What do you think?
Rate this book
Easy Rawlins #1
Devil in a Blue Dress
The time is 1948. The town is Los Angeles. The hero is Easy Rawlins, an out of work black war veteran. The mortgage payment's coming due, so Easy accepts the assignment of finding Daphne Monet, blonde torch singer. In his search through a sleazy fearful city, he is lucky to be under the protection of the murderous Mouse.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 1990
1569 people are currently reading
25799 people want to read
About the author
Walter Mosley
206 books3,908 followersWalter Mosley (b. 1952) is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins, as well as numerous other works, from literary fiction and science fiction to a young adult novel and political monographs. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the Nation, among other publications. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives in New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,366 reviews
July 6, 2025
DELITTO IN ROSSO
Easy Rawling/Denzel Washington.
Una ventina d’anni dopo il detective Shaft, king della blaxploitation, appare quest’altro detective afroamericano.
Al contrario di Shaft, attivo a New York, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins vive e lavora sulla costa ovest, in quella Los Angeles nella quale Walter Mosley è nato e cresciuto.
Ezekiel, nome biblico, diventa più accessibile, ‘facile’ con il diminutivo di Easy.
Viene da Houston, e come altri si è trasferito a Los Angeles dopo la guerra perché è lì che circola il lavoro, e il denaro.
Credo che difficilmente Easy avrebbe potuto trovare un interprete migliore di Denzel Washington nel buon film omonimo, un pochino patinato ma efficace, uscito cinque anni dopo il romanzo (1995 il film, 1990 il libro).
Romanzo che non solo è il primo della lunga serie dedicata a Ezekiel detto Easy – quattordici titoli finora – ma è anche l’esordio di Mosley, il suo primo libro pubblicato.
Dewitt Albright/Tom Sizemore, sedicente avvocato con la pistola nella fondina ascellare.
Easy Rawlins è un ex soldato dell’ultima guerra mondiale, che dopo aver perso il lavoro in una fabbrica aeronautica, nella Los Angeles del 1948, incontra un sedicente avvocato bianco abbastanza losco (gira con una pistola sotto l’ascella) che gli offre un incarico: cento dollari per ritrovare una ragazza bianca dannatamente bella che si nasconde nel quartiere nero a cui piace la musica nera, ma anche la carne nera, e, guarda caso, è la fidanzata di un candidato alla carica di sindaco della città.
Easy si può muovere nel suo quartiere con una facilità e abilità che all’uomo bianco non è consentita, conosce le regole del ghetto.
Easy ha bisogno di soldi, e accetta.
Ovviamente incontrerà tipi loschi e ovviamente la trama s’infittirà con sempre più fili potenzialmente o effettivamente criminali.
Non manca la polizia che se la prende col detective nero improvvisato, quindi sprovvisto di licenza – non che per maltrattare un afroamericano negli Stati Uniti del 1948 fosse particolarmente difficile, considerando che anche ora…
Daphne/Jennifer Beals, il diavolo in blu.
Daphne ha un cognome scritto, e pronunciato quasi, alla francese: Monet.
È bianca. È bella.
Jennifer Beals, che la interpreta nel film, non è certo meno bella di quando interpretò Flashdance dodici anni prima.
Quando Easy la incontra per la prima volta, lei veste di blu: è lei il diavolo?
Easy le chiede:
Qual è la sua arma preferita? intendendo che metodo usa.
E lei, sensuale come poche, risponde:
Perché non mi perquisisce e lo scopre da solo, mentre richiude lo spacco inguinale della sua gonna lunga.
Daphne gli chiede di accompagnarla da qualcuno che deve renderle una lettera compromettente. Ovviamente lo trovano defunto. Lei scappa con la macchina con cui sono arrivati, e lo lascia piedi.
Ora, camminare a Los Angeles è un’esperienza: le distanze sono difficili da calcolare. Lo dico con cognizione di causa perché la prima volta che ci sono stato credevo di spostarmi di uno scarso centimetro sulla cartina, e mi sono ritrovato con i le gambe dure come tronchi dopo venti chilometri a piedi.
Mouse/Don Cheadle, l’amico pratico di coltello e pistola che aiuta Easy.
Il primo cadavere è quello di una donna afroamericana. Il secondo di un bianco ricattatore.
Man mano i cento dollari iniziali aumentano, e non è solo il primo bianco, quello losco, Dewitt Albright, a offrirglieli. Easy ha bisogno di campare, il denaro gli serve, e poi più va avanti e più anche lui vuole sbrogliare la matassa.
Perché poi lui la ragazza scomparsa, Daphne, la trova, la incontra, è lei che gli chiede di accompagnarla
Man mano aumentano i morti, le botte, gli scontri, le minacce, i possibili ed effettivi colpevoli.
Ci sono le lezioni, c’è pedofilia, ci sono fratellastri figli di padri diversi, uno bianco e uno nero, ci sono ovviamente problemi razziali.
Mosley mette subito in luce un piglio di scrittura e un ritmo mozzafiato, dimostra di conoscere le regole del genere, di avere appreso bene la lezione sia di un classico come Chandler che di uno scrittore più recente come Elmore Leonard. E conosce la materia di cui scrive, è un afroamericano che scrive della sua gente: l’inchiesta di Easy Rawling è occasione per parlare di problemi razziali, di dignità umana, di sopravvivenza, di un mondo ingiusto.
Il poster dell’omonimo film diretto da Carl Franklin.
Easy Rawling/Denzel Washington.
Una ventina d’anni dopo il detective Shaft, king della blaxploitation, appare quest’altro detective afroamericano.
Al contrario di Shaft, attivo a New York, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins vive e lavora sulla costa ovest, in quella Los Angeles nella quale Walter Mosley è nato e cresciuto.
Ezekiel, nome biblico, diventa più accessibile, ‘facile’ con il diminutivo di Easy.
Viene da Houston, e come altri si è trasferito a Los Angeles dopo la guerra perché è lì che circola il lavoro, e il denaro.
Credo che difficilmente Easy avrebbe potuto trovare un interprete migliore di Denzel Washington nel buon film omonimo, un pochino patinato ma efficace, uscito cinque anni dopo il romanzo (1995 il film, 1990 il libro).
Romanzo che non solo è il primo della lunga serie dedicata a Ezekiel detto Easy – quattordici titoli finora – ma è anche l’esordio di Mosley, il suo primo libro pubblicato.
Dewitt Albright/Tom Sizemore, sedicente avvocato con la pistola nella fondina ascellare.
Easy Rawlins è un ex soldato dell’ultima guerra mondiale, che dopo aver perso il lavoro in una fabbrica aeronautica, nella Los Angeles del 1948, incontra un sedicente avvocato bianco abbastanza losco (gira con una pistola sotto l’ascella) che gli offre un incarico: cento dollari per ritrovare una ragazza bianca dannatamente bella che si nasconde nel quartiere nero a cui piace la musica nera, ma anche la carne nera, e, guarda caso, è la fidanzata di un candidato alla carica di sindaco della città.
Easy si può muovere nel suo quartiere con una facilità e abilità che all’uomo bianco non è consentita, conosce le regole del ghetto.
Easy ha bisogno di soldi, e accetta.
Ovviamente incontrerà tipi loschi e ovviamente la trama s’infittirà con sempre più fili potenzialmente o effettivamente criminali.
Non manca la polizia che se la prende col detective nero improvvisato, quindi sprovvisto di licenza – non che per maltrattare un afroamericano negli Stati Uniti del 1948 fosse particolarmente difficile, considerando che anche ora…
Daphne/Jennifer Beals, il diavolo in blu.
Daphne ha un cognome scritto, e pronunciato quasi, alla francese: Monet.
È bianca. È bella.
Jennifer Beals, che la interpreta nel film, non è certo meno bella di quando interpretò Flashdance dodici anni prima.
Quando Easy la incontra per la prima volta, lei veste di blu: è lei il diavolo?
Easy le chiede:
Qual è la sua arma preferita? intendendo che metodo usa.
E lei, sensuale come poche, risponde:
Perché non mi perquisisce e lo scopre da solo, mentre richiude lo spacco inguinale della sua gonna lunga.
Daphne gli chiede di accompagnarla da qualcuno che deve renderle una lettera compromettente. Ovviamente lo trovano defunto. Lei scappa con la macchina con cui sono arrivati, e lo lascia piedi.
Ora, camminare a Los Angeles è un’esperienza: le distanze sono difficili da calcolare. Lo dico con cognizione di causa perché la prima volta che ci sono stato credevo di spostarmi di uno scarso centimetro sulla cartina, e mi sono ritrovato con i le gambe dure come tronchi dopo venti chilometri a piedi.
Mouse/Don Cheadle, l’amico pratico di coltello e pistola che aiuta Easy.
Il primo cadavere è quello di una donna afroamericana. Il secondo di un bianco ricattatore.
Man mano i cento dollari iniziali aumentano, e non è solo il primo bianco, quello losco, Dewitt Albright, a offrirglieli. Easy ha bisogno di campare, il denaro gli serve, e poi più va avanti e più anche lui vuole sbrogliare la matassa.
Perché poi lui la ragazza scomparsa, Daphne, la trova, la incontra, è lei che gli chiede di accompagnarla
Man mano aumentano i morti, le botte, gli scontri, le minacce, i possibili ed effettivi colpevoli.
Ci sono le lezioni, c’è pedofilia, ci sono fratellastri figli di padri diversi, uno bianco e uno nero, ci sono ovviamente problemi razziali.
Mosley mette subito in luce un piglio di scrittura e un ritmo mozzafiato, dimostra di conoscere le regole del genere, di avere appreso bene la lezione sia di un classico come Chandler che di uno scrittore più recente come Elmore Leonard. E conosce la materia di cui scrive, è un afroamericano che scrive della sua gente: l’inchiesta di Easy Rawling è occasione per parlare di problemi razziali, di dignità umana, di sopravvivenza, di un mondo ingiusto.
Il poster dell’omonimo film diretto da Carl Franklin.
January 30, 2018
This was a great start for me. I can't wait to get to the second Easy Rawlins. The best thing about this novel was the ambiance and the character of Easy Rawlins. So well done! I want to watch the movie to compare. I recommend Devil in the Blue Dress to anybody looking for a detective novel with a little something else. This detective novel takes place in 1940s California with all the fear a black man living in that time period might have to go through. Having lost his mortgage, Rawlins accepts a job to look for a white woman who hangs in"black" bars. Rawlins feeling pressured to take the job does and the mystery kicks off.....
August 24, 2020
If you don't immediately start humming the song when you see this title, play it while you read. It is a classic:
http://youtu.be/KVbr37_yPeY
Easy Rawlins is just trying to get by. Laid off from his job building jets, he needs to make payment on his mortgage or face the loss of his house.
