"I was sitting there, naked on the toilet seat, and watching her go through the mirror-doored medicine cabinet. I felt something deep down in me, something dark like jazz when it reminds you that death is waiting.

"'Death,' the saxophone rasps.  But really, I didn't care."

Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress

Walter Mosley is probably my favorite living American writer. I don't claim to have read all his books, but I've certainly read all the Easy Rawlins books. 'Devil' was the first, published in 1990 (as you can see below, mine's a signed first edition.) If you like hard boiled detective fiction, stuff like Hammett or Chandler, then you owe it to yourself to read this book now.  (I can also recommend the Fearless Jones series, only three books, and the Leonid McGill series.)  And there's also a whole 'nuther school, contemporary African-American fiction, and I'm no expert on it but Mosley's at the head of the class there as well.


I just finished his 12th Rawlins book, and his 41st book overall, Little Green.  That sent me back to 'Devil,' because I now intend to reread all the Easy Rawlins books again, in order. I read it in about a day; it's just about as perfect a first novel as you could ask for, a taut 54,000 words (I asked him once) with nothing wasted.  And it was interesting to see how much Easy (1948-1967) and Mosley (1990-2013) have grown since the first book.

It's been a great run.  Looking forward to reliving it.