaner... or more deadly... For most black Americans, these were times of hope. For former P.I. Easy Rawlins the present looked bleak, the future worse. Ordinarily, he'd have thrown the two bills in the sleazy shamus' face -- the white man who wanted him to find the notorious Black Betty, an ebony siren whose talent for all things rich and male took her from Houston's Fifth Ward to the affluence of Beverly Hills. There was too much Easy wasn't being told, but he couldn't resist the idea of seeing Betty again, even if it killed him…

Walter Mosley: Black Betty. An Easy Rawlins Mystery. Pocket Books, ISBN 0671884271 (July, 1995), 344 p., $6.50.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty (UK 1994)

From the Publisher:
Five years have passed since the White Butterfly Affair, there's a Kennedy in the White House and Martin Luther King is in the news. It might look like a new dawn for Black America but for Easy Rawlins times are only getting tougher - his real-estate empire is deep in the hole. Trouble comes knocking once more when Easy's asked to find a missing woman, Elizabeth Eady, aka 'Black Betty'. From her native Houston to her position as housekeeper for a wealthy Beverly Hills family, Betty's beauty and raw sensuality have left a trail of chaos and mayhem in her wake.

Walter Mosley's previous Easy Rawlins novels are White Butterfly, A Red Death and Devil in a Blue Dress, a film starring Denzel Washington as Easy.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty. Serpent's Tail, ISBN 1852423862 (November, 1994), 255 p., Hardcover £14.99, Paperback £7.99.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
Critics, readers, and President Clinton, the First Mystery Fan, agree: Walter Mosley is the best thing to happen to the American crime novel since Raymond Chandler!

The New York Times Book Review ended its rave for White Butterfly, the most recent novel in Walter Mosley's acclaimed mystery series, by saying "I can't wait to see where Easy Rawlins turns up next. And when". Black Betty holds the sure-to-be-bestselling answer.

The place is Los Angeles. The year is 1961, the dawn of a hopeful era for America's black citizens. Easy Rawlins's quiet real-estate empire is deep in the hole, so he must accept $200 from the oily white private eye Saul Lynx to track down one Elizabeth Eady, aka "Black Betty". From her native Houston's Fifth Ward to her position as housekeeper for the immensely wealthy Cain family of Beverly Hills, Betty's stunning beauty and raw sensuality have left a trail of chaos and mayhem in her wake. To compound Easy's troubles, his murderous sidekick Mouse is due out of jail, and he has bloody revenge on his mind.

Entertainment Weekly has said that "[Easy] Rawlins isn't just the best new series detective around, he might be the best American character to appear in quite some time". Easy's murder-strewn search for "Black Betty" takes him into the depths of America's racial dilemmas and the mysteries of human character - and his creator, Walter Mosley, to even greater heights of achievement in the American novel. It is that rare novel that tells a gripping, fast-paced story while it grapples with the biggest questions that haunt American life.

Walter Mosley: Black Betty. An Easy Rawlins Mystery. W. W. Norton, ISBN 0393036448 (June, 1994), 255 p., $19.95.