20. Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley
Books: Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty, A Little Yellow Dog, Gone Fishin’, Bad Boy Brawly Brown, Six Easy Pieces, Little Scarlet, Cinnamon Kiss, Blonde Faith, Little Green, Rose Gold, Charcoal Joe, Blood Grove
If you love mystery books, don’t miss Walter Mosley’s noir novels set in and around post-war Los Angeles, following hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins. The first book in the series came out in 1990, and Denzel Washington starred as Easy in the 1995 film adaptation. Inspired by classic crime fiction, Mosley’s series updates the detective genre by offering a Black man’s perspective and experience as a private eye confronting the corruption that intersects with racial injustice.
21. The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Books: Red Queen, Glass Sword, King’s Cage, War Storm
This bestselling twisty YA series features fantastical dystopian havoc in a world where people are divided by blood—whether yours is red or silver guides your fate. The Silvers have all the power in a realm where, if you don’t have magic, you must toil. But when young heroine Mare discovers she possesses special abilities despite having red blood, it propels her on a quest to liberate the oppressed and smash the system.
22. The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson
Books: Rosewater, The Rosewater Insurrection, The Rosewater Redemption
This award-winning Afro-futurist series takes place in Nigeria. Once a year, an alien biodome conducts “The Opening,” where it heals those who’ve gathered around it. The story follows a “sensitive” with a dark past, Kaaro, who must use his abilities to help the government. When other sensitives start dying, he becomes enmeshed in the mysteries of the biodome.
