Devil in a Blue Dress, a defining novel in Walter Mosley’s bestselling Easy Rawlins mystery series, was adapted into a TriStar Pictures film starring Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins and Don Cheadle as Mouse. Set in the late 1940s, in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles, Devil in a Blue Dress follows Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. … from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend’s bar, wondering how he’ll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Monet, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
more
Devil in a Blue Dress is the first book in the Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley. I’m a late arrival to this series but was hooked with this first book. It’s 1948 and black Army veteran Easy Rawlins has just been fired from his job. He’s sitting in a bar wondering how he’s going to make his mortgage payment when a white guy in a suit offers him cash to find a woman named Daphine Money. Things are about to go crazy. The Easy Rawlins character is a good guy who just wants answers, instead, he keeps finding bodies, and the police are convinced he’s the killer. Mosely writes an excellent, complex tale. After reading the first book in the series I’m on to the next work.
I will admit that I came late to the party on the work of Walter Mosley. I read White Butterfly back in 2012 and liked it. However, I had not read other Walter Mosley novels until now. As a reader and reviewer, you get sidetracked or distracted by other books you want to read you forget to go back to something that you read and liked. Better late than never….as the adage goes!
Devil In A Blue Dress is the first novel in the acclaimed and well-regarded Easy Rawlins series. This novel introduces Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins as he loses his job at a defense plant and needs money to pay his mortgage. Easy comes into contact with a man named Dewitt Albright. Albright is looking for a white woman named Daphne Monet who likes to visit the black jazz clubs of post World War 2 Los Angeles. Easy is hired by Albright to find Monet and ends up getting more than he bargained for.
Mosley does a solid job in creating an interesting character with Easy Rawlins. His juxtaposition of street toughness and deep introspection gives me a connection as a reader and I will admit that the reflective Easy Rawlins was more interesting to me than finding Daphne Monet.
This is a crime novel and Mosley follows the tropes of the genre well, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion. However, I’m drawn to characters in a story and Easy jumped off the page for me as a reader. I learned about him growing in Houston and his time in World War 2 in the story. Those elements provide depth to a character that I will explore in subsequent of the series. Devil In A Blue Dress is a solid mystery novel and fans of the genre should read it. I’ve heard the movie with Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle was a disappointment compared to the novel. That could be possible. I would write that book is worth reading and the best compliment I could give for this review.
This author is entertaining and draws upon conditions and society which were occurring during the period.
Love his books!
“Mystery Classic” is often overused in reviews, but in this case, it’s dead-on. DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is a masterful novel with crisp, evocative prose, memorable characters, and a labyrinth plot in which nobody is ever what they seem.
Easy Rawlings was just fired from his day job and is looking for money. After all, he’s got a mortgage to pay. One day at his usual hangout, a mysterious white man dressed in a white linen suit asks Easy to find a white girl who has a thing for Black men. Easy knows there’s more to this than meets the eye, but he also wants to keep his house. He soon finds himself on the wrong side of the white law and the white underworld, *and* on the wrong side of the Black underworld. Trying to protect the life he worked so hard to build, Easy now has to make some tough choices in unforgiving circumstances.
All of this alone would make this book a must-read. But Mosley goes beyond the mystery to show us the harsh reality of Black Life in 1940s Los Angeles. The racist, crooked cops. The capriciousness of white employers. The limited choices. And how race itself is fetishized in both lust and hate.
A stunning novel by an equally stunning author.
What you expect from Mr. Mosley great read with fantastic characters
It was trite, stale and boring to me.
I wanted to like this book and finished it, but was put off by the really bad language and casual sex that was described in more detail than I felt was needed. The main character is someone you root for and want to see succeed. The plot was good, the setting well written, and there wasn’t the annoying need to suspend disbelief because it all hangs together well and feels authentic. I just did not feel I could recommend it because of the seamier feel of the book, which ruined it for me. I archived it when done – I sometimes loan my iPad to my mom, sister, etc. and did not want it on there. Too bad!
Mosley’s detective Easy Rawlins is the best guy on the street solving murders. Great caste of characters.