Drowning his woes at a tiny bar above a meatpacking warehouse, his friend and bar owner Joppy hooks him up with DeWitt Albright. Easy can't help but notice that Joppy, an ex-heavyweight fighter, is nervous, a sure tip-off there's something wrong. But Dewitt's a businessman with a simple job for Easy-- he offers him a hundred dollars to find a white girl known to hang out in the African-American community. In 1948, that's more than a couple mortgage payments to tide Easy over while he looks for his next job.
"'And just exactly what kind of business is it he does? I mean, is he a shirt salesman or what?'
'They gotta sayin' for his line'a work, Ease.'
'What's that?'
'Whatever the market can bear.' He smiled, looking like a hungry bear himself. 'Whatever the market can bear.'
Dewitt shows Easy a picture of the missing girl. Originally black and white, it's been touched up in color. "After staring at her a full minute I decided that she'd be worth looking for if you could get her to smile at you that way."
Everybody's seen her but no one wants to say where she is unless they get a piece of the action. Unfortunately, the devil has a blue dress, no doubt, and she seeds a trail of destruction in her wake. Part of the reason she breathes scandal is that her relationships transcend race, taboo at the time. Part of the reason is that the crowd she runs with includes pimps and underworld businessmen.
Soon the bodies start piling up, and the cops haul Easy in. But Easy fought in World War II, and if there is one thing he can't tolerate, it is disrespect. He decides to take control of the situation instead of letting himself be played.
"Somewhere along the way I had developed the feeling that I wasn't going to outlive the adventure I was having. There was no way out but to run, and I couldn't run, so I decided to milk all those white people for all the money they'd let go of."
His detective work takes him around various hangouts in L.A, including Ricardo's, a rough bar that you don't go into without an inside man. "Joppy had taken me to Ricardo's a few times after we locked up his bar. It was a serious kind of place peopled with jaundice-eyed bad men who smoked and drank heavily while they waited for a crime they could commit." Unsuccessful, he heads for a cut at the local barbershop, sure source of news and a neutral zone in the black community.
Devil in a Blue Dress won Moseley the Shamus award for first PI mystery, and it is easy (ha-ha) to see why. Succinct but encompassing descriptions that create a feel for L.A., the mood of post-WWII America, and an even better sense of what it felt like to be poor and black with the deck stacked against you. The experience of race weaves in and out of the storyline without being dominating or self-pitying, and has all the more impact for being so dispassionate. It affects Easy's life in so very many ways that it is an indirect commentary on race relations in the late 40s. The dialect has the flavor of Easy's southern heritage, contrasting with the more crisp language in his head. It makes for a nice reading balance, as it can be a reading challenge when dialect used for an entire book. This was an enjoyable, fast moving story that put Mosley on my authors-to-watch list.
Four easy stars.
And, of course, there's the movie.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...
http://youtu.be/KVbr37_yPeY
Easy Rawlins is just trying to get by. Laid off from his job building jets, he needs to make payment on his mortgage or face the loss of his house.
Drowning his woes at a tiny bar above a meatpacking warehouse, his friend and bar owner Joppy hooks him up with DeWitt Albright. Easy can't help but notice that Joppy, an ex-heavyweight fighter, is nervous, a sure tip-off there's something wrong. But Dewitt's a businessman with a simple job for Easy-- he offers him a hundred dollars to find a white girl known to hang out in the African-American community. In 1948, that's more than a couple mortgage payments to tide Easy over while he looks for his next job.
"'And just exactly what kind of business is it he does? I mean, is he a shirt salesman or what?'
'They gotta sayin' for his line'a work, Ease.'
'What's that?'
'Whatever the market can bear.' He smiled, looking like a hungry bear himself. 'Whatever the market can bear.'
Dewitt shows Easy a picture of the missing girl. Originally black and white, it's been touched up in color. "After staring at her a full minute I decided that she'd be worth looking for if you could get her to smile at you that way."
Everybody's seen her but no one wants to say where she is unless they get a piece of the action. Unfortunately, the devil has a blue dress, no doubt, and she seeds a trail of destruction in her wake. Part of the reason she breathes scandal is that her relationships transcend race, taboo at the time. Part of the reason is that the crowd she runs with includes pimps and underworld businessmen.
Soon the bodies start piling up, and the cops haul Easy in. But Easy fought in World War II, and if there is one thing he can't tolerate, it is disrespect. He decides to take control of the situation instead of letting himself be played.
"Somewhere along the way I had developed the feeling that I wasn't going to outlive the adventure I was having. There was no way out but to run, and I couldn't run, so I decided to milk all those white people for all the money they'd let go of."
His detective work takes him around various hangouts in L.A, including Ricardo's, a rough bar that you don't go into without an inside man. "Joppy had taken me to Ricardo's a few times after we locked up his bar. It was a serious kind of place peopled with jaundice-eyed bad men who smoked and drank heavily while they waited for a crime they could commit." Unsuccessful, he heads for a cut at the local barbershop, sure source of news and a neutral zone in the black community.
Devil in a Blue Dress won Moseley the Shamus award for first PI mystery, and it is easy (ha-ha) to see why. Succinct but encompassing descriptions that create a feel for L.A., the mood of post-WWII America, and an even better sense of what it felt like to be poor and black with the deck stacked against you. The experience of race weaves in and out of the storyline without being dominating or self-pitying, and has all the more impact for being so dispassionate. It affects Easy's life in so very many ways that it is an indirect commentary on race relations in the late 40s. The dialect has the flavor of Easy's southern heritage, contrasting with the more crisp language in his head. It makes for a nice reading balance, as it can be a reading challenge when dialect used for an entire book. This was an enjoyable, fast moving story that put Mosley on my authors-to-watch list.
Four easy stars.
And, of course, there's the movie.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...
July 12, 2018
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
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
June 27, 2021
My case study of 20th century detective fiction continues with Devil in a Blue Dress, the debut of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, World War II veteran and homeowner in South Central Los Angeles who often gets more trouble than he bargained for taking jobs to help bad people recover coveted items. Walter Mosley has published sixteen Easy Rawlins mysteries to date and in some ways, L.A. no longer seems like the pressure cooker it was when this novel arrived in 1990. In other ways, the city remains the same. Easy's voice and the world building here are more than enough for me to recommend it, but I came away unsatisfied with the story and how passively it developed.
Set in June 1948, the novel opens with Easy wetting his whistle at Joppy's bar in Watts, having been laid off from his job as an aircraft assemblyman. A native of Fifth Ward in Houston, Easy chose to prove his manhood in the army, fighting in North Africa, Italy, and finally, the Battle of the Bulge under General Patton. Like a lot of black folk after the war, Easy migrated to L.A. for jobs in the aircraft industry and made enough to buy his first home, which is he home proud of. A white man walks into the bar and Joppy, a former heavyweight boxer who is both familiar and nervous around the man, calls Easy over to introduce them.
DeWitt Albright reveals that he used to be a lawyer in Georgia and now specializes in "favors" for friends, or friends of friends. Joppy later reassures Easy that while Mr. Albright is a tough man who runs in rough company, he's no gangster, just a man looking for a girl. Driving downtown that evening to Albright's office, Easy is given a photograph of a pretty young white woman Albright tells him is named Daphne Monet. She frequents hangouts in Watts and Albright needs a man who might seem to belong in those hangouts to get a line on where she is. He says Daphne was last seen at an illegal club Easy knows offers him a hundred dollars in advance. Easy goes to work.
John's place was a speakeasy before they repealed Prohibition. But by 1948 we had legitimate bars all over L.A. John liked the speakeasy business though, and he had been in so much trouble with the law that City Hall wouldn't have given him a license to drive, much less to sell liquor. So John kept paying off the police and running an illegal nightclub through the back door of a little market at the corner of Central Avenue and Eighty-ninth Place. You could walk into that store any evening up until three in the morning to find Hattie Parsons sitting behind the candy counter. They didn't have many groceries, and no fresh produce or dairy goods, but she'd sell you what was there and if you knew the right words, or were a regular, then she'd let you in the club through the back door. But if you thought that you should be able to get in on account of your name, or your clothes or maybe your bankbook, well, Hattie kept a straight razor in her apron pocket and her nephew, Junior Fornay, sat right behind the door.
Easy asks Junior if he's seen a white girl named Delia or Dahlia. He gets the sense that Junior is lying to him, but working the room, can't get anyone to say they've seen the white woman he's looking for. He has drinks with a co-worker named Dupree and his girl friend, a skinny but charisma pulsing dame named Coretta. Helping her drag Dupree home, Easy gets familiar with Coretta in the living room, where she reveals she knows who Daphne's boyfriend is, a liquor truck hijacker named Frank Green. Easy returns home and finds a letter transcribed by his childhood friend from Fifth Ward, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. Easy finds himself drawn to his closet, either to pack or to hide.
I ran away from Mouse and Texas to go to the army and then later to L.A. I hated myself. I signed up to fight in the way to prove to myself that I was a man. Before we launched the attack on D-Day I was frightened but I fought. I fought despite the fear. The first time I fought a German hand-t0-hand I screamed for help the whole time I was killing him. His dead eyes stared at me a full five minutes before I let go of his throat.
The only time in my life I had ever been completely free from fear was when I ran with Mouse. He was so confident that there was no room for fear. Mouse was barely five-foot-six but he'd go up against a man Dupree's size and you know I'd bet on the Mouse to walk away from it. He could put a knife in a man's stomach and ten minutes later sit down to a plate of spaghetti.
I didn't want to write Mouse and I didn't want to let it lie. In my mind he had such power that I felt I had to do whatever he wanted. But I had dreams that didn't have me running in the streets anymore; I was a man of property and I wanted to leave my wild days behind.
Who Daphne Monet is, how Easy finds her and the "whats-it" that warrants the obsession of so many men starting with Mr. Albright largely becomes second, third and fourth fiddle to what really makes Devil In a Blue Dress jam and that's Walter Mosley taking us through the streets of South Central in 1948. While Easy is arrested and interrogated by police, discovers a corpse, gets shot at by gangsters and is summoned before the city's powerful, Mosley's detective story tells it all from the point-of-view of a black man. Details and texture that a Raymond Chandler or a Dashiell Hammett never had access to jumps off the page. Characters are well drawn. Prose is often magnificent.
Talking with Mr. Todd Carter was a strange experience. I mean, there I was, a Negro in a rich white man's office, talking to him like we were best friends--even closer. I could tell that he didn't have the fear or contempt that most white people showed when they dealt with me.
It was a strange experience but I had seen it before. Mr. Todd Carter was so rich that he didn't even consider me in human terms. He could tell me anything. I could have been a prized dog that he knelt to and hugged when he felt low.
It was the worst kind of racism. The fact that he didn't even recognize our difference showed that he didn't care one damn about me. But I didn't have the time to worry about it. I just watched him move his lips about lost love until, finally, I began to see him as some strange being. Like a baby who grows to man-size and terrorizes his poor parents with his strength and stupidity.
