A Red Death

US W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1991 is the true first — the census claim is confirmed. The first UK edition is a Serpent's Tail (London) paperback original of 1992, a year later; it is collected as the first British appearance but does not precede. On series order, the census note is right as to publication but worth stating precisely: this is the second published Easy Rawlins novel, following Devil in a Blue Dress (Norton, 1990). Gone Fishin', the earliest in internal chronology, was written first but not published until 1997, so "second Easy Rawlins" describes publication order, not the sequence of the stories.