To come back to southern texas and realized he could no longer live there he and thousands and we followed him as the unofficial detective as he reveals what life was like in parts of los angeles that havent been talked about. How did you come up with the name . A voice was speaking first person and how he was trying to raise money to pay his rent and then woman he was in love with of adam made that she is in love with mouse and mouse looks at the person who is talking and thats what he came from. Why voices he supposed to represent . Its interesting because how the africanamerican voice is the choir of america. Did you set out as a vehicle for social commentary . Any good novel that talks about any character talks about how they are incurred and the society and culture and politics. Then you dont have a real character. It seems that everybody does that. Not a lot of people were doing that with black mail he rose to become a Strong Social commentary not because that was my intention but i was the only person doing it. One review is that for once a black mans feelings are honestly expressed in a detective literary form. Thats true. It is the traditional form. And not try to take away anything because then otherwise it would that meant to be a series . Not necessarily. Also gone fishing writing when they were comingofage in the swampland. That it was a wonderful book but not commercial that white men dont like black men and they dont read. They like the book but they thought they couldnt publish it. They were wrong but the fact they said it made it true because it wouldnt publish my book. We want just buy one book we will by two. So the decision of the publisher to be a series. You describe him as a gun in one pocket and a short fuse and the other. And the about offense. And then willing to explode to defend themselves. And then also to control the temperature. And then with this feeding frenzy angels are just sharks. And thats with the character also. When does devil in a blue dress take place . Los angeles 1948. Thats an amazing event for change. Maybe 100,000 people per year will move into Southern California from then until now. And anyplace else in the country and that it was a wonderful tim time. A world war ii veteran what story are you trying to tell to make him a world war ii veteran . It was an amazing change for black people in america. It was for everybody but to be from southern texas louisiana but my father story he left to go to the war about 100 people that he knew may be ten or 12 died not from violence but an accident or disease. But when he got back to texas almost everyone he knew was dead already. And he realized he was safer in the largest war then he would have been at home in his bed and thats what moved him. When easy rawlins return returns, how was he treated in texas and los angeles . Racism was institutionalized all through the south. So for one thing there was no jobs he could get so whatever his talents were he wouldnt get those jobs in tennessee or mississippi or alabama. I cant make a decent living i cant own anything taken away from me. Thats the biggest problem extraordinarily racist Police Department that they will stop you if hes in a car with a white woman and he represents something that certain people want to hold out what they are afraid of. But there is a lot more opportunity inside of that. Almost any job you want you can get. Nobody will take away your property based on race or have a sign that says whites only. Talk about his migration from texas to los angeles that is part of the great migration happening in our country. Why is that part of the story . I am from los angeles. The people in l. A. And that started there or move through there. These stories have not been told. And that nobody would talk about. You dont exist unless you exist in fiction. They dont say i want to learn something today. All of them and those people have migrated from houston after the war. California was like heaven for this southern negro. You could get enough work to retire any the fruit of the trees. The truth is not like the dream but it was truth for the most part but every day still found yourself on the bottom. What were Race Relations like . In the subconscious and the unconscious of america and the best thing with the european culture even if you didnt work hard you were better because of what you were. If you were very smart torch a condo or black or asian people look down on you and make assumptions of what you could or could not do. And if there was anger and resentment. It was hard then to see what they were looking at. To put something on it that wasnt true. What about black men versus black women quick. I think black men, people are more afraid of black men and more afraid of their anger and of what has happened to them. Normally they dont think its violent but then they do. They have been kept out of the hero category. And the black characters were more protagonist and less he rose. Today in america everybody suffers from it. Moves towards a small group of people that own everything they dont care what color you are, what gender you are, they are going to take advantage no matter what and i think america is responding to that, they are making a mistake in thinking it must be these other people who are not white. It must be their fault that it happened, but its not of course, its the fault of capitalism, unchecked. Host his home is very important to him. What do you say in the concept of ownership because its not just in fearless jones which is narrated by a character whos a Small Business owner with a bookstore in la in the 1950s. The concept of ownership, who has it, who doesnt and why is it important . Guest if you go back to the beginning of america, a citizen has to be a property owner. There is a political connection, but as an investment, literal investment in the nation that you have a citizenship awaits and i think its true that if you are not a property owner, then you ar are immigrant and if you are in my grant, you are not that important. You cant vote. Maybe people dont Pay Attention to you, maybe people will just kind of gerrymandering you out of existence but the property that cant be taken away, that this is my land, most people