Book Review: Devil in a Blue Dress is the first of Walter Mosley's series of mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins, a worthy successor to the L.A. detective lineage of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer. Set in 1948, Mosley gives the reader a strong sense of post-war black culture, when many African-Americans were hopeful of a "double victory," that victory over the Nazis in Europe would lead to victory over discrimination back home. Ezekiel Rawlins, a new homeowner, exemplifies the hopeful attitude of blacks who were willing to invest in an unwelcoming society. The scenes of the times ring true and at times the book seems almost as much a sociological description as a mystery. But the mystery is great, solidly in the hard-boiled detective tradition, and the reader will be tempted to try finish the book in a single sitting. Devil in a Blue Dress evokes neighborhood and community, as well as the seedy gangsters and hoodlums who run the mean streets of the city. Also a film with Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle. [4★]
No comments:
Post a Comment