Imagined crossover · Private eyes
What if Philip Marlowe met Easy Rawlins?
Two Los Angeles detectives, two different cities. Both are decent men in a corrupt city, working the same years from opposite sides of its colour line.
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The pair
Philip MarloweLos Angeles private investigatorBy Raymond Chandler · Philip Marlowe · first in The Big Sleep
Easy RawlinsWar veteran turned investigator in Los AngelesBy Walter Mosley · Easy Rawlins · first in Devil in a Blue Dress
Chemistry7/10
Friction6/10
Would you read this crossover?
Where and when
Los Angeles
The late 1940s and 1950s
The story
- How they might meet
- A missing woman links a mansion in the hills to the clubs of Central Avenue, and Marlowe needs someone who can ask questions where he cannot.
- Why they would work
- Both are decent men in a corrupt city, working the same years from opposite sides of its colour line.
- What each brings
- Marlowe knows the rich, the police and the gangsters. Easy knows Watts, its people and its secrets, and has Mouse at his back.
- Where they would clash
- Easy has learned not to trust white men with badges or licences, and Marlowe would need to earn every bit of his help.
Strengths compared
Philip Marlowe Easy Rawlins
Our own ratings out of 10, for fun.
On the page together
The years in which each character's books were published.
Read your way in
Start with each character's first appearance.
- The Big SleepRaymond Chandler · 1939 · Philip Marlowe's first appearanceBuy on Amazon
- Devil in a Blue DressWalter Mosley · 1990 · Easy Rawlins's first appearanceBuy on Amazon