The Easy Rawlins mysteries have one of the best, or worst, examples of deus ex machina that I've ever come across: Mouse shows up in the nick of time to bail Easy out of trouble. Mosley's private detective gets hurt, but we sense that no injury will come to him as long as his gangster friend is close by. Things just seem to happen to Easy, most without him even present, so corpses and money and the why of it all don't seem to matter much. The world visualized here is so well described I could taste it, but the lack of a compelling narrative doomed a high-quality 1995 film starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle (as Mouse, in his breakout role) and Jennifer Beals.
Word count: 85,820 words
Set in June 1948, the novel opens with Easy wetting his whistle at Joppy's bar in Watts, having been laid off from his job as an aircraft assemblyman. A native of Fifth Ward in Houston, Easy chose to prove his manhood in the army, fighting in North Africa, Italy, and finally, the Battle of the Bulge under General Patton. Like a lot of black folk after the war, Easy migrated to L.A. for jobs in the aircraft industry and made enough to buy his first home, which is he home proud of. A white man walks into the bar and Joppy, a former heavyweight boxer who is both familiar and nervous around the man, calls Easy over to introduce them.
DeWitt Albright reveals that he used to be a lawyer in Georgia and now specializes in "favors" for friends, or friends of friends. Joppy later reassures Easy that while Mr. Albright is a tough man who runs in rough company, he's no gangster, just a man looking for a girl. Driving downtown that evening to Albright's office, Easy is given a photograph of a pretty young white woman Albright tells him is named Daphne Monet. She frequents hangouts in Watts and Albright needs a man who might seem to belong in those hangouts to get a line on where she is. He says Daphne was last seen at an illegal club Easy knows offers him a hundred dollars in advance. Easy goes to work.
John's place was a speakeasy before they repealed Prohibition. But by 1948 we had legitimate bars all over L.A. John liked the speakeasy business though, and he had been in so much trouble with the law that City Hall wouldn't have given him a license to drive, much less to sell liquor. So John kept paying off the police and running an illegal nightclub through the back door of a little market at the corner of Central Avenue and Eighty-ninth Place. You could walk into that store any evening up until three in the morning to find Hattie Parsons sitting behind the candy counter. They didn't have many groceries, and no fresh produce or dairy goods, but she'd sell you what was there and if you knew the right words, or were a regular, then she'd let you in the club through the back door. But if you thought that you should be able to get in on account of your name, or your clothes or maybe your bankbook, well, Hattie kept a straight razor in her apron pocket and her nephew, Junior Fornay, sat right behind the door.
Easy asks Junior if he's seen a white girl named Delia or Dahlia. He gets the sense that Junior is lying to him, but working the room, can't get anyone to say they've seen the white woman he's looking for. He has drinks with a co-worker named Dupree and his girl friend, a skinny but charisma pulsing dame named Coretta. Helping her drag Dupree home, Easy gets familiar with Coretta in the living room, where she reveals she knows who Daphne's boyfriend is, a liquor truck hijacker named Frank Green. Easy returns home and finds a letter transcribed by his childhood friend from Fifth Ward, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander. Easy finds himself drawn to his closet, either to pack or to hide.
I ran away from Mouse and Texas to go to the army and then later to L.A. I hated myself. I signed up to fight in the way to prove to myself that I was a man. Before we launched the attack on D-Day I was frightened but I fought. I fought despite the fear. The first time I fought a German hand-t0-hand I screamed for help the whole time I was killing him. His dead eyes stared at me a full five minutes before I let go of his throat.
The only time in my life I had ever been completely free from fear was when I ran with Mouse. He was so confident that there was no room for fear. Mouse was barely five-foot-six but he'd go up against a man Dupree's size and you know I'd bet on the Mouse to walk away from it. He could put a knife in a man's stomach and ten minutes later sit down to a plate of spaghetti.
I didn't want to write Mouse and I didn't want to let it lie. In my mind he had such power that I felt I had to do whatever he wanted. But I had dreams that didn't have me running in the streets anymore; I was a man of property and I wanted to leave my wild days behind.
Who Daphne Monet is, how Easy finds her and the "whats-it" that warrants the obsession of so many men starting with Mr. Albright largely becomes second, third and fourth fiddle to what really makes Devil In a Blue Dress jam and that's Walter Mosley taking us through the streets of South Central in 1948. While Easy is arrested and interrogated by police, discovers a corpse, gets shot at by gangsters and is summoned before the city's powerful, Mosley's detective story tells it all from the point-of-view of a black man. Details and texture that a Raymond Chandler or a Dashiell Hammett never had access to jumps off the page. Characters are well drawn. Prose is often magnificent.
Talking with Mr. Todd Carter was a strange experience. I mean, there I was, a Negro in a rich white man's office, talking to him like we were best friends--even closer. I could tell that he didn't have the fear or contempt that most white people showed when they dealt with me.
It was a strange experience but I had seen it before. Mr. Todd Carter was so rich that he didn't even consider me in human terms. He could tell me anything. I could have been a prized dog that he knelt to and hugged when he felt low.
It was the worst kind of racism. The fact that he didn't even recognize our difference showed that he didn't care one damn about me. But I didn't have the time to worry about it. I just watched him move his lips about lost love until, finally, I began to see him as some strange being. Like a baby who grows to man-size and terrorizes his poor parents with his strength and stupidity.
The Easy Rawlins mysteries have one of the best, or worst, examples of deus ex machina that I've ever come across: Mouse shows up in the nick of time to bail Easy out of trouble. Mosley's private detective gets hurt, but we sense that no injury will come to him as long as his gangster friend is close by. Things just seem to happen to Easy, most without him even present, so corpses and money and the why of it all don't seem to matter much. The world visualized here is so well described I could taste it, but the lack of a compelling narrative doomed a high-quality 1995 film starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle (as Mouse, in his breakout role) and Jennifer Beals.
Word count: 85,820 words
August 12, 2016
This book is one of my favorite detective novels. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a young black WWII veteran who has lost his job and is eager to jump at an opportunity when a shady businessman hires him to locate a pretty white woman named Daphne Monet, who is known for gettin' her party on at black nightclubs.
This is not only one of the best debut detective novels, but also features what I think is one of the best literary characters, especially in the detective genre. I think that Easy is a wonderful character and dissimilar to other noir detectives in a number of ways. He is a totally reluctant investigator. He doesn't have an office or a secretary, and proves to be great at the job because of his wits, his relationships, his awareness of race and being in touch with his community. And you can actually believe why women are attracted to him. It's great witnessing the change in him as he uncovers secrets that he is unprepared for. I love how evocative the book is of 1940's inner city Los-Angeles and it's variety of characters, especially in the South Central area. It has a complicated, intriguing plot, and because of Walter Mosley's soulful and effortless prose, this mystery never got boring.
An awesome running start to a solid series that evolves in great ways. The series should definitely be read in order so you can enjoy Easy's personal and growth as he acquires new friends and family, but other standout novels in the series include A Little Yellow Dog, as well as the later novels like Little Scarlet, Cinnamon Kiss, and Blonde Faith.
This is not only one of the best debut detective novels, but also features what I think is one of the best literary characters, especially in the detective genre. I think that Easy is a wonderful character and dissimilar to other noir detectives in a number of ways. He is a totally reluctant investigator. He doesn't have an office or a secretary, and proves to be great at the job because of his wits, his relationships, his awareness of race and being in touch with his community. And you can actually believe why women are attracted to him. It's great witnessing the change in him as he uncovers secrets that he is unprepared for. I love how evocative the book is of 1940's inner city Los-Angeles and it's variety of characters, especially in the South Central area. It has a complicated, intriguing plot, and because of Walter Mosley's soulful and effortless prose, this mystery never got boring.
An awesome running start to a solid series that evolves in great ways. The series should definitely be read in order so you can enjoy Easy's personal and growth as he acquires new friends and family, but other standout novels in the series include A Little Yellow Dog, as well as the later novels like Little Scarlet, Cinnamon Kiss, and Blonde Faith.
November 8, 2023
Devil in a Blue Dress is a true classic of the hard-boiled crime fiction genre, and I still remember the rush I got reading it when it was first released over thirty years ago. I've read it a couple of times in the interim and returning to it again now is still a huge treat. Like any number of other hard-boiled novels (think The Big Sleep) the plot is somewhat convoluted and doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's really of little concern. Like The Big Sleep, this is a novel in which the characters, the atmosphere, and the setting take center stage.
At the heart of the novel is Ezekial "Easy" Rawlins, a black man living in the Los Angeles of 1948, where most white people still expected the black people among them to remain in their "proper" place. Easy is a veteran of World War II, and as was the case with so many other veterans, his life was irrevocably changed by his wartime experiences. He now has a job in an airplane factory and he owns a small home which is is pride and joy and a symbol of the success he has made of his life thus far.
Easy's life takes a bad turn, however, when he loses his job because he refuses to be suitably subservient to his demanding white boss. Easy has a mortgage payment coming due and not nearly enough money to make the payment. He's telling his troubles to a friend of his who owns a bar and the friend suggests that Easy can make some quick money by doing a job for a white man, DeWitt Albright, that the bar owner knows.
Albright is looking for a woman named Daphne Monet, a woman who is known to spend time in L.A.'s black jazz clubs. Albright can't go looking for her in these places himself, but Easy could, and Albright offers Easy enough money to cover his mortgage payment if he can do the job.
"The thought of paying my mortgage reminded me of my front yard and the shade of my fruit trees in the summer heat. I felt that I was just as good as any white man, but if I didn't even own my own front door then people would look at me like just another poor beggar, with his hand outstretched."
Rawlins thus decides to take the job and his search for the woman will inevitably entangle him with some very dangerous characters and lead him into some very dark places. Along the way, Easy will realize that he has a natural talent as a detective, which will set the rest of his life on a very different course, assuming, naturally, that he can survive his first case.
This is a beautifully written book with a cast of characters that will remain with the reader for a long time to come. The setting is so palpable that you feel like you've been transported back to the Los Angeles of 1948, and the novel speaks volumes about the relationships between blacks and whites during that era. Easy Rawlins was not the first black detective to appear in a hard-boiled novel, but reading this book in 1990 felt like a revelation. Thirty-three years later, it still does.
At the heart of the novel is Ezekial "Easy" Rawlins, a black man living in the Los Angeles of 1948, where most white people still expected the black people among them to remain in their "proper" place. Easy is a veteran of World War II, and as was the case with so many other veterans, his life was irrevocably changed by his wartime experiences. He now has a job in an airplane factory and he owns a small home which is is pride and joy and a symbol of the success he has made of his life thus far.
Easy's life takes a bad turn, however, when he loses his job because he refuses to be suitably subservient to his demanding white boss. Easy has a mortgage payment coming due and not nearly enough money to make the payment. He's telling his troubles to a friend of his who owns a bar and the friend suggests that Easy can make some quick money by doing a job for a white man, DeWitt Albright, that the bar owner knows.