Terrific
There’s a lot to love about Mosley’s work! Devil in a Blue Dress is the first in the Easy Rawlins series. Easy is a fantastic amateur detective. What makes him so interesting, in my opinion, is that Easy takes time to talk to all sorts of people. That makes for a good mystery and an entertaining read, but Easy’s, well, easy-going style, makes him a natural guide to take readers through 1940s Los Angeles. His POV is especially interesting if you want to know more about race in America in that time. A must read!
Book #3 of my #100BooksChallenge to read for 2021. After reading this author’s work for the first time, I am gutted that I never dived in earlier! I’ve heard of him, and know how popular his work is, but it wasn’t until a YouTube clip of him popped up as a suggestion that I dived in. I was overwhelmed with choice over where to start with his books, a blog post recommended starting with his ‘Easy Rawlins’ detective series so I did. Being a massive fan of the era this novel is set in, I fell in love hard! Book one has turned me into a fan! I bought the next book. This was a wonderful experience to read, not just a great book.
5 wow stars!
The author’s writing style is so slick it’s unreal, Easy Rawlins is a great character to follow and so authentic too. I had no trouble believing him, or being drawn into his story, as he got himself unexpectedly ‘caught up’ in all the madness over this ‘Devil in a Blue Dress.’ I loved the fact that the author writes his character with ebonic style language ( where relevant), to keep them very real too. I found that the story moved quickly, and there was a lot of mystery over who done what, when, and why. This really kept me interested and I read it quickly. The characters for me were all really engaging, like-able, even if some of them are ‘bad guys.’ I appreciated that this author touches on many of the hardships and reality for black and brown people , and the relationships and POV’s of both black and white people during this era. It added to the richness of the story. Not in a sense that it’s sad, it just made it (for me personally) very raw, realistic, and engaging writing.
Overall, I found this novel to be well written, fun, fast moving, with a great character line up and plot. Just from reading this one book, it’s made me want to read the rest in the series, and other work by the author. I recommend this book to anyone who likes hard-boiled, private investigator genre books. However, has an appreciation for the setting, era, and rawness of Easy Rawlins and his friends. 5 wow stars I really loved it.
This is Walter Mosley’s first Easy Rawlins mystery and it is clear why he has gone on to write so many more. The story takes place in post-WWII 1940’s Los Angeles where Rawlins is trying to keep his job in an aircraft factory in order to make his mortgage payment. He has it out with his boss and looses his job and is forced to find any work he can to pay his bills. When a white gangester named DeWitt Albright hires him to find a beautiful woman who was last seen frequenting a bar Rawlins is familiar with things start rolling. Mosley’s portrayal of a black man’s treatment at the hands of the police bring to light many of the problems that continue to exist today. We would be better off if more people read Walter Mosley. I plan to. He is as skilled a crimewriter as any any and reminds me of John D. MacDonald.
2.5/5
I think I may have missed something here or maybe it’s just that noir is not really my genre, but this story of a black detective in 1948 LA just didn’t grab my interest. Maybe it was the moral ambiguity that did me in? Ezekiel (Easy) tried to do right most of the time, but there was a lot of back stabbing, and I really just didn’t connect with any of the characters. The plot was a bit convoluted as well.
To be fair, it is the first book in a series so I’m sure the characters become more fleshed out, more backstory added, etc. I think it’s just not my genre.
4.5 stars
This is the first book in the Easy Rawlins series. I had to get it on interlibrary loan. I have been reading rave reviews of Mosley’s Easy Rawlins series for years. This one won the Shamus award for best first PI novel. Easy is a black war veteran in 1948 Los Angeles. He just lost his job and he needs money to pay his next mortgage payment. Then a job offer comes his way. He is offered $100 to find a white woman who likes to frequent black bars and listen to jazz. Dewitt Albright explains that he can’t go in to these bars and ask questions, because he is a white man. Easy realizes that Albright is a dangerous man, but he needs the money and takes the job.
Easy does find her, but several people die and he is a suspect in the murders. Think of a tough PI like Phillip Marlowe and mix in a racist police department for a great read. I finished it in 2 days.
There is an interview with Mosley on CSPAN, a US cable channel. You can watch it on their website
booktv.org
Love the Easy Rawlings mysteries. They are present such a multi layered and accurate view of life in LA in the period. Mosley is a fantastic writer and you really can’t go wrong with anything he has written.