Devil in a blue dress

2021 review:
I forgot how bananas the plot gets around page 110 or so. Easy's internal observations especially in the first part of the book are phenomenal, but the action scenes, character development, and sex-adjacent plots were a bit much. Bumping down to 3 stars.

2017 review:
4 stars. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes or are a more recent fan of Joe Ide's Isaiah Quintabe novels, pick up the first volume in the Easy Rawlins series. Based in L.A., Easy gets pulled into a seemingly simple task that becomes more more involved. The bodies pile up. But what's really at play?

To be honest, I didn't love the actual plot of this story. I felt like it was overly complicated and involved too many nefarious would-be villains but for a seemingly simple end. However, I loved Easy Rawlins as a character - his insights on things, his pride over his home, and his complicated back story in Houston and as a former WWII GI.