Set in late-1940s Los Angeles, the novel follows Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, an unemployed Black man who takes on a missing-person job that draws him into criminal danger and complex social worlds.

Blanche on the Lam introduces Blanche White, an African-American domestic worker who becomes entangled in a criminal accusation and then in solving mysteries around her.

Set at a small, elite liberal-arts college, the novel follows a tight group of Classics students whose scholarly intensity and social isolation lead to a violent rupture.

A coded plea from deep inside frozen Russia summons a linguistically gifted outsider to infiltrate a secret research installation.

A crime reporter becomes personally entangled when a close relative's death points to a pattern of murders; he pursues leads that connect newsroom sleuthing to federal investigations.

Set in Victorian-era Britain, the novel follows characters entangled in theft, deception, and social constraint in London. The central pressure revolves around trust and betrayal among people on different rungs of the social ladder, where schemes and personal desires collide and reshape relationships.

A 15-year-old math-minded narrator who describes his world through exact observations decides to investigate the mystery of a neighbor's dead dog. The investigatory quest exposes family tensions and forces the narrator to navigate social rules and sources of fear while trying to hold to his own systems of logic.

Three apparently separate family tragedies — a child's disappearance, a domestic killing, and an inexplicable murder — form the puzzle around a private investigator who reconstructs lives through interviews, documents, and visits.

Set in Laos in the 1970s, an elderly physician with little formal forensic experience is appointed state coroner. He confronts suspicious deaths amid political upheaval and scarce institutional support, and must piece together causes and motives while navigating party politics and local customs.