Albright is looking for a woman named Daphne Monet, a woman who is known to spend time in L.A.'s black jazz clubs. Albright can't go looking for her in these places himself, but Easy could, and Albright offers Easy enough money to cover his mortgage payment if he can do the job.
"The thought of paying my mortgage reminded me of my front yard and the shade of my fruit trees in the summer heat. I felt that I was just as good as any white man, but if I didn't even own my own front door then people would look at me like just another poor beggar, with his hand outstretched."
Rawlins thus decides to take the job and his search for the woman will inevitably entangle him with some very dangerous characters and lead him into some very dark places. Along the way, Easy will realize that he has a natural talent as a detective, which will set the rest of his life on a very different course, assuming, naturally, that he can survive his first case.
This is a beautifully written book with a cast of characters that will remain with the reader for a long time to come. The setting is so palpable that you feel like you've been transported back to the Los Angeles of 1948, and the novel speaks volumes about the relationships between blacks and whites during that era. Easy Rawlins was not the first black detective to appear in a hard-boiled novel, but reading this book in 1990 felt like a revelation. Thirty-three years later, it still does.
February 7, 2014
When a jobless World War II vet named Easy Rawlins is hired to find a woman, he finds himself ensnared in a web of lies and murder. Can Easy find Daphne Monet without becoming another victim? And what secrets is Daphne Monet carrying?
Devil in a Blue Dress is a throwback to the pioneers of noir like Hammett, Chandler, and Cain. Only this PI is black and his case takes place in the black Los Angeles of 1948. Mosley's black LA is just as vivid as Chandler's seedy Hollywood underbelly.
Easy's supporting cast is as colorful as anything Hammett or Chandler ever crafted: Frank Green, Joppy, Junior, Dupree, and the rest. DeWitt Albright is a sociopathic villain, the most frightening kind, and Easy's pal Mouse isn't much higher on the food chain.
Easy is a conflicted character, not wanting to get too deep into the web of murder surrounding Daphne Monet but unable to stop himself. Mouse provides a nice contrast to Easy in that he's not conflicted in the least. As far as Bad Ass Friends go, Mouse is really high on my list. He's unhinged but likes Easy enough to follow him anywhere as long as Easy doesn't get in his way.
Owing to its early noir roots, the case is suitably serpentine. Once I assumed everyone except Easy was a liar, it was one hell of a ride to the finish.
The prose was good. I'd say it owed more to Hammett than Chandler. I'll be interested to see where the series goes from here considering how many of the players were dead by the end.
Four out of five stars. I think I've found the series that will eat up a portion of my 2014 crime reading.
Devil in a Blue Dress is a throwback to the pioneers of noir like Hammett, Chandler, and Cain. Only this PI is black and his case takes place in the black Los Angeles of 1948. Mosley's black LA is just as vivid as Chandler's seedy Hollywood underbelly.
Easy's supporting cast is as colorful as anything Hammett or Chandler ever crafted: Frank Green, Joppy, Junior, Dupree, and the rest. DeWitt Albright is a sociopathic villain, the most frightening kind, and Easy's pal Mouse isn't much higher on the food chain.
Easy is a conflicted character, not wanting to get too deep into the web of murder surrounding Daphne Monet but unable to stop himself. Mouse provides a nice contrast to Easy in that he's not conflicted in the least. As far as Bad Ass Friends go, Mouse is really high on my list. He's unhinged but likes Easy enough to follow him anywhere as long as Easy doesn't get in his way.
Owing to its early noir roots, the case is suitably serpentine. Once I assumed everyone except Easy was a liar, it was one hell of a ride to the finish.
The prose was good. I'd say it owed more to Hammett than Chandler. I'll be interested to see where the series goes from here considering how many of the players were dead by the end.
Four out of five stars. I think I've found the series that will eat up a portion of my 2014 crime reading.
August 6, 2017
Devil in a Blue Dress introduced Walter Mosley's hero, Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins to the reading public. A fast-flowing narrative with a story somewhat complex in a bare-bones kind of way, Mosley takes us into Raymond Chandler country - Los Angeles after the war. But this is a slightly different perspective because Easy happens to be a black man. He becomes a private-eye of sorts in order to locate a blonde French girl named Daphne Monet for a white man he doesn't quite trust. Daphne has a penchant for black men, and haunts the world of dusty underground bars and hole-in-the-wall jazz joints Easy knows all too well.
Finding her may not be Easy's only problem, however, as someone is out to kill him, prompting him to employ his old pal, Mouse, to watch his back while he investigates. Mouse is sharply drawn by Mosley as an amoral yet likable killer; deadly as an enemy, unequaled as a friend. Easy is portrayed by Mosley as a decent man who understands his world and his place in it, but doesn't like it one bit. Like Ross Macdonald's, Lew Archer, Easy is more comfortable being an observer of human cruelty and frailty than a participant.
Easy's attraction to the beautiful white girl, Daphne Monet, and his uneasiness about what may really be going on, underscores a complex and riveting narrative in which everyone might just have underestimated Easy. Mosley makes the larger story here not the case, but the story about a good man in a not-so-good world, trying to detach himself from it all, only to discover it is part of who he is. Mosley's "Mouse" is unforgettable, and in some respects what Hawk is to Spenser in Robert B. Parker's series.
Daphne has more to hide in this novel than just money, and its truth is the impetus for everything that happens. There is murder here, and greed, and something Easy has seen way too much of, even for a black man in post WWII Los Angeles -- sorrow. This is a fine read and a perfect introduction to Easy Rawlins. White Butterfly might be a slightly better book, in my opinion, but Devil in a Blue Dress is highly recommended to mystery fans.
Finding her may not be Easy's only problem, however, as someone is out to kill him, prompting him to employ his old pal, Mouse, to watch his back while he investigates. Mouse is sharply drawn by Mosley as an amoral yet likable killer; deadly as an enemy, unequaled as a friend. Easy is portrayed by Mosley as a decent man who understands his world and his place in it, but doesn't like it one bit. Like Ross Macdonald's, Lew Archer, Easy is more comfortable being an observer of human cruelty and frailty than a participant.
Easy's attraction to the beautiful white girl, Daphne Monet, and his uneasiness about what may really be going on, underscores a complex and riveting narrative in which everyone might just have underestimated Easy. Mosley makes the larger story here not the case, but the story about a good man in a not-so-good world, trying to detach himself from it all, only to discover it is part of who he is. Mosley's "Mouse" is unforgettable, and in some respects what Hawk is to Spenser in Robert B. Parker's series.
Daphne has more to hide in this novel than just money, and its truth is the impetus for everything that happens. There is murder here, and greed, and something Easy has seen way too much of, even for a black man in post WWII Los Angeles -- sorrow. This is a fine read and a perfect introduction to Easy Rawlins. White Butterfly might be a slightly better book, in my opinion, but Devil in a Blue Dress is highly recommended to mystery fans.
August 11, 2019
Primera novela que leo de Walter Mosley. También hay una película sobre el libro. La película es buena. El libro, mejor.
Se respira el aire de L. A. de los 40 en toda la historia. El racismo, la violencia, el calor. Easy Rawlins es negro, muy negro y Mosley quiere que se sepa y que uno se sienta negro en ese Los Ángeles.
Buen ritmo narrativo y buena caracterización de personajes. Llama la atención el personaje de Mouse y su visión "negra" de la vida que se opone a la visión más "blanca" de Ezekiel.
Me apetece más de Mosley.
Se respira el aire de L. A. de los 40 en toda la historia. El racismo, la violencia, el calor. Easy Rawlins es negro, muy negro y Mosley quiere que se sepa y que uno se sienta negro en ese Los Ángeles.
Buen ritmo narrativo y buena caracterización de personajes. Llama la atención el personaje de Mouse y su visión "negra" de la vida que se opone a la visión más "blanca" de Ezekiel.
Me apetece más de Mosley.
February 18, 2011
Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins fought his way across Europe as a decorated soldier during World War II, but in post-war Los Angeles, he’s a second class citizen because he’s black. When Easy is fired from a good job due to racism from his boss, he finds himself on the verge of losing the small house he loves. A friend of Easy’s hooks him up with a white man named Albright who has an opportunity to make some quick cash.
Albright is looking for a white girl named Daphne Monet who is known to hang out in black clubs. Since Albright won’t get any answers if he goes looking for her in those places, he wants Easy to find her and is offering $100 for a week’s work. That’s enough to pay his bills, and even though Albright makes Easy extremely nervous, he doesn’t see another way to keep his house.
Easy begins looking for Daphne, but he quickly finds himself the target of cops, rich white men and a dangerous hijacker. Fortunately for Easy, he has one of the staples of crime fiction in his corner; a Bad-Ass-Criminal-Friend. Raymond “Mouse” Alexander is a cheerful little psychopath who has a quick trigger finger and a nose for money, and he’s even more dangerous than the people Easy is already up against.
Mosley created a great character with Easy. In some ways, he’s an average everyman, just looking to get by during a time when his race makes him a frequent target so he doesn’t see the percentage in looking for extra trouble, but Easy also frequently gets fed up with the attitudes of the time and will demand respect when he feels he’s being slighted. He can also be extremely dangerous when pushed.
Since he isn’t a trained detective, Easy finds out what he needs by tapping the many relationships he has within the black community. You won’t find Easy dusting for fingerprints, but you may see him gossiping at the barber shop. Mosley did a superior job of recreating the world of Watts in 1948 and it’s a lot of fun to read about Easy moving through this environment.
Mouse is also a great twist on the classic Bad-Ass-Criminal-Friend concept you see in most detective books. Usually, the BACFs are loyal to their more law abiding friends and follow their lead when their services are called for. In this case, Easy is actually terrified of Mouse and with good reason. They may be old friends, but if Mouse sees an angle to make money, then he’d kill Easy or anyone else that stood in his way without a second thought. Dealing with Mouse is like handling nitroglycerin; it can be useful but if you’re not careful you’ll end up splattered all over the walls.
This was a great start to a good series. The movie version with Denzel Washington is also pretty good with a terrific performance by Don Cheadle as Mouse.
Albright is looking for a white girl named Daphne Monet who is known to hang out in black clubs. Since Albright won’t get any answers if he goes looking for her in those places, he wants Easy to find her and is offering $100 for a week’s work. That’s enough to pay his bills, and even though Albright makes Easy extremely nervous, he doesn’t see another way to keep his house.
Easy begins looking for Daphne, but he quickly finds himself the target of cops, rich white men and a dangerous hijacker. Fortunately for Easy, he has one of the staples of crime fiction in his corner; a Bad-Ass-Criminal-Friend. Raymond “Mouse” Alexander is a cheerful little psychopath who has a quick trigger finger and a nose for money, and he’s even more dangerous than the people Easy is already up against.
Mosley created a great character with Easy. In some ways, he’s an average everyman, just looking to get by during a time when his race makes him a frequent target so he doesn’t see the percentage in looking for extra trouble, but Easy also frequently gets fed up with the attitudes of the time and will demand respect when he feels he’s being slighted. He can also be extremely dangerous when pushed.
