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 support...

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

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_yPeYEasy 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 su...

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 sa...

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 frequen...

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...

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

4.5 starsThis 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 explai...

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 wonderf...

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 bl...

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-Amer...

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 th...

Backlist A Thon: Book with Blue on the coverI absolutely loved this book! Devil In A Blue Dress is a noir classic. A man down on his luck.A beautiful & mysterious woman.GangstersPoliticians. 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...

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

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

DNF. 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.

| | blog | 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 def...

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

She's a real humdinger and I like 'em like that.Shorty Long and William "Mickey" StevensonThe 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. H...

"That girl is the devil," says Easy Rawlins of his femme fatale: "She got evil in every pocket." And that's why I love noir.Walter Mosley has such a natural feel for the tropes of noir that I didn't realize he'd written it in 1990, instead of 1948 when it's set. Here's your twisty plot, your dangerous woman, your breathless prose. The major difference is that it's all black. (Chester Himes pioneered African American noir with 1957's A Rage in Harlem, which is an awesome book.)The law generally p...