Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

Devil in a Blue Dress is Walter Mosley’s debut novel, and it’s recently been republished as part of the Serpent’s Tail Classics series. I’ve seen at least one documentary about Mosley’s work, so although I’ve never read any of his books before, or seen the Denzel Washington movie, the world of Easy Rawlins was quite familiar to me, and I knew enough to recognise that Mouse Alexander would be a significant character before he made an appearance. Possibly influenced by this documentary, I very much read Easy’s narration in the dulcet tones of Denzel Washington. Devil in a Blue Dress starts off in an easygoing kind of way, which is appropriate enough given the name of Mosley’s hero. Easy Rawlins is a bit down on his luck, having recently been fired from the skilled job that paid his mortgage. Knowing this, a friend of his who owns a bar, Joppy, introduces Easy to DeWitt Albright, an unscrupulous man who is looking for a white woman who likes to hang out with African Americans. Despite not having any experience at investigation work, Easy takes the job on. However, he’s soon regretting the decision as he’s pulled in by the cops after a woman he recently slept with, Coretta James, is found murdered… Trouble is, the missing white woman, Daphne Monet, hangs out with the gangster Frank Green, who doesn’t take too kindly to people asking questions about him… Easy Rawlins is basically a decent, honest guy, so you really do fear for him when he gets involved with such dangerous people, despite the fact that he acquitted himself well as a soldier in combat during World War II. Most dangerous of all is Easy’s flirtation with Daphne Monet when he finally catches up with her, especially so since this involves another death… However, Easy Rawlins is fortunate enough to have a friend like Mouse Alexander, who’s more than ready to kill on Easy’s behalf, not that Easy ever asks him to. Indeed, in some ways, Mouse is like a Diabolus ex Machina, who pops up to save the day for Easy on more than one occasion in a manner that is far from satisfactory, as it makes life far too easy for Rawlins. From a straightforward start, the novel then descends into the complex shenanigans beloved of Raymond Chandler, and I, for one, rather missed the earlier easygoing tone. Indeed, the beginning of the novel does fit the ‘classic’ tag in terms of the superiority of Mosley’s prose. But then the messy plot rather gets in the way, and the revelations about Daphne’s true origins at the end don’t seem that revolutionary. Devil in a Blue Dress is a good debut, although one does rather hope that Mosley kept to the stronger aspects of his writing, such as the beguiling tone, characterisation and atmosphere of the first part of the novel, in his later works.