--- description: Find out why 'Devil in a Blue Dress' by Walter Mosley made the list. title: Devil in a Blue Dress: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189ae797c1bba432/698a40cb929fad0c15bfa36e/DevilInABlueDress2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  There were crime novels with Black American protagonists before Mosley’s 1990 neo-noir classic, but it wasn’t until readers were introduced to Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins that there was a mainstream Black investigator on the level of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. It’s an indictment of the pernicious racism that continues to permeate U.S. popular culture to this day. After all, it doesn’t get more American than Easy—a World War II vet turned private investigator living and working in post-war L.A., trying to solve a murder whose resolution necessitates bringing the superficially submerged tensions between Black and white Americans to the surface. It doesn’t hurt that one of the greatest American actors of the last 50 years, Denzel Washington, portrayed Easy in a 1995 film adaptation, solidifying both the character and actor as exemplars of 20th century U.S. culture. —_Elijah Wolfson_ --- ### More from TIME --- **Buy Now:** _Devil in a Blue Dress_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781982150341 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3LBZJRu "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/"},"headline":"Devil in a Blue Dress: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:56:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:54.189Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189ae797c1bba432/698a40cb929fad0c15bfa36e/DevilInABlueDress2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189ae797c1bba432/698a40cb929fad0c15bfa36e/DevilInABlueDress2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/","name":"Devil in a Blue Dress: 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309192/devil-in-a-blue-dress/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```