Devil in a Blue Dress Audiobook By Walter Mosley cover art

Devil in a Blue Dress

An Easy Rawlins Mystery

Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible Premium Plus.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Devil in a Blue Dress

By: Walter Mosley
Narrated by: Michael Boatman
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.95

Buy for $21.95

Get 3 months for $0.99 a month

Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.Hear more of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries.©2002 Walter Mosley (P)2009 Audible, Inc. African American Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Genre Fiction Hard-Boiled Literary Fiction Literary History & Criticism Mystery Noir Private Investigators Series Essentials Crime

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Winner, Mystery and Suspense, 2010
  • Top 100 Mysteries of All Time (Mystery Writers of America)
  • 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century (Independent Mystery Booksellers Assn.)

"Richly atmospheric....Devil in a Blue Dress honors the hard-boiled tradition of Hammett/Chandler/Cain in its story line and attitude, but Mosley takes us down some mean streets that his spiritual predecessors never could have.... A fast-moving, entertaining story written with impressive style." ( Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"Ezekiel 'Easy' Rawlins, a young, tough black veteran living in 1948 Los Angeles, only wants respect and enough money to pay his mortgage. When fired from his factory job, however, he undertakes some paid errands for a shady white mobster who wishes to locate a light-haired, blue-eyed beauty. As Easy plumbs his usual hangouts for clues, he relays information to the mobster, runs afoul of the police, meets the mysterious woman, discovers a murder, then investigates in self-defense. An unusually refreshing protagonist...talented prose, and evocative, realistic descriptions of speech, manners, and social life make this an exceptional and welcome addition." ( Library Journal)

Featured Article: Best Mystery Series—Listens That'll Take You Right to the Crime Scene


While a standalone mystery is great when you're in the mood for a one-and-done, sometimes you want to feed your craving with an entire mystery series—knowing there's a world and characters you can keep coming back to for the satisfaction of solving crimes. With audiobooks, you get the added bonus of sinking deeper into the setting, clues, and suspects as the story is performed for you, so you'll feel like you're alongside detectives, ready to bust a case.

Compelling Mystery • Complex Characters • Historical Authenticity • Engaging Plot • Noir Atmosphere

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Easy Rawlins has just lost his factory job and needs to find a way to make money before the the mortgage payment comes due for his home within just a few days. This is the late 1940s and Ezekiel, an African American has returned from the war battle worn and with few illusions, and his house is the one stable thing in his life for which he's willing to fight in order to keep. When a suspicious white man enrols him to find a white girl called Daphne Monet, last seen in one of the illegal bars in the company of a well-known gangster, Easy knows he can't trust the man and questions his motives for wanting to find Daphne in the first place. But money is money and this job pays well... though is he prepared for the most dangerous character in the story, in the shape of a very beautiful and sexy Daphne? This first novel in the Easy Rawlins series has a lot going for it, not least of which the descriptions of a bygone nitty gritty downtown Los Angeles where walking into a bar could be more dangerous than walking the streets at night. The hardboiled atmosphere is palpable and Ezekiel is easy to like, which means I'll more than likely be revisiting this series in near future. Having read this very shortly after the first book in the Harlem Cycle by Chester Himes, I feel confident in saying that Mosley was more than likely influenced by his predecessor, and that can only be a good thing.

Well Done Hardboiled

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

After seeing the movie by the same name I was not sure I wanted to read the book.....after reading the book, Walter Mosley now has me hooked!! Easy Rawlings is a familiar character if you grew up "Black" in the 60's and 70's....it's "Shaft" in a more modest and real form. I loved "Devil" and cannot wait to continue the journey with Easy!!

A Special Piece of Detective Genre!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I bought this on a whim and was astounded by what I heard. Michael Boatman’s performance is one of the top 5 among my 300+ Audible books. He made the most of already captivating material. Looking forward to more by both Boatman and Mosley.

Riviting narration, compelling characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great book. Riveting - keeps on amazing with its twist and turns. I will listen again

Fantastic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Was thinking that I wished it hadn't finished so soon. But the surprise ending was very well done. I highly recommend this book.
(Adult content and language)

I loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews