A couple of years ago I borrowed a DVD from the library entitled Devil in a Blue Dress, a 1995 film starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle. Although not an entirely successful movie, it led me to Walter Mosley, upon whose novel the movie is based.
Written in 1990, the book was the first in what has become known as the Easy Rawlins series. Mosley, a black author, sets this series in Los Angeles, beginning the story of his black protagonist, Easy, just after World War 11 and thus far, after 10 books, carrying through to 1966.
The books are much more than well-crafted mysteries, bringing to readers a character that, while sympathetic, has been molded to accept the realities of the racism of the time. It is with a somewhat weary cynicism, even fatalism, that Easy frequently agrees to help members of the white community, including the police, knowing from the outset that he will be the one to pay the price should something go wrong in his investigations.
Complementing his often complicated life is a host of interesting secondary characters:
His longtime friend Mouse, essentially a psychopath who, the reader senses, would not hesitate to dispatch Easy were he to violate the loyalty he expects from him;
Etta Mae, Mouse’s wife and the woman that Easy has loved for many years;
Jackson Blue, a man of genius I.Q. who wastes much of his life on dangerous petty scams;
Mofass, Easy’s front man for his real estate holdings
Jesus and Feather, Easy’s adopted children
These, and others, help to draw us in and to understand the character and the world of Easy Rawlins. We quickly learn that it is a world in which issues and morality, unlike the racial divide, are never black and white. Mosley frequently challenges his readers with an ambiguity that never allows us to forget that these novels are much more than crime fiction. Lucky for us.
http://www.booksnbytes.com/authors/mosley_walter.html
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