Rating: 
Summary: Smooth as silk...
Review: THE PLOT Easy Rawlins lives in 1948 LA. He's a black war veteran who just lost his job for mouthing off to the boss. He needs some money to keep the little house he bought, and a man comes along with an easy proposition: find a girl who was hanging out with the blacks at the jazz bars.Easy needs the money, but wants to know why the guy wants the girl found. Then he finds out others are looking too. Bodies pile up, having been worked over first by those who want the girl who turns out to be the ex-gf of a political type. Easy finds the girl, and a lot of trouble from the crooks, the politicos, and from the cops who think he's good for one of the murders. WHAT I LIKED The story moves, the characters are interesting, and the descriptions of the settings are well-written so as to give the reader the feel of each place in the story. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE The characters are less developed unfortunately. This story definitely has the feel of the pulp mystery fiction of the 50s and 60s, with lots of action, but no depth to the main characters. I never particularly cared about Easy, although I like the parameters of the character. OVERALL RATING 3.50 / 5.00
Rating: 
Summary: Post-War Era Brought To Life
Review: The year is 1948 and Easy Rawlins has just lost his job. Seemingly coming to his rescue with an offer of some good money for a simple job comes the shady character Dewitt Albright. Against his better judgement, he takes the job that involves finding a woman named Daphne Monet. Easy Rawlins is a very interesting character set in an even more interesting time. He is a black war veteran who has witnessed plenty of death and mayhem. All of this has helped to prepare him to stand up for himself rather than submit. A trait that tends to get him into his fair share of trouble. Although he's never done any detective work in the past, Easy quickly discovers that he has an aptitude and a liking for his new role and can see it becoming his new vocation. His new found dedication is soon shaken, however, after running across a number of dead bodies and homicide detectives, the latter of who take a hands-on approach during interviews. This is a marvellous introduction to the Easy Rawlins series that brings the post-war era to life with startling clarity. Place an interesting mystery and a likable, go-getter protagonist on top and it adds up to a very enjoyable book.
Rating:
Summary: Mosley Makes a Solid Debut
Review: There aren't many good African American mystery writers and there are even fewer black private eyes that you'd want to read about. Walter Mosley and Easy Rawlins, however, satisfy both of those criteria in solid fashion.More than that, though, this is simply a good, fun read . The setting is Los Angeles in the 1940s, probably the most fruitful noir time and place there is. During those boom years of post-war expansion, a man could make a good living and even buy a place of his own. That's all that Easy Rawlins wants. When he's laid-off, though, he can't make his mortgage. He's going to lose his house and he'd rather do almost anything than that. He finds, though, that he has to do more than he bargained for. When a mysterious white man offers him $100 to find a missing white woman, it seems simple enough. Nothing, of course, is ever as it seems. Rawlins quickly finds himself in trouble and there is no easy way out. It takes a hardness that he tries to hide for him to come out alive. For a first novel, this book is very solid with a lot of personality. Mosley captures a people and culture that we don't get to read much about. Easy is a good, fresh character; one of the best new entries to the mystery scene in a while. This book is recommended to everyone who enjoys a good hard-boiled mystery, especially fans of Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, and Ross Macdonald
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!
Review: This book is truly a masterpiece. The characters are amazing and the story is great. This is the kind of book that you can visualize in your head, you can see every scene occuring. I read this book in one sitting, I couldn't put it down. From the begining to the end--perfection!
Rating:
Summary: A Slumming Angel
Review: This book was our introduction to Ezekiel Rawlins, 'Easy' as his only real friend calls him. It is fast moving and very complex in a bare bones kind of way. Mosley takes us into an LA after the war we rarely see as Easy becomes a private eye of sorts to find a blonde French girl named Daphne Monet, who likes black men and haunts the world of dusty underground bars and hole in the wall jazz joints Easy knows all to well. A white man Easy doesn't quite trust is willing to pay a hefty sum to find her. But finding her may not be Easy's only problem as someone is out to kill him and he calls on his old friend Mouse to watch his back. Mouse is sharply drawn by Mosley as an amoral yet likeable killer, deadly as an enemy, unequaled as a friend. Easy is a decent man who understands his world but doesn't like it. He is one of the great characters in American detective fiction, on a par with Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer, and like Archer, more comfortable as an observer of human cruelty and frailty than a participant. His attraction to the beautiful white girl when he finds her, and his uneasiness about what is really going on here, and why, leads to money and murder, and everyone might just have underestimated Easy. It is a complex and riveting story you can't put down. It's about a good man in a not good world, trying to detatch himself from it, and finding it is part of who he is. Mosley's "Mouse" is unforgettable and would become to Easy what Hawk is to Spenser in this wonderful and ever changing series that spans decades. Daphne has more to hide in this novel than just money, and it's truth is the impetus for everything that happens. There is murder here, and greed, and something Easy has seen way to much of, even for a black man in post WWII Los Angeles, sorrow. This is a fine read and a perfect introduction to Easy Rawlins, one of the greatest creations in American fiction. Mosley's "White Butterfly" might just be the best in this series but you have to have the first one to see how it all started. You will fall in love with this book and the depth that lies beneath the surface. It is a fast read that will cause you to run out and look for more. Don't wait, pick this one up now...