Since he isn’t a trained detective, Easy finds out what he needs by tapping the many relationships he has within the black community. You won’t find Easy dusting for fingerprints, but you may see him gossiping at the barber shop. Mosley did a superior job of recreating the world of Watts in 1948 and it’s a lot of fun to read about Easy moving through this environment.
Mouse is also a great twist on the classic Bad-Ass-Criminal-Friend concept you see in most detective books. Usually, the BACFs are loyal to their more law abiding friends and follow their lead when their services are called for. In this case, Easy is actually terrified of Mouse and with good reason. They may be old friends, but if Mouse sees an angle to make money, then he’d kill Easy or anyone else that stood in his way without a second thought. Dealing with Mouse is like handling nitroglycerin; it can be useful but if you’re not careful you’ll end up splattered all over the walls.
This was a great start to a good series. The movie version with Denzel Washington is also pretty good with a terrific performance by Don Cheadle as Mouse.
July 31, 2022
This gritty, hardboiled noir story is set in 1948 Los Angeles, and opens in a bar that smells like rotten meat. It's an opening that would make Raymond Chandler proud. The surprising thing is that it was written in 1990, and the guy at the bar (the anti-hero of this story, and subsequent series) is African American.
Reading a hardboiled noir story from a black person's point of view is unique, interesting, eye opening, and brings a social depth to the genre that it lacked before. Easy Rawlins is vulnerable because of his race, and has far more worries about getting through his day than Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade ever had.
His day gets even more complicated when a friend introduces him to Mr. Albright, who offers him money to look for a beautiful white girl. The offer is too good to pass up (and Easy can't miss a mortgage payment) so thus begins a dark and perilous adventure.
If you love hardboiled noir, this will likely hit the mark. I've enjoyed noir in the past. And there's a lot to appreciate in this book, from the clever dialogue, to the immersive setting (both time and place). I also liked Easy and his psycho pal Mouse as characters. But... I struggled with it, and for a few reasons.
The first is the plot itself. After about the halfway point, it becomes messy and convoluted. Hours after reading the book, I'm already foggy on who killed who and why. Bodies stacked up, bodies of people I didn't know or have any attachment to. The tension that had built up in the first half sort of dissipated in the chaos and confusion of the second.
I realize that this happens in a lot of noir novels. Raymond Chandler does this, but at least he can make me swoon with out-of-this-world language and similes. Mosley's writing is good but I have to say there weren't many memorable lines that I can recall.
The next thing I struggled with is likely brought on by my own expectations, so not really the fault of the author. See, when I learned it was written in 1990, and that the author was breathing new life into an old tropey genre, I had hopes. And Mosley delivered, by introducing a black protagonist. I also hoped he'd do something with the typical treatment of women in hardboiled fiction. I was disappointed on that score. The two female characters were sexualized and became lovers with Easy. The "femme fatale" character slept with pretty much each and every male character in the book. In a sea of characters that weren't particularly fleshed out, one could make an argument that this is just the way Mosley rolls. My question is then, why were the male characters not also defined in the same way?
I had hopes for more of a facelift on the genre, but at the end of the day, that's my problem... it's not particularly fair to impose what you want versus what IS. And what is, in this case, is a pretty standard hardboiled detective story, with a not-so-standard detective. Which makes it worth checking out - and I'm glad I did.
Reading a hardboiled noir story from a black person's point of view is unique, interesting, eye opening, and brings a social depth to the genre that it lacked before. Easy Rawlins is vulnerable because of his race, and has far more worries about getting through his day than Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade ever had.
His day gets even more complicated when a friend introduces him to Mr. Albright, who offers him money to look for a beautiful white girl. The offer is too good to pass up (and Easy can't miss a mortgage payment) so thus begins a dark and perilous adventure.
If you love hardboiled noir, this will likely hit the mark. I've enjoyed noir in the past. And there's a lot to appreciate in this book, from the clever dialogue, to the immersive setting (both time and place). I also liked Easy and his psycho pal Mouse as characters. But... I struggled with it, and for a few reasons.
The first is the plot itself. After about the halfway point, it becomes messy and convoluted. Hours after reading the book, I'm already foggy on who killed who and why. Bodies stacked up, bodies of people I didn't know or have any attachment to. The tension that had built up in the first half sort of dissipated in the chaos and confusion of the second.
I realize that this happens in a lot of noir novels. Raymond Chandler does this, but at least he can make me swoon with out-of-this-world language and similes. Mosley's writing is good but I have to say there weren't many memorable lines that I can recall.
The next thing I struggled with is likely brought on by my own expectations, so not really the fault of the author. See, when I learned it was written in 1990, and that the author was breathing new life into an old tropey genre, I had hopes. And Mosley delivered, by introducing a black protagonist. I also hoped he'd do something with the typical treatment of women in hardboiled fiction. I was disappointed on that score. The two female characters were sexualized and became lovers with Easy. The "femme fatale" character slept with pretty much each and every male character in the book. In a sea of characters that weren't particularly fleshed out, one could make an argument that this is just the way Mosley rolls. My question is then, why were the male characters not also defined in the same way?
I had hopes for more of a facelift on the genre, but at the end of the day, that's my problem... it's not particularly fair to impose what you want versus what IS. And what is, in this case, is a pretty standard hardboiled detective story, with a not-so-standard detective. Which makes it worth checking out - and I'm glad I did.
March 11, 2020
Backlist A Thon: Book with Blue on the cover
I absolutely loved this book!
Devil In A Blue Dress is a noir classic.
A man down on his luck.
A beautiful & mysterious woman.
Gangsters
Politicians.
And Los Angeles in the 1940's.
Devil In A Blue Dress has everything you could ever want in a noir. This book is so atmospheric. I could so vividly picture every frame of this story. Walter Mosley is a true wordsmith. Devil in a Blue Dress is suspenseful, dramatic and compulsively readable.
I loved it!
A must read!
I absolutely loved this book!
Devil In A Blue Dress is a noir classic.
A man down on his luck.
A beautiful & mysterious woman.
Gangsters
Politicians.
And Los Angeles in the 1940's.
Devil In A Blue Dress has everything you could ever want in a noir. This book is so atmospheric. I could so vividly picture every frame of this story. Walter Mosley is a true wordsmith. Devil in a Blue Dress is suspenseful, dramatic and compulsively readable.
I loved it!
A must read!
October 20, 2017
Having read Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep earlier this year, it’s easy to make the comparison to this novel, Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley. After all, they’re both hard-boiled crime novels, both set in Los Angeles in the 1st half of the 20th century, and both debut their famous private-eye protagonists, Philip Marlowe and Easy Rawlins, who would appear in multiple novels, and even on the big screen. But that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
Easy Rawlins pwas an African-American living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in the late 1940s. Unlike Marlowe, he had no training as a private-eye, no background at all. Out of work, he takes the job of finding someone, the beautiful woman in the blue dress, and his life is started on a new path. This novel was written in the 1990s which surprised me. Mosley does a good job of capturing the feel of life in 1940s Watts, the prejudice of white vs black, police vs black, the struggle, not to get ahead, just to get by. The story, the mystery, was riveting but easy to follow. Easy Rawlins was a very likeable and believable character.
Easy Rawlins pwas an African-American living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in the late 1940s. Unlike Marlowe, he had no training as a private-eye, no background at all. Out of work, he takes the job of finding someone, the beautiful woman in the blue dress, and his life is started on a new path. This novel was written in the 1990s which surprised me. Mosley does a good job of capturing the feel of life in 1940s Watts, the prejudice of white vs black, police vs black, the struggle, not to get ahead, just to get by. The story, the mystery, was riveting but easy to follow. Easy Rawlins was a very likeable and believable character.
March 3, 2019
First let me say that I don’t know why it took me so long to start this series. I always knew that I would enjoy them once I got started. However, I admit that I was just a tiny bit nervous starting this one because I attempted to read Killing Johnny Fry early in 2017 and it was no bueno! I DNF'd that sucker and never looked back! It was Mosley's take on an erotic story and let me tell ya, it wasn't my cup of tea in any way shape or form. Just no. Nuh uh. Naw, y'all!
Devil in a Blued Dress on the other hand, is a perfect example of why Walter Mosley is such a respected and widely read author. Mosley skillfully injects social commentary into a murder mystery and makes the story about more than just who did the dead and why. Mosley cleanly and unflinchingly exposes his readers to what it means for Easy to be a black man in post World War II America, and it isn't a comfortable or easy existence. The injustice, intolerance, and general inequity that Easy experiences almost daily just by being what he was born to be allows Mosley to make his reader just as uneasy as Easy is himself. Mosley inserts so many 'black truths and realities' so seamlessly that the world that Mosley exposes feels like an up close and personal look into someone's actual life.
I went into Devil in a Blue Dress thinking that I would get a really well written and entertaining mystery and that's about it. I knew that Easy Rawlins is a beloved character and that the entire series is well loved and widely read, but I was not expecting Mosley to deliver such rich and complicated characters that would get me excited to see just how deep Mosley is going to dig in future books. The whole cast of characters in Devil in a Blue Dress are well fleshed out, even the ones that are revolting. I was surprised that I found myself needing to mark conversations and other sections because they stood out so clearly to me. I thought that I was just going to be entertained, not prodded to think about 'real' issues.
What I loved the most about reading this book is the way that Mosley taps you on the shoulder in different scenes and basically says "You seeing this crap? Yeah, THIS is Easy's reality." Mosley is another author that I am kicking myself for not getting read sooner in my life. Better late than never, and because of being so late to the game I now have the pleasure of being able to read through thirteen more Easy Rawlins books without having to wait for new installments!
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @MonlatReader
Instagram: @readermonica
Facebook: Monica Reeds
Devil in a Blued Dress on the other hand, is a perfect example of why Walter Mosley is such a respected and widely read author. Mosley skillfully injects social commentary into a murder mystery and makes the story about more than just who did the dead and why. Mosley cleanly and unflinchingly exposes his readers to what it means for Easy to be a black man in post World War II America, and it isn't a comfortable or easy existence. The injustice, intolerance, and general inequity that Easy experiences almost daily just by being what he was born to be allows Mosley to make his reader just as uneasy as Easy is himself. Mosley inserts so many 'black truths and realities' so seamlessly that the world that Mosley exposes feels like an up close and personal look into someone's actual life.
I went into Devil in a Blue Dress thinking that I would get a really well written and entertaining mystery and that's about it. I knew that Easy Rawlins is a beloved character and that the entire series is well loved and widely read, but I was not expecting Mosley to deliver such rich and complicated characters that would get me excited to see just how deep Mosley is going to dig in future books. The whole cast of characters in Devil in a Blue Dress are well fleshed out, even the ones that are revolting. I was surprised that I found myself needing to mark conversations and other sections because they stood out so clearly to me. I thought that I was just going to be entertained, not prodded to think about 'real' issues.
