Comparing Three Detective Novels
All the three excerpts from “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley, “Murder Is My Business” by Lynette Prucha and “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler are detective genre stories set in Los Angles. The investigators and their clients share some similarities and differences particularly with respect to their roles in shaping the plot and the main themes in the stories.
Firstly, the three stories are set in Los Angeles. “The Big Sleep” is typically set during a rainy season while “Murder is My Business” is set in downