Book Review: Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

Devil in a Blue Dress,

by Walter Mosley (Mosley)

When the library’s Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group chose the Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley for their October 2021, it gave me the opportunity to try a series I had previously not appreciated. I had read the 4th Easy Rawlins mystery, Black Betty, over a dozen years ago, and not enjoyed it. But this time, I started with the very first entry in the series, Devil in a Blue Dress, and I was astonished at how much I enjoyed it.

Devil in a Blue Dress introduces us to Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, a black laborer in 1948 Los Angeles, originally from Texas. Easy served in WWII but as this novel begins, he’s had a financial setback and is in danger of losing the mortgage on his house — a house that, though simple, is still his life’s dream. Because of this, he finds himself hard pressed to turn down the offer to help a mysterious white man, who wants to hire him to find a missing white woman. Ultimately, he agrees, which sets him on a dangerous path that is ultimately to lead to multiple deaths, deceit, seductions, betrayals and sacrifices. Racial and class distinctions form a big part of the stories featuring Easy, and that’s especially true in this first volume — but there’s heroism and villainy amongst the members of all groups that are encountered here. This is part noir, part amateur detective, and part historical fiction.

 

Easy is a fascinating character, and one I found easy to grow to like. He is surrounded by a colorful collection of supporting characters, both friends and enemies, the most distinctive of which is his brutal little friend “Mouse”, who will come to play an integral part in later volumes in this series. This was supremely well-written, with an incredible sense of place and plotting. Highly recommended!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the rest of the Easy Rawlins series, as well as the many other series that Walter Mosley writes.)

 

( Wikipedia page for Devil in a Blue Dress ) | ( official Walter Mosley web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Hard Case Crime night at tonight's Just Desserts meeting!

Mystery Fans!

Don't miss tonight's meeting of the Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group, at the South Branch Library, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Although the group traditionally all reads the same book for group discussion, tonight's meeting is a bit of an exception.

Instead of all group members reading the same book, or the same author, we’re all going to be reading the same publisher — Hard Case Crime.

Hard Case Crime is an American publisher of noir and hard-boiled detective stories, founded in 2004 by Charles Ardai and Max Phillips. Over the past 13 years, this imprint has published close to 150 different novels, some in hardback but most in paperback or trade paperback. Some of their titles are reprints of classic older works, while others are brand-new titles in the classic Noir or Hard-Boiled style, by authors both obscure and highly recognizable (Lawrence Block, Stephen King, Ed McBain, Max Allan Collins, Mickey Spillane, Michael Crichton, just to name a few.).

Much like our “Series Share” months, everyone in attendance will be given a couple of minutes to share a description of which novel they read, and what they thought about it — “thumbs up or thumbs down”. This Just Desserts meeting will be recorded on audio for release as part of the libraries’ audio Podcast series.

You need not have read a Hard Case Crime novel to join us -- we're always happy to have guests sit in to learn about new authors and titles, and to pick up some great reading recommendations. And the "Just Desserts" theme includes a selection of actual desserts for attendees to enjoy as well!

Here’s the Wikipedia article on Hard Case Crime, including a complete list of their published novels

Official Hard Case Crime website

Here’s a link to all the Hard Case Crime novels in the Lincoln City Libraries’ collection!

Handout/Checklist for Hard Case Crime