Re: RARA-AVIS: _Devil in a Blue Dress_

Mari Hall (found.dead.in.texas@airmail.net)
Mon, 06 Apr 1998 09:32:22 -0500 William Denton wrote:
>
> So, does anyone have any comments on _Devil In a Blue Dress_? I'm
> about 2/3 of the way through, and I like it. I don't think that
> Mosley is the greatest (hardboiled) mystery writer of the decade,
> which some people think, but he's certainly good. I'm going to try
> one of his later non-Easy books soon and see how that is. I know
> Mario really like Mosley, and Mario's recommendations have never been
> wrong for me.
>
> One of the most interesting things about the book, to me, is the
> depiction of life for a black man in the States back then. I haven't
> read much about that, and although I knew the basics, this brought it
> to life.
>
> Bill
> --
> William Denton | Toronto, Canada | http://www.vex.net/~buff/ | Caveat lector.
> "It is better to incur a mild rebuke than to perform an onerous task."
> -- "Uncle" Oswald Hendryks Cornelius
>
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Loved it! I think it was "fresh" and "new" it was so different from
anything else I had read at the time, because I read it when it first
came out and immediately couldn't wait for more. But I think (and what
do I know??) the only reason Moseley gained the attention he deserved
was due to President Clinton's reading of WHITE BUTTERFLY. It might have
been later than that book before he was truly "discovered". I think the
movie was as good as it was because Moseley had some control and (if I'm
not mistaken wrote the screen play??) but then Always Outnumbered,
Always Outgunned was better than -anything- else he has done. I think
the "good guy with bad guy side-kick" is nothing new (look at Crais'
Elvis Cole/Joe Pike for this and certainly Spenser/Hawk), but Moseley's
handling of this phenomenon is a little different. Of course, it does me
good to say "I was a fan from the first", but now that we are looking
back maybe we have a different perspective than I had the first time I
read DEVIL.

-- 
whose DOROTHYL nom is Kate Warne the ex-Pinkerton in
The Woman With the Rose Tattoo by Mari Hall
See y'all at Bouchercon 29 in Philly Oct.1-4
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