What I loved the most about reading this book is the way that Mosley taps you on the shoulder in different scenes and basically says "You seeing this crap? Yeah, THIS is Easy's reality." Mosley is another author that I am kicking myself for not getting read sooner in my life. Better late than never, and because of being so late to the game I now have the pleasure of being able to read through thirteen more Easy Rawlins books without having to wait for new installments!
Where you can find me:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @MonlatReader
Instagram: @readermonica
Facebook: Monica Reeds
August 2, 2017
Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a proud and unapologetic black man in 1940s Los Angeles. He has just been laid off from his factory job because he let his independence show too openly toward his white supervisor. While hanging out at a local bar, a menacing, heavy-set white man dressed all in white approaches him with a "job". Because the bartender vouches for him, Easy takes the job. After all, he has a mortgage to pay. What is this job? Find some 22-year-old blond knockout, Daphne Monet, who frequents jazz clubs and has been seen in the company of blacks, for an unnamed client. Seems simple enough. But as Easy starts investigating and events unfold, we see the world through his eyes, where rich and powerful white men are dangerous and mysterious.
Easy is not one drawn to violence. He’ll use it if he has to, but he doesn’t lead with his fists. Not so his childhood friend, Mouse. Easy isn't happy that his old friend showed up uninvited, but it turns out to be a good thing that he did. Despite his tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, Mouse is a likable character who can almost make you laugh while he's beating someone half to death. And with Mouse around, Easy doesn't have to get his hands dirty.
Easy Rawlins is a character we can root for. He's well-rounded, but flawed. He has doubts, insecurities, and even falls victim to his own heart from time to time. He didn't choose to be a private investigator—the looming threat of poverty is what keeps him going. But he's good at it.
The plot moves along pretty quickly with all the tried and true red herrings, misdirections, dead ends, and desperate moments of classic mystery fiction.
Easy is not one drawn to violence. He’ll use it if he has to, but he doesn’t lead with his fists. Not so his childhood friend, Mouse. Easy isn't happy that his old friend showed up uninvited, but it turns out to be a good thing that he did. Despite his tendency to shoot first and ask questions later, Mouse is a likable character who can almost make you laugh while he's beating someone half to death. And with Mouse around, Easy doesn't have to get his hands dirty.
Easy Rawlins is a character we can root for. He's well-rounded, but flawed. He has doubts, insecurities, and even falls victim to his own heart from time to time. He didn't choose to be a private investigator—the looming threat of poverty is what keeps him going. But he's good at it.
The plot moves along pretty quickly with all the tried and true red herrings, misdirections, dead ends, and desperate moments of classic mystery fiction.
July 26, 2024
Not a great deal of joy in this gritty story filled with scumbags. I found the excessive number of characters a bit distracting which made the plot unnecessarily convoluted. However the author did a great job in making me feel very uncomfortable with the racism.
May 19, 2014
Devil in a Blue Dress is an excellent hard-boiled mystery. It is also a fascinating examination of race and masculinities in late-1940s Los Angeles. That it manages to do both these things at the same time, seamlessly, is little short of breathtaking.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
June 24, 2024
'But, Easy, you gotta have somebody at yo' back, man. That's just a lie them white men give 'bout makin' it on they own. They always got they backs covered.'
Set in LA in 1948, Mosley does a fantastic job of capturing a time when WW2 was still a hangover in people's minds. He also, more pointedly, re-writes urban noir of the Chandler type but with a focus on what happens when you give it a race overlay.
Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlings has fought in the war, he was one of the soldiers involved in the liberation of Auschwitz and one of the early witnesses profoundly shocked by what he saw there. He's intelligent enough to draw connections between racial genocide and the way Black people are treated in segregated America - he served in a Black division of the army where all the officers were white and where not everyone was happy to see Black men armed with guns.
Now laid off from the aircraft factory where he refused to be bullied by the owner, this story serves as a kind of origin story showing how Easy morphs into a kind of Marlowe figure.
It's cleverly done. Mosley makes plenty of Chandler-esque gestures: the convoluted plot, the compromised morals, the seedy setting, the beautiful but corrupted woman. But it's where he diverges from the genre that the interest lies: most strikingly, Easy isn't the loner that Marlowe is - he can't afford to be in a city where he's already a suspect just because of the colour of his skin. And the linguistic interest of Chandler's extravagant similes is swapped for a style where Easy switches voices between Black urban dialect and more standard American, coding the way he adopts protective clothing for his identity depending on who he's speaking to.
Even the plot and character psychology smartly invokes race: .
Mosley keeps the tone dark and introduces the tremendous character of Mouse, the perfect foil for the more compromising Easy. Slick, knowing and violent, this is a modern re-enactment of 1930s-40s noir with a very modern overlay. I'm already looking forward to more of the cool Easy.
November 5, 2025
Бях гледал филма по тази книга - Дензъл Уошингтън е в главната роля, но отдавна съм забравил, за какво иде реч в него.
А Лос Анджелис след ВСВ е ярко разделен не само по социални класи, но и по цвят на кожата. Сегрегацията е безпощадна и всеки цветен американец трябва да си знае мястото. А то е ниско долу, близо до мизерията - там където човешкия живот често не струва и пукната пара.
Изи Ролинс е дошъл в ЛА от Хюстън преди няколко години и вече е горд собственик на малка къща, с голяма ипотека. И вноската по която скоро трябва да се плати, а той точно е загубил работата си в самолетостроенето. Докато си пие питието в месарския бар на Джопи, същия го запознава с опасен бял тип, който търси помощ за издирването на една фатална жена.
Мозли пише добре и с удоволствие ще се запозная отблизо с останалите патила на Изи, но на английски - неизвестно защо, на български са преведени само първата и четвъртата част от тази интригуваща крими поредица.
А Лос Анджелис след ВСВ е ярко разделен не само по социални класи, но и по цвят на кожата. Сегрегацията е безпощадна и всеки цветен американец трябва да си знае мястото. А то е ниско долу, близо до мизерията - там където човешкия живот често не струва и пукната пара.
Изи Ролинс е дошъл в ЛА от Хюстън преди няколко години и вече е горд собственик на малка къща, с голяма ипотека. И вноската по която скоро трябва да се плати, а той точно е загубил работата си в самолетостроенето. Докато си пие питието в месарския бар на Джопи, същия го запознава с опасен бял тип, който търси помощ за издирването на една фатална жена.
Мозли пише добре и с удоволствие ще се запозная отблизо с останалите патила на Изи, но на английски - неизвестно защо, на български са преведени само първата и четвъртата част от тази интригуваща крими поредица.
July 31, 2022
I think your enjoyment of this will largely depend on your primary reason for picking it up.
If you're in the mood for a fresh and subversive spin on a familiar genre, then this gritty, noir-ish detective mystery as told through the eyes of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a young Black man living in Los Angeles in 1948, should be a unique and illuminating read.
Mosley flips several of this genre's tropes on their head in some really clever and illuminating ways. What emerges is a brutally honest but also surprisingly inspiring “origin story" (as my Marvel fan nieces and nephews would say), following Easy as he discovers the freedom and power that comes with his new job as an amateur detective, and learns how to assert and protect his own dignity in a racist world that tries to diminish and destroy it at every turn.
If you're craving a little educational "time travel" back to a period and place we don't see depicted in fiction all that often, least of all in this genre, then buckle up for a wild ride through the vibrant and raucous streets, neighborhoods, dive-bars, nightclubs, and whorehouses of LA's Black community in the middle of the 20th century.
Side-Note: One of my biggest pet peeves is when writers make my imagination work overtime by failing to give me any kind of physical or emotional sense of their characters. I definitely did NOT experience that with this novel! Mosley's prose is sparse yet so richly descriptive at the same time. There are A LOT of characters to juggle here, but Mosley brings every single one of them so vividly and memorably to life with just a quick sentence or two.
On the other hand, if you're hoping for an original and suspenseful murder-mystery plot, then this will almost certainly disappoint. The bodies just kept piling up and it all started to feel a bit too messy and convoluted by the end. I probably won't remember much about any of it in another day or two.
It's worth noting that this was Mosley's debut novel, and I'd be curious to know if his later plots are any more original and compelling. Probably not curious enough to continue any further into this series, however. Still looking forward to picking up The Awkward Black Man at some point in the future.
I was lucky enough to do this as a "buddy read" with my GR friends Lisa and Robin, and their perspectives and insights helped me notice and better appreciate this book's strengths (Lisa) as well as its weaknesses (Robin), and made for a much more fun and rewarding experience overall.
If you're in the mood for a fresh and subversive spin on a familiar genre, then this gritty, noir-ish detective mystery as told through the eyes of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a young Black man living in Los Angeles in 1948, should be a unique and illuminating read.
Mosley flips several of this genre's tropes on their head in some really clever and illuminating ways. What emerges is a brutally honest but also surprisingly inspiring “origin story" (as my Marvel fan nieces and nephews would say), following Easy as he discovers the freedom and power that comes with his new job as an amateur detective, and learns how to assert and protect his own dignity in a racist world that tries to diminish and destroy it at every turn.
If you're craving a little educational "time travel" back to a period and place we don't see depicted in fiction all that often, least of all in this genre, then buckle up for a wild ride through the vibrant and raucous streets, neighborhoods, dive-bars, nightclubs, and whorehouses of LA's Black community in the middle of the 20th century.
Side-Note: One of my biggest pet peeves is when writers make my imagination work overtime by failing to give me any kind of physical or emotional sense of their characters. I definitely did NOT experience that with this novel! Mosley's prose is sparse yet so richly descriptive at the same time. There are A LOT of characters to juggle here, but Mosley brings every single one of them so vividly and memorably to life with just a quick sentence or two.
On the other hand, if you're hoping for an original and suspenseful murder-mystery plot, then this will almost certainly disappoint. The bodies just kept piling up and it all started to feel a bit too messy and convoluted by the end. I probably won't remember much about any of it in another day or two.
It's worth noting that this was Mosley's debut novel, and I'd be curious to know if his later plots are any more original and compelling. Probably not curious enough to continue any further into this series, however. Still looking forward to picking up The Awkward Black Man at some point in the future.
I was lucky enough to do this as a "buddy read" with my GR friends Lisa and Robin, and their perspectives and insights helped me notice and better appreciate this book's strengths (Lisa) as well as its weaknesses (Robin), and made for a much more fun and rewarding experience overall.
July 10, 2020
I read Mosley's latest standalone that won the top Edgar and went back to his debut Devil in a Blue Dress. Such levels of consistency almost thirty years apart is seldom seen, if the rest of his output is of a similar quality I am in for some great reading. This has to be amongst the most assured crime fiction debuts, no one who has written hard boiled, gritty noirs was this polished with their first book. Mosley already seems comfortable and confident with his narrative voice.