before the war are her role so that means something. Whether or not, it does mean something and the fact he has a plot right here that makes me a citizen. Host this is a mystery novel crimes are committed and he has thoughts on the Justice System. You wrote this in his voice i thought it was wrong for a man to be murdered and in a more Perfect World i felt that the killer should be brought to justice. But i didnt believe there was justice for negroes. I thought there might be justice for black men if he had the money. Money isnt a sure bet that its the closest to god that ive ever seen in this world. Guest yes i wrote it, i thought it then and i think its now. And i think most people in america, i think when i wrote this book and a pure cod its ae that is coming out, a lot of people thought there is justice and its not based on how much money you have or who represents you were how popular you are but now people look at it like if i dont have money, im not going to get a fair shake and if i dont have money and im black im really not going to get a fair shake. Its just a truism black people in america have known ever since we came here to. But as time has gone on, many more people have begun to understand it. First only in their appreciation of music and culture like the blues had certain elements in a jazz and also rhythm and blues, but as time has gone on, its entered into literature and general knowledge. Host was the part of the motivation to write this book, to talk about the Justice System and did you choose the form of a mystery novel because of that as well . Guest i chos guest i chose the form because i liked mysteries and i like Raymond Chandler and sara. Once i started writing about it, the Justice System sort of appeared. It wasnt like it was my goal to write it out and i think anybody reading my books would be able to make different decisions on things that have happened. You will say i think this is right or i think this is wrong. As a fiction writer, im i never trying to tell you what you should think. I will tell you what rowlings things and Raymond Allen tanner and the police stopping him, but im not going to tell you what you should think. Host i watched a book review of one of the books and the woman giving the book review suggested to her audience you really need to read the whole series. Mr. Mosley, beginning to end otherwise if you pick up one book that you dont know how he knows or mouse or mama jones. She said that mr. Mosley have an index . Guest one, it means somebody sees a book and want to read it and you say youve got to read all 14 of them. My god ive got to read 14 books. I barely have time to read one. But another thing coming each book you may not know the events that led up to the relationship, however, you do know how he knows mouse, how he feels about her, how she feels, you know all this because im writing a novel, not a chapter. Host so you continue on with the devil in devil in a bd obviously focus on la. But the latest puck down the river onto the cd takes place in new york with a former black nypd investigator as a protagonist. What inspired you to write this story into the city where you are today in new york . Guest well, you know, there was like a political spark that started this story. Im thinking about blackness specifically, eddie conway in baltimore maryland or pennsylvania, the man people are protesting about who got killed in san diego and also the guy that got killed in new orleans. Im thinking about all, the response to oppression in a community that usually isnt talked about, where a guy will be walking down the street and that the police will stop him, search and didnt question him very closely and let him go. He walks three more blocks and goes through the thing again. As angry as he gets because he is just walking down the street, he has to make sure that he never expresses that anger because if he expresses it, then something bad is going to happen. If you add that he becomes a journalist a political activist from anybody that makes the movement from anybody that does not come that they get a target on their back and on their content on both sides is a target. They are very likely to be hurt. I wanted to create a detective who was a policeman and although he was black he was a policeman, said he isnt going to feel sensitive about this man murdered and on death row, not going to feel good about that. But as he investigates the case and sees what happened, he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy yes he probably killed them, but they were definitely trying to kill him, and it was as far as he could tell selfdefense. And then what happens when you know Something Like that and what kind of decisions you make and that is what i wanted to do with this book. Host you talked about about about remind the viewers who that is. Guest a political activist, journalist in philadelphia, who the police say he got into the gunbattle with them. He says he didnt. A police man or two died and he was sentenced to death. For me like if you kill somebody, then you should pay with whatever the wall has to say thats what you have to do. But if there are extenuating circumstances they at least have to come out and we have to see them. Its true for a lot of people here. Anybody watching the thing in new orleans where you see somebody on top of somebody, his knee holding him down, shooting him say there is something wrong with this picture. The policemen should never be doing that, never. And if it does happen, then you have to wonder what everybody else is going to be thinking and feeling and how they are going to respond. And that is what the novel addresses. Host did you speak to him . Guest no. Host so how do you then grasp from that story or any story you try to incorporate into your writing . Guest that story is our story. I was watching more than anything else a guy being interviewed, he had a complex here and there, two different housings, the policemen came and started going to Children Together so the children of the games at least play football together and may b maybe slowlyd of quirks and stuff out. One of the guys was asked as children were playing, what do you think about this. He said its kind of amazing to me. The