SOURCE: "A Stiff Shot of Black and White," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 29, 1990, p. 3.

Diehl is an American columnist and critic. In the following review, he predicts Devil in a Blue Dress will whet readers' appetites for Easy Rawlins stories and lead to "a long, active career" for Mosley's hero.

Reflexively you blink from the sting of the dark, smoky surroundings and lick your lips to wipe away the taste of the cheap Scotch, as the sweet sounds of an alto saxophone whine up out of the pages of this richly atmospheric detective novel of the '40s. Within the first 50 pages, Walter Mosley takes us through the back door of a little market at the corner of Central Avenue and 89th Place in Los Angeles and into an illegal black nightclub:

When I opened the door I was slapped in the face by the force...