Detective writer Walter Mosley loves to dig deep into his characters. He wrote 11 books featuring the Los Angeles-based gumshoe Easy Rawlins (the first of which, Devil in a Blue Dress , was made into a Denzel Washington film) before retiring him in 2007. His latest private eye, former mob crook Leonid McGill, stars in the new novel Known to Evil , the second in what Mosley hopes will be a 10-book series. Mosley spoke with TIME about why he doesn't read mystery novels, the importance of character names, and why he never benefits from inspiration.
You've written that Leonid...