Easy Rawlins is a black world war II vet in 40s LA. Mosley immediately gives a new perspective on noir's most hallowed setting because in most old school noirs the black man is either invisible furniture or the token hothead. Mosley captures the feeling of being from the wrong side of the tracks. I can usually spot when the private detective's love for booze is a biographical detail the author lifted from his own life or just a cosmetic add on. I don't have a similar level of insight or much experience with racism but I thought Mosley dealt with it excellently. Easy understands that in an interaction between the two races, a black man's best bet is winning the battle but inevitably losing the war.
Easy is easy to root for. He only picks up a job to find information on a missing woman as he has just lost his regular job. He keeps at it because without the money, he will lose his house. A symbol of self worth for a man whose life is a daily struggle for respect. His attitude to his skin color is the frustration men develop who are used to being on the receiving end of being dealt a bad hand by fate. A lesser author would have made him perennially indignant which would have ringed false, you can't fight absolute truths (like being born in a third world garbage vat). Not to imply he doesn't get angry, just that he is a complex character who is not defined by any one characteristic.
The mystery is labyrinthine but weaker compared to the mood that Mosley's prose evokes. There are lots of murders and murderers but some of their motivation is iffy. The joy is in the writing. Some of the accent in the dialogue takes some getting used to Most’a your colored mens is lookin’ for a woman love’em so hard that they fo’gets how hard it is t’make it through the day. But when it preaches truth like that, you better get on board with it. Mosley's world feels lived in, the characters Easy interacts with are colorful. His suave psychopath of a client - Dewitt and his gangster friend, another cliche that is used well, Mouse are the standouts. The titular femme fatale is also interesting. Mosley is deservedly considered one of the greats of modern crime fiction and I am late to the series but will hopefully catch up soon. Rating - 4/5.
Quotes:He told me a few stories, the kind of tales that we called “lies” back home in Texas.
Money isn’t a sure bet but it’s the closest to God that I’ve ever seen in this world.
you just had to take the bad along with the worse if you wanted to survive.
Easy Rawlins is a black world war II vet in 40s LA. Mosley immediately gives a new perspective on noir's most hallowed setting because in most old school noirs the black man is either invisible furniture or the token hothead. Mosley captures the feeling of being from the wrong side of the tracks. I can usually spot when the private detective's love for booze is a biographical detail the author lifted from his own life or just a cosmetic add on. I don't have a similar level of insight or much experience with racism but I thought Mosley dealt with it excellently. Easy understands that in an interaction between the two races, a black man's best bet is winning the battle but inevitably losing the war.
Easy is easy to root for. He only picks up a job to find information on a missing woman as he has just lost his regular job. He keeps at it because without the money, he will lose his house. A symbol of self worth for a man whose life is a daily struggle for respect. His attitude to his skin color is the frustration men develop who are used to being on the receiving end of being dealt a bad hand by fate. A lesser author would have made him perennially indignant which would have ringed false, you can't fight absolute truths (like being born in a third world garbage vat). Not to imply he doesn't get angry, just that he is a complex character who is not defined by any one characteristic.
The mystery is labyrinthine but weaker compared to the mood that Mosley's prose evokes. There are lots of murders and murderers but some of their motivation is iffy. The joy is in the writing. Some of the accent in the dialogue takes some getting used to Most’a your colored mens is lookin’ for a woman love’em so hard that they fo’gets how hard it is t’make it through the day. But when it preaches truth like that, you better get on board with it. Mosley's world feels lived in, the characters Easy interacts with are colorful. His suave psychopath of a client - Dewitt and his gangster friend, another cliche that is used well, Mouse are the standouts. The titular femme fatale is also interesting. Mosley is deservedly considered one of the greats of modern crime fiction and I am late to the series but will hopefully catch up soon. Rating - 4/5.
Quotes:He told me a few stories, the kind of tales that we called “lies” back home in Texas.
Money isn’t a sure bet but it’s the closest to God that I’ve ever seen in this world.
you just had to take the bad along with the worse if you wanted to survive.
July 30, 2022
3.5 Stars
Walter Mosley's debut novel Devil in a Blue Dress opens “I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy’s bar.” This line sets the tone for what is to come; it conveys a bit of unease and shows the segregation of the times.
In addition to being a detective story, Mosley also writes a social history of black life in L.A. of the time period. He includes bits about the wave of migration from the South to L.A. in the '40's as workers were recruited for the defense industry. He shows his friends and neighbors trying to get by, to make a better life, while dealing with prejudices of race, gender, and class.
"That's just like you, Easy. You learn stuff and you be thinkin' like white men be thinkin'. You be thinkin' that what's right for them is right fo' you. She look like she white and you think like you white. But brother you don't know that you both poor niggers. And a nigger ain't never gonna be happy 'less he accept what he is."
Easy recognizes that he will never be accepted or held as equal by many whites, and he fights back beginning to at least demand respect. I see him cast as a hero. I like him as a character and root for him through this whole story.
Like many detective stories, women and money are central to the plot, so this trope holds here.
The characters are vivid and the dialogue crackles.
Devil is a fast paced story, and Mosley does a good job setting up his scenes. Like many detective stories, there is a trail of bodies.The end is a bit convoluted, and I had to read it twice to understand what happened.
Overall, this is a good first novel a la Dashiell Hammett. If you're looking for a different spin on this genre, you may want to give this one a try.
Buddy read with James and Robin.
Walter Mosley's debut novel Devil in a Blue Dress opens “I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy’s bar.” This line sets the tone for what is to come; it conveys a bit of unease and shows the segregation of the times.
In addition to being a detective story, Mosley also writes a social history of black life in L.A. of the time period. He includes bits about the wave of migration from the South to L.A. in the '40's as workers were recruited for the defense industry. He shows his friends and neighbors trying to get by, to make a better life, while dealing with prejudices of race, gender, and class.
"That's just like you, Easy. You learn stuff and you be thinkin' like white men be thinkin'. You be thinkin' that what's right for them is right fo' you. She look like she white and you think like you white. But brother you don't know that you both poor niggers. And a nigger ain't never gonna be happy 'less he accept what he is."
Easy recognizes that he will never be accepted or held as equal by many whites, and he fights back beginning to at least demand respect. I see him cast as a hero. I like him as a character and root for him through this whole story.
Like many detective stories, women and money are central to the plot, so this trope holds here.
The characters are vivid and the dialogue crackles.
Devil is a fast paced story, and Mosley does a good job setting up his scenes. Like many detective stories, there is a trail of bodies.The end is a bit convoluted, and I had to read it twice to understand what happened.
Overall, this is a good first novel a la Dashiell Hammett. If you're looking for a different spin on this genre, you may want to give this one a try.
Buddy read with James and Robin.
July 28, 2021
Ezequiel – Easy – Rawlings es el detective negro protagonista de la serie de novelas escritas por Walter Mosley, un autor afroamericano actual que sigue el legado hardboiled de autores como Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett o Jim Thompson.
Lo más interesante de esta novela, que he leído como parte del Black History July, es la descripción precisa de cómo era la vida de las personas de color en Los Angeles en los años 40. El racismo está presente, está en el aire, es una sensación casi sofocante que provoca continuos tropiezos y dificultades:
Ni siquiera habíamos visto un coche de policía en el trayecto y eso me venía bien, pues la policía tiene el racismo grabado en la cabeza en lo que concierne a hombres de color junto a mujeres blancas.
Este comentario enlaza con la propia experiencia vital del autor, ya que sus padres no pudieron obtener una licencia de matrimonio al ser su madre judía y su padre afroamericano.
De la misma manera que su familia siempre trabajó para integrarse en la sociedad de los blancos, su protagonista Easy Rawlins es un veterano de la segunda guerra mundial, que sólo aspira a tener un buen trabajo y pagar los plazos de su hipoteca. Pero las cosas se le complican inevitablemente, sobre todo porque el mundo en que se mueve roza con la marginalidad y el crimen. En muchos casos son los blancos corruptos los que utilizan este submundo de personajes quebrados para sus propios fines.
El autor no cesa de reflejar la tensión racial en frases contundentes que va dejando caer, pero que a menudo tienen un toque humorístico que las aleja del victimismo:
Los diarios casi nunca informaban de los asesinatos de negros. Y cuando lo hacían, aparecían en las últimas páginas.
Cuando me miró sentí un estremecimiento de miedo, pero se me pasó enseguida, porque en 1948 ya me había acostumbrado a los blancos.
La narración y los diálogos son muy ágiles, y las descripciones de la ciudad de L.A. son sobrias y evocadoras:
A las cuatro de la mañana los barrios de Los Ángeles duermen. En la calle Dinker no había ni un perro hurgando en la basura. Los céspedes oscuros estaban tranquilos, salpicados aquí y allá con silenciosas flores blancas que apenas brillaban bajo la luz de las farolas.
La trama es muy típica del género: Rawlins recibe el encargo de buscar a una chica y a partir de aquí empiezan a aparecer cadáveres y todo tipo de personajes turbios. La verdad es que, como me suele pasar con las obras de este tipo, al final me he perdido un poco; demasiados nombres y demasiados muertos. Pero en general me ha parecido un autor interesante que debería ser más conocido en nuestro país y al que seguramente daré otra oportunidad.
3.5*
Lo más interesante de esta novela, que he leído como parte del Black History July, es la descripción precisa de cómo era la vida de las personas de color en Los Angeles en los años 40. El racismo está presente, está en el aire, es una sensación casi sofocante que provoca continuos tropiezos y dificultades:
Ni siquiera habíamos visto un coche de policía en el trayecto y eso me venía bien, pues la policía tiene el racismo grabado en la cabeza en lo que concierne a hombres de color junto a mujeres blancas.
Este comentario enlaza con la propia experiencia vital del autor, ya que sus padres no pudieron obtener una licencia de matrimonio al ser su madre judía y su padre afroamericano.
De la misma manera que su familia siempre trabajó para integrarse en la sociedad de los blancos, su protagonista Easy Rawlins es un veterano de la segunda guerra mundial, que sólo aspira a tener un buen trabajo y pagar los plazos de su hipoteca. Pero las cosas se le complican inevitablemente, sobre todo porque el mundo en que se mueve roza con la marginalidad y el crimen. En muchos casos son los blancos corruptos los que utilizan este submundo de personajes quebrados para sus propios fines.
El autor no cesa de reflejar la tensión racial en frases contundentes que va dejando caer, pero que a menudo tienen un toque humorístico que las aleja del victimismo:
Los diarios casi nunca informaban de los asesinatos de negros. Y cuando lo hacían, aparecían en las últimas páginas.
Cuando me miró sentí un estremecimiento de miedo, pero se me pasó enseguida, porque en 1948 ya me había acostumbrado a los blancos.
La narración y los diálogos son muy ágiles, y las descripciones de la ciudad de L.A. son sobrias y evocadoras:
A las cuatro de la mañana los barrios de Los Ángeles duermen. En la calle Dinker no había ni un perro hurgando en la basura. Los céspedes oscuros estaban tranquilos, salpicados aquí y allá con silenciosas flores blancas que apenas brillaban bajo la luz de las farolas.
