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Liked It “The first of Mosley's Easy Rawlings mystery series is a great heir to Chandler with crisp dialouge, colorful characters and compact concise storytelling. The difference here is that Mosley is telling the black experience and that makes this novel seem different from the hard boiled crime novels...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“ The first of Mosley's Easy Rawlings mystery series is a great heir to Chandler with crisp dialouge, colorful characters and compact concise storytelling. The difference here is that Mosley is telling the black experience and that makes this novel seem different from the hard boiled crime novels of the thirties and forties while it expertly emulates them. A must read for any fan of crime novels. ”
Robephiles wrote this review Monday, November 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Excellent introduction to Easy Rawlins, am already reading the 2nd installment in the series...Red Death”
Katherine C wrote this review Sunday, November 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I have mixed feelings about this one. The dialogue was very good, the setting was interesting and well-drawn, and the mystery aspect was good, too. The problem is that I never cared what happened to any of the characters because I couldn't connect with any of them. I think that's partly due to the fact that there we so many of them and the novel is only 219 pages long--there just wasn't enough time to get to know them. I felt sympathy for Easy and understood how trapped he was by societal attitudes and his circumstances, but I didn't like him much. I don't think I'll be reading any more of this series.”
Judy wrote this review Friday, October 16 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A classic noir story set in post-war Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an African-American looking for work to pay his mortgage. He gets involved with a white man who wants him to look for a missing white girl. Things get complicated when people start dying all around him. Suspected by the police, he has to find out what is going on before he ends up in jail or dead himself. A great atmosphere and a great read.”
Tharen H wrote this review Wednesday, July 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I love Easy Rawlins..the storyline kept me on the edge. I love his style. Even in this novel you can see the effects of racism. People thought that California was the land of milk and honey, but honey--black folks caught it all over. I've read it once, listened to it on cd, and watched the movie. It's a real must see and a must read.”
Carla R wrote this review Friday, May 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“So many characters that I lost sight of the woods because of the trees...and it's not a big book. I intend to give Easy another chance, just as he did for the eponymous
Raymond R wrote this review Thursday, February 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
devil.”
“First of the Easy Rawlins books: hardboiled mystery featuring a black soon-to-be detective in LA in 1948. Good book: captures the pervasive racism of the period very well, nothing nostalgically cosy about it.
TheophileEscargot wrote this review Saturday, November 1 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Characters are fairly well done, though there seem to be a few too many tough guys around. Plot is pretty complicated but comes to a decent conclusion.”
“An interesting story told from an African american man's point of view after WWII. I found the dialogue and setting to be interesting. There were a lot of killings in the book. I had trouble keeping straight who all the dead people were and who killed them.”
Rachel H wrote this review Monday, August 18 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A crime novel set in 1940's Los Angeles. Lots of people trying to kill Easy Rawlins. Easy was paid some money to find a girl. Now everyone around the girl is dead or dying and people are after him. I really enjoyed this book. I will be adding more of the series to my list.”
i.should.b.reading wrote this review Monday, July 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Devil in a Blue Dress
Sharkey wrote this review Friday, May 23 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Race, Gender and Duality
No, it’s not the Democratic party nomination. It’s Walter Mosley’s “Devil in a Blue Dress” the first in his popular series featuring P.I. Easy Rawlins. It doesn’t take long for the reader to realize that Easy’s life is anything but. He is an African American vet trying to grab a piece of the American dream in 1948 racist America. Raised in Texas, Easy is now living in Los Angeles a place where “you could make a hundred dollars in a week if you pushed.” (p.56)
Despite obstacles Easy has pushed and managed to buy himself a small house that he claims “meant more to me than any woman I ever knew.” p.20 Like many relationships, this love leads Easy into doing some unlikely things. Problems arise when he loses his job at the defense plant. Easy explains “the boss ain’t happy if you just do your job. He need a big smack on his butt too.” (p. 35) A friend decides to help Easy out by hooking him up with a powerful man named DeWitt Albright who is looking for a beautiful white woman. All Easy has to do is find this woman and tell Albright where she is. Despite his misgivings Easy’s desire to hold onto his house prompts him to take the assignment. He then becomes ensnared in a dangerous criminal underworld.
Mosley does a great job of showing the obstacles that black men faced in 1940’s America. Easy loses his job, is mistreated by the police and is constantly trying to maneuver in a white mans’ world. In fact, Easy has an inner voice that acts as a guide when things get too dangerous. In times of trouble that voice instructs him in self preservation. Easy also has another way of staying alive, his unsavory friend Mouse. Mouse is a murderer, plain and simple. Easy and Mouse were tight in the old days, but now Mouse makes Easy a bit uneasy. Easy is a decent guy. The kind of guy who feels guilty when he finds out Mouse killed his own father-law and let another man take the fall. Without Mouse though, Easy would be dead a few times over. Unlike Easy, Mouse is comfortable in the seedy world Easy has found himself in. Mouse is id to Easy’s ego .
Finally there is the femme fatale. A character without whom no hardboiled novel is complete. In typical Noir fashion this one is sexy, mysterious, emotionally damaged and dangerous. The girl who is constantly described as “something to see” is a French white woman named Daphne Monet….or is she? Just as Easy has to figure out how to survive in a white man’s world so does Daphne Monet. This devil in the blue dress “was like the chameleon lizard. She changed for her man. If he was a mild white man who was afraid to complain to the waiter she’d pull his head to her bosom and pat him. If he was a poor black man who had soaked up pain and rage for a lifetime she washed his wounds with a rough rag and licked the blood till it staunched.”( p. 188) I’ll avoid spilling any of her other secrets here. After all, sometimes that is all a lady has.
It’s not hard to see why "Devil in a Blue Dress" is so popular. Mosley has created memorable and sympathetic characters who partake in pithy dialogue. The plot kept me guessing and the ending was a surprise. As mandated by Noir, this book is full of sex, violence, foul language and a dark vision of the world. Any fan of this genre will love "Devil in a Blue Dress”. I would feel comfortable recommending it to almost any mystery lover as well as readers wanting fiction that deals with race and gender issues in 1940’s America.”
