— fiction-mystery-crime —
Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley
— 1990 —
“
Easy Rawlins, a Black working man in 1940s Los Angeles, becomes an accidental detective hired to find a white woman in Black neighborhoods where the police won't go.
⚖The case for it
Easy Rawlins, a Black working man in 1940s Los Angeles, becomes an accidental detective hired to find a white woman in Black neighborhoods where the police won't go. Mosley appropriated the hard-boiled form to tell the story of Black Los Angeles, of segregation's violence and absurdity. The most significant debut in crime fiction since Ross Macdonald.
— the canon
✕The case against
Mosley inherited Chandler's plotting along with his form, which means the conspiracy stops adding up about two-thirds in and you ride voice the rest of the way. Daphne herself is more device than woman, a noir prize updated but still standing where the trope always stood. Mouse steals the book; that is also a problem.
— the honest librarian
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