La trama es muy típica del género: Rawlins recibe el encargo de buscar a una chica y a partir de aquí empiezan a aparecer cadáveres y todo tipo de personajes turbios. La verdad es que, como me suele pasar con las obras de este tipo, al final me he perdido un poco; demasiados nombres y demasiados muertos. Pero en general me ha parecido un autor interesante que debería ser más conocido en nuestro país y al que seguramente daré otra oportunidad.
3.5*
March 5, 2017
A fast-paced noir novel that takes place in L.A. in 1984. It had a twisty plot that kept my guessing till the end. It revolves around Easy Rawling, An African-American WWII veteran who has recently lost his job and is desperate to pay the mortgage or he'll lose his house (his sense of pride). So, when He's approached by a white man named DeWitt Albright who offer him a job with a quick cash, he eagerly accepts.
Albright want him to find a white young woman called Daphne Monet, who likes to hang out in the African-American neighborhood. Easy starts asking people around and manages to locate the girl's whereabouts and to get his money. However, things get complicated when people he knows get killed and the police try to pin it on him. So he starts digging to find the killer and get out of this mess.
Albright want him to find a white young woman called Daphne Monet, who likes to hang out in the African-American neighborhood. Easy starts asking people around and manages to locate the girl's whereabouts and to get his money. However, things get complicated when people he knows get killed and the police try to pin it on him. So he starts digging to find the killer and get out of this mess.
Read
April 19, 2021DNF. I wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, It was not a good fit for me. While I loved hearing about California in the 1940’s, the book was to repetitive about details that I didn’t feel progressed the story line.
March 27, 2025
#The52BookClub
47. "I Think It Was Blue"
June 8, 2022
❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀
that sex scene was 💀
Having enjoyed two of Mosley’s latest novels (Trouble Is What I Do and Blood Grove) I was looking forward to delving into his earlier work. Devil in a Blue Dress is the first book in his Easy Rawlins series and, while it has many of Mosley’s best traits, overall it isn’t quite as compelling or complex as say the #15th book of this series. Set in the 1940s Los Angeles Easy is in his late twenties and has recently been fired from his job at a defence plant. A white man offers him money if he can find Daphne Monet, a young woman who often hangs out in Black locales. Easy accepts and soon finds himself in over his head. His employer is a clearly dangerous man and he isn’t the only one wanting to find Daphne.
What follows is very much a classic noir detective story populated by seedy characters and nighttime landscapes. In his line of questioning, Easy ruffles a few feathers and makes an enemy or two, all the while trying to locate Daphne, a beautiful woman who has clearly been up to something.
Mosley’s social commentary was the most interesting part of this story. He depicts the everyday racism and injustices Easy experiences and has experienced, from his run-ins with two racist policemen out to ‘get him’, to the condescending way he is treated by white strangers and acquaintances alike. Mosley also depicts the PTSD that Easy and other characters who fought in WWII experience, referring more than once to the violence and brutality of war.
While I liked his use of tropes in his other novels, here they lacked subtlety. Take Daphne. The woman is this Femme Fatale who acts like an angel but soon enough reveals what a ‘vixen’ she is. There was this horrid sex scene which made me want to scratch my eyes out and could only have been written by a man (if you know, you know) and I did not entirely like how Mosley resorting to the ‘Tragic Mulatto’ archetype (doomed because of who she ‘really’ is). His female characters in general left a lot to be desired, they are very much objects (sex objects more often than not).
If anything this proves just what a long way Mosley has come as a writer. His storytelling and characterisation are much more accomplished in his most recent work, however, even here you can clearly see signs of his talent (his crackling dialogues, his exaggerated yet wholly effective metaphors, his story’s strong sense of place, and his piercing commentary). Still, if you haven’t read anything by him, I encourage you to give his newest novels a go before venturing into his older stuff.
that sex scene was 💀
Having enjoyed two of Mosley’s latest novels (Trouble Is What I Do and Blood Grove) I was looking forward to delving into his earlier work. Devil in a Blue Dress is the first book in his Easy Rawlins series and, while it has many of Mosley’s best traits, overall it isn’t quite as compelling or complex as say the #15th book of this series. Set in the 1940s Los Angeles Easy is in his late twenties and has recently been fired from his job at a defence plant. A white man offers him money if he can find Daphne Monet, a young woman who often hangs out in Black locales. Easy accepts and soon finds himself in over his head. His employer is a clearly dangerous man and he isn’t the only one wanting to find Daphne.
What follows is very much a classic noir detective story populated by seedy characters and nighttime landscapes. In his line of questioning, Easy ruffles a few feathers and makes an enemy or two, all the while trying to locate Daphne, a beautiful woman who has clearly been up to something.
Mosley’s social commentary was the most interesting part of this story. He depicts the everyday racism and injustices Easy experiences and has experienced, from his run-ins with two racist policemen out to ‘get him’, to the condescending way he is treated by white strangers and acquaintances alike. Mosley also depicts the PTSD that Easy and other characters who fought in WWII experience, referring more than once to the violence and brutality of war.
While I liked his use of tropes in his other novels, here they lacked subtlety. Take Daphne. The woman is this Femme Fatale who acts like an angel but soon enough reveals what a ‘vixen’ she is. There was this horrid sex scene which made me want to scratch my eyes out and could only have been written by a man (if you know, you know) and I did not entirely like how Mosley resorting to the ‘Tragic Mulatto’ archetype (doomed because of who she ‘really’ is). His female characters in general left a lot to be desired, they are very much objects (sex objects more often than not).
If anything this proves just what a long way Mosley has come as a writer. His storytelling and characterisation are much more accomplished in his most recent work, however, even here you can clearly see signs of his talent (his crackling dialogues, his exaggerated yet wholly effective metaphors, his story’s strong sense of place, and his piercing commentary). Still, if you haven’t read anything by him, I encourage you to give his newest novels a go before venturing into his older stuff.
June 19, 2019
Ezekiel Rawlins is a black WWII veteran living in Los Angeles in the late 1940’s. Known as Easy by everyone, he’s just lost his job – courtesy of a racist boss – and is looking for a way of covering the mortgage payments on his small house. So when a slippery fellow called Albright offers him $100 to locate a woman called Daphne Monet Rawlins finds himself in the rather reluctant role of a PI.
In this short but busy noir tale we’re then treated to a tour of seedy nightclubs, bars and barber shops as Easy taps into the knowledge of the local characters in his search for Daphne. We quickly learn that there are plenty of dangerous people out there, including a nasty booze supplier who is fast with a knife, so it’s best he treads carefully. The atmosphere throughout has a pervading sense of menace and violence. Luckily, Easy has a psychopathic, trigger-happy friend called Mouse who is a match for anyone on the streets.
There are plenty of twists – too many in my view – as it rattles along to a fairly predictable conclusion. But for me the hook is the dialogue which is snappy and fun, and in Easy the author has created a character that might be straight out of a Dashiell Hammett novel, except he’s black and therefore inhabits a different world within the confines of the same place. It’s actually an interesting commentary on race relations in the post war LA period.
I've dipped into this series once before - an not entirely satisfactory experience, in all honesty, but this book does feel like a decent introduction to this much heralded series, I wish I'd started here first. I liked Easy more this time, maybe because I now understand him a little better. I liked Mouse too and I'd really like to see how Mosley deals with his somewhat uneasy (no pun intended) relationship with our front man. I will be back at some point to see what happens in book two.
In this short but busy noir tale we’re then treated to a tour of seedy nightclubs, bars and barber shops as Easy taps into the knowledge of the local characters in his search for Daphne. We quickly learn that there are plenty of dangerous people out there, including a nasty booze supplier who is fast with a knife, so it’s best he treads carefully. The atmosphere throughout has a pervading sense of menace and violence. Luckily, Easy has a psychopathic, trigger-happy friend called Mouse who is a match for anyone on the streets.
There are plenty of twists – too many in my view – as it rattles along to a fairly predictable conclusion. But for me the hook is the dialogue which is snappy and fun, and in Easy the author has created a character that might be straight out of a Dashiell Hammett novel, except he’s black and therefore inhabits a different world within the confines of the same place. It’s actually an interesting commentary on race relations in the post war LA period.
I've dipped into this series once before - an not entirely satisfactory experience, in all honesty, but this book does feel like a decent introduction to this much heralded series, I wish I'd started here first. I liked Easy more this time, maybe because I now understand him a little better. I liked Mouse too and I'd really like to see how Mosley deals with his somewhat uneasy (no pun intended) relationship with our front man. I will be back at some point to see what happens in book two.
May 15, 2016
She's a real humdinger and I like 'em like that.
Shorty Long and William "Mickey" Stevenson
The story of a man hired to find a mysterious woman is an old one and it takes a special writer to make it seem fresh and exciting. I think Mosley has succeeded here with his first Easy Rawlins mystery. There are twists and turns a-plenty and interesting characters/suspects add to the fun.
Rawlins is a richly-drawn, complex character. A WWII vet, he has been screwed around enough in the past to stay alert. His inner voice guides him, but sometimes fails to keep him out of trouble.
Somewhere along the way I had developed the feeling that I wasn't going to outlive the adventure I was having. There was no way out but to run, and I couldn't run, so I decided to milk all those white people for all the money they'd let go of.
Money bought everything. Money paid the rent and fed the kitty. I got the idea, somehow, that if I got enough money then maybe I could buy my own life back.
Aside from an awkward sex scene and some implausible and embarrassing declarations of love, the novel flows beautifully.
How can you resist lines like this?
"That girl is the devil, man," I said. "She got evil in every pocket."
I was not looking to start a new series, but I think there's going to be at least one more Easy Rawlins book in my future.
Shorty Long and William "Mickey" Stevenson
The story of a man hired to find a mysterious woman is an old one and it takes a special writer to make it seem fresh and exciting. I think Mosley has succeeded here with his first Easy Rawlins mystery. There are twists and turns a-plenty and interesting characters/suspects add to the fun.
Rawlins is a richly-drawn, complex character. A WWII vet, he has been screwed around enough in the past to stay alert. His inner voice guides him, but sometimes fails to keep him out of trouble.
Somewhere along the way I had developed the feeling that I wasn't going to outlive the adventure I was having. There was no way out but to run, and I couldn't run, so I decided to milk all those white people for all the money they'd let go of.
Money bought everything. Money paid the rent and fed the kitty. I got the idea, somehow, that if I got enough money then maybe I could buy my own life back.
Aside from an awkward sex scene and some implausible and embarrassing declarations of love, the novel flows beautifully.
How can you resist lines like this?
"That girl is the devil, man," I said. "She got evil in every pocket."
I was not looking to start a new series, but I think there's going to be at least one more Easy Rawlins book in my future.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,366 reviews