Devil in a Blue Dress: Summary
The story involves a man who became a detective by solving a difficult case of theft by a young lady known by the name Monet. The author, however, presents the protagonist as someone who gets away with stealing at the end of the day. He portrays Easy Rawlins as the better person when the man actually murdered two people and stole money. While the story is thrilling, it is overambitious. It allows every wrongdoer get away with his or her crimes. Easy and Joppy get away with the murder of Albright and his friend and theft while Monet gets away with stealing from Todd. Monet had stolen money from one white Todd Carter. Easy Rawlins had been going through the downs of life in Watts, Los Angeles. He was jobless and unable to pay his mortgage due to his financial crisis. In the cause of drinking with his friends at a local bar, Easy met Albright, who offered him the detective job. While Easy was not familiar with detective work, he realized that he needed a job in order to improve his financial situation. He took up the job as an opportunity to make money and decided to give it the best. At the end of his work, Easy not only made his money from Albright, he also stole a large sum from Monet. This job changed Easy’s life as he also became a very good detective.
Easy, who was hired by Albright, began his work at the very bar where he drank. He realized that even when the bars in Los Angeles were black bars, white women were allowed in them. Monet was supposedly a white woman and was likely to be in bars as those. He, however, ended up with two women Dupree and Coretta, who lied to him about Monet’s address. He, however, realizes that Monet is an African American lady who Albright is trying to protect. Albright was hired to find Monet by Todd, who is the owner of the stolen money. However, Todd does not want to find Daphne Monet just to recover his money, he claims that he is in love with her and only wants her back. On realizing this, Easy and his friend Mouse blackmail Daphne who is actually Ruby and they split the money amongst themselves letting her free go to Todd. The two also end up killing Albright and his friend Joppy, who would otherwise expose them or get in the way of their money. They are left to clean the mess of two murders as Daphne/Ruby gets away. For these two to let the young lady get away is probably only to distract the police from investigating the murder of Joppy and Albright.
In as much as there is a skill in the work Easy does as a detective, there is also inconsideration of the purpose for which detective work is involved. For him to work professionally, Easy must learn to stay legit and not benefit from the money in an investigation unless it is given to him. Therefore, the story is very well thought but lacks in one aspect, the purpose of detective work. It is very important to provide relevance to the story. The devil in a blue dress is all the same well written and well thought it is intended to portray the humanity in a detective such as Easy who likes anyone else will be tempted to solve their personal problems in the course of working and when the opportunity arises such as which involves money.
Works Cited
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress: Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story. New York: Simon and Shuster, 2010. Print.
