The Easy Rawlins mysteries are great pictures of postwar Oakland California African-American life.

Start with "Jerusalem Poker". It's the second book in a four-book series, but it sets the whole thing up admirably. Then read them in order.

"Quin's Shanghai Circus" is a good standalone book, and has all the standard Whittemore emotional tides within it.

The "Jerusalem Quartet" covers a lot of ground, namely a couple hundred years of magical-realist thriller-history of Jerusalem and all the people who impinge upon it from elsewhere. It's a love song to the city, and is like very compassionate, poignant Pynchon.