Rating: 
Summary: Try Blue Dress On For Size
Review: Easy Rawlins is not the typical private detective, but he is the freshest one to come around in a long time. Easy is an African American WWII veteran from Texas, now living in 1948 L.A. where he proudly owns a modest home. The home is all he has to be proud of since he got fired from his job at a defense plant. Life for Easy is not easy at all. Then one day, a white man dressed in a white suit offers Easy good money to locate a beautiful blonde known to hang out at black clubs. For a man with a mortgage and no money coming in, the offer is too good to be true. But then offers like this usually are. The plot sounds typical, but Mosley's writing is anything but. Mosley paints a clear and atmospheric picture of racial segregation in post-war L.A., but that picture is not overexposed. Easy not only has to endure the dangers of finding this girl, he must do it in a hostile background where white policemen and higher-ups look for any type of crime that they might pin on him. The story of the transplanted man from the south living on the west coast is not unfamiliar, but making him a black man facing prejudice on every side makes the story more alive and the plot more tension-filled. Again, this is not done in a heavy-handed way, but with a subtle touch that makes you want to turn the pages. Mosley is very much at home with the hard-boiled style of crime noir and it shows on every page. This is not a Hammett or Chandler re-hash. This is a fresh, lively, exciting mystery from a very fine writer. If you haven't experienced Mosley and Easy Rawlins, pick up the Blue Dress and try it on for size. 215 pages
Rating: 
Summary: Top Notch P.I. Novel
Review: Ever wanted a one-sitting read guaranteed to keep you engrossed up to the very end? Well, look no further than Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress. A fast paced mystery jam packed with characters, details and events, you will forget you are reading at all. Set in the seedy streets of Los Angeles during the late 1940's, our main character is the reserved, thoughtful black war veteran Easy Rawlins. A man in limbo between what he has done and where his life is going, fate provides a little help by introducing Mr. DeWitt Albright. Mr. Albright is white, powerful, dangerous, relentless and most importantly merciless, qualities that send Easy bad impressions from the start. Easy's suspicions turn out to be correct signaling to the reader both that Easy has a natural intuition but also that he will be up against potentially fatal obstacles every step of the way. Mosley does not disappoint in either arena. Albright's mission for Easy is to locate a Miss Daphne Monet, a woman whose beauty is only matched by her mystery. It is in fact Daphne who ends up locating Easy early on, a sign that the mystery involves much more than a simple search. As the body count rises and Easy finds himself in suspicion of the crimes, we learn that the tale is all about the former nobody attempting to both extricate himself from the forces against him as well as discover who in fact is responsible. Easy is a true example of an everyman blessed with a talent for detection and cursed with a tendency to associate with the "wrong crowd." Hazardous for him, but fascinating for us. Reading Devil in a Blue Dress will give you an appreciation for the racial tensions of the times, man's capabilities when trying to survive and a woman's ability to turn a whole city upside down.
Rating:
Summary: Great suspense from one of America's best writers
Review: Ezekiel Rawlins, Easy to most, is offered a 100 bucks to find a girl. "Fair enough", Easy thinks and soon finds himself tangled up in a deadly case of murder, illegal drinking and beautiful girls.
From a Europeans view, there aren't many American writers that are so good as Mosley. He surpasses many of the "popular fiction writers" in style, plot and enunciation, and is one of those authors you "have to read". This book is the first in a series about Easy Rawlins, and in the ending it excellently clears things up and still builds a bridge to the next book in the series: A red death.
Rating: 
Summary: the race issue yet again
Review: From beginning to end, Devil in a Blue Dress deals with race issues in a rather unique way. The very first line in the book draws a line between the worlds of white and black persons. Writing this book from a black man's perspective creates an even more powerful story in the sense that the reader can see the struggle that this individual endures simply to find a sense of freedom. In the narrator's sharp wit and humor, one can see the intelligence in this man, but yet this intelligence cannot fully be expressed because the worlds of the whites and blacks have a difficult time connecting.
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Rating:
Summary: Mosley's a Master
Review: Great Characters, unpredictable story, just the right number of plot twists...I wish I could write like Mosley. Listening to the audiobook, I kept thinking how much better than 'LA Confidential' this one is, how much more rich were these characters.
Rating:
Summary: recommended
Review: I enjoyed this book. I feel that Walter Mosely is a unique voice in crime fiction. I look forward to reading more of his works when I have time.
Rating:
Summary: Hard core, thrilling and exciting time and time again!
Review: I love this book and the movie! This is my favorite Mosley book of all. I kinda fell into his writings via the movie version of The Devil.The book gives more detail about each character.When you watch the movie after reading it--you love it more each time you view it! Devil is highly recommended by myself! And if Mosley ever reads these---PLEASE GET BUSY AND MAKE ANOTHER EASY RAWLINS FILM!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I read this particular novel in about a week and at first it seemed slow, but towards the middle part of the book my interest started to peak. The protagonist Easy Rawlins a fired aircraft worker and WWII veteran gets pulled into a world of deceit by a person he perceives to be a good friend. Easy is hired to look for a woman by the name of Daphne Monet, but everyone he comes in contact with that could possible help him is murdered. Finally Easy starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together with his long time friend Mouse and in the end everything makes sense. The books tangles a serious web of deception which is rather interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I read this particular novel in about a week and at first it seemed slow, but towards the middle part of the book my interest started to peak. The protagonist Easy Rawlins a fired aircraft worker and WWII veteran gets pulled into a world of deceit by a person he perceives to be a good friend. Easy is hired to look for a woman by the name of Daphne Monet, but everyone he comes in contact with that could possible help him is murdered. Finally Easy starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together with his long time friend Mouse and in the end everything makes sense. The books tangles a serious web of deception which is rather interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: MOSELY HOOKED ME!!!
Review: I WAS NEVER A MYSTERY FAN UNTIL I READ THIS BOOK. IT KEPT MY ATTENTION FROM START TO FINISH. I REALLY DIDN'T WANT THIS BOOK TO END! EASY IS A COMPLEX, DEEP CHARACTER. MOSELY'S WRITINGS EVOKED EMOTIONS I NEVER THOUGHT A BOOK COULD, RANGING FROM HATE TO UTTER LUST. IF YOU LIKED THE MOVIE YOU'LL LOVE THE BOOK!!
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