Rating:
Summary: Great read with a unique cast of characters
Review: This is an excellent example of why Walter Mosely's books are becoming 'cult' classics. A great cast of characters, including of course the hero 'Easy', and a plot that although a little far-fetched creates a great opportunity for Mosely to transport the reader to LA of the 60's. Lots of fun!
Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for the movie!
Review: This is my first Mosley read, but not my last. The characters are deep and fascinating, the ghetto/gangster settings are exquisite in their detail(especially for this sheltered white boy), and the plot is rich and thought provoking. For me it required a higher than average concentration level (compared to the usual fiction I read) to keep track of the twists, turns, and numerous players, but I see that as a plus. The ending definitely leaves the reader wanting more. The lead character is too likeable and human in his troubles to just forget about. Can't wait to read more "Easy Rawlins" stories.
Rating:
Summary: An "Easy" Read
Review: This work takes the tradition of the hard-boiled detective: an alienated, cynical, and often desperate man, and applies this tradition to the black man of the 1940s. Suddenly, these qualities are a sign of race relations rather than just part of Philip Marlowe's psychology. Easy Rawlins has trouble holding onto his job due to the attitude of his boss, Benny ("But the Negro workers didn't drink with Benny. We didn't go to the same bars, we didn't wink at the same girls"(63)) and Easy's desire to hold onto his property makes him get involved with Albright, Daphne Monet, and enough adventure and intrigue to last a lifetime. Easy is alienated from society because he is black; the society from which he is excluded, however, is definitely no prize winning group. Political figures are pedophiles ("The sight of that poor child and the odors made me cringe"(79)) and well-dressed businessmen are violent crooks. In Mosley's work, no one is what or whom he or she appears to be. Like Chandler, Mosley plays with the identity of his leading lady character, and yet unlike in Farewell My Lovely, this identity twist has larger implications than simply how it affects the mystery's plot. Mosley takes the tradition of the hard-boiled detective novel and uses it to make social statements while still providing a very entertaining mystery story. If you like Chandler and Hammett, then you will definitely appreciate Mosley's variation on the hard-boiled novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Crime of Loyalty
Review: Walter Mosely's Devil in a Blue Dress strikes at the heart of racial inequality during the late 1940s. Easy Rawlins is an African American World War II veteran who has just returned from overseas. America, in showing its gratitude and loyalty towards Easy for fighting for liberty, slams the veteran in the face with unspoken color lines upon his return. Equality is still a myth in America, and Easy must continually battle the injustices of the white world for which he fought during the war. Because Easy has been fired from his job as a result of a racial power struggle, he must search for money through other avenues. An opportunity for seemingly easy money appears at the soldier's feet, and because he has a mortgage to pay, Easy accepts the job. What follows is a baffling, chaotic, deadly journey into the heart of the American psyche as well as the underworld of crime, loyalty, and necessary secrets.
Rating:
Summary: A fine read told from the other side of the tracks
Review: Walter Mosley's Devil In a Blue Dress is a fantastic mystery/crime drama set in Post World War II Los Angeles. The protagonist Easy Rawlins finds himself an unlikely but strong willed black detective sorting out a mystery-in-progress. The case begins as a simple 'lost female' case but soon spins and develops into a multiple tiered story of blackmail and cover-up. The case begins to involve everyone from black bootleggers and gunmen to white mayoral candidates and prejudiced policemen. The beauty of the novel is its ability to put Easy in both situations of Black culture and White aristocracy. Both situations Easy runs headlong into, always managing to keep his pride intact. Like Chandler's Marlowe the story seems to evolve as characters fly in and out of Easy's life. But unlike Chandler, Mosley has accomplished the effect of creating truly perilous drama and action. There is a sense of immediacy and danger when Easy tells his story. Much of this feeling could be explained by the fact that Easy must battle not only for the truth, but also his right to grasp the truth as a black man. The novel works on a cultural critique level, making judgments and offering lessons on the hardships of American blacks and the importance of race in American culture.
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