way that im used to the police, they grabbed me come up with me in handcuffs, beat me and throw me in jail. Thats my relationship with the police, thats what that guy said, this is like a general knowledge. And not just among black people, chicanos, all the different people coming in a month poor white people in america. That the Police Become people who are trying to force you to fit inside an order that may not be conducive to your life and lifestyle. And because of that, you have to write about it and so even though its about these black characters, its about kind of like america and understanding that america and because back to the issue of how much money you have and who is protecting you into taking care of you and who feels that you are an enemy. Host your next book due out in september. What is this about . Guest its a novel about a guy who is a historian but it also starts when he was a kid growing up, he kills a guy, selfdefense, but he kills a guy and completely recreates himself so that he was he doesnt have the same name, he doesnt have the same birth certificate, he doesnt have anything the same and when he does, he becomes what hes done so he becomes the deconstructionist historian. And its following him through this path of how he sees himself and the world around him and how he teaches and he discovers things about himself. One of thing the things he discs is that hes a sociopath and that has helped him in america to become successful. One of the things i believe is if theres something wrong with you if you are a sociopath of any sort, youd probably be more successful in america than if you were not. Host how do publishers respond to your ideas that are not in ej rowlings books . Guest i give them a couple of minutes and then i say im going to write a book like unfortunate son were all these books ive written so when i want to give them that they say no so i go to another publisher and i say if you publish this i will write another mystery and they say okay and they publish that book and industry and i want to write another and they say on the mysteries from now on so i go to another. Its gone on forever. Host youve written a love of books as you said. Do the characters in the book reflects people in your life . Guest thats a hard question to answer because obviously it must in some way, but i dont write about myself. I dont write about people i know. I dont write about my mother or my father, but i write about worlds that are experiences. So anyway, yeah, but mostly no. Host who is Raymond Alexander and how did you come up with the idea of his character . Guest mouse is an interesting character for me. When i was a kid, my father had a friend who he was just as crazy as mouse and key made his living doing lots of things but one was hijacking liquor trucks, said he would get a whole bunch of cases of whiskey and bring one of the cases to my father and say hold this to be a part of the. Now of course my father would put it away but one night people come afraid he says i have some whiskey so they would pullout a bottle and drink it. He would come back into there was only nine or ten bottles left so he would say how much do you owe me and my father would pay him for the two bottles. That guy was in a game in a barber shoand abarber shop and n argument and the guy says you owe me a nickel and youre going to pay me right now. He says no and so the guy kills him, sharpton right there in the barbershop and he was sent to prison for murder and will spend the rest of his life there. I was too young to remember him so i dont remember him, i dont think about him, but the story sparked mouse for me and hes a very different character, but it comes from that story. Host the youtube review of your book a woman asked if he would make a book about Raymond Alexander, maybe write a book or two about him. Guest well, you know, raymond is a pure sociopath like for example john isnt a pure sociopath, he belongs inside the system for most of the things he does, and a certain set of circumstances happen, hes going to go way outside the box, but only then. Mouse lives outside of the box. The sociopath living outside the box, you know what hes going to do. Ive never had a story pop up in my head about raymond all by himself. Host ms. Jackson blew based on . Guest she has a lot of my characteristics in him. They are very smart, they like the sedentary intellectual pursuits, reading, writing, thinking, debating. Jackson blew it is technologically brilliant. He knows everything about computers before computers become themselves. I like writing about those characters because its rare there are so many things that are not written about blackmun but one of them is this guy is a genius. He can do anything. Hes also a coward. Hes afraid of his own shadow in his shadow goes a great distance but hes frightened of it. I like that because not everybody has to be big and strong and courageous. Hes small and scrawny and afraid of anything. And i like that character especially because hes also edgy. Host is a computer genius and you were a Computer Programmer. Guest i wasnt a genius but i was a Computer Programmer and i liked kind of giving him that. Host i think in one of the books he says about jackson blew that he only had bookshelves everywhere in his home once he made it and he only kept the books he was going to read it twice. Do you have that same philosophy . Guest i like to because it is kind of a way you look at your bookshelf and say these books you havent looked at them for 12 years and they are not doing anything on the shelf but know that if you give them to a book store or library or put them outside in a box, people will pick them up and read them and thats what books are for, they are to be read, not to sit there on the shelf. Host why is that important . Guest i think that reading is important because its the closest thing that we have two active thinking. I love music, i love film and stuff like that, but those things are much more passive as a rule. But when you are reading you are actually creating the images you are reading about and thoughts and ideas and systems of thought so when you are reading like that, your mind is getting exercise but it doesnt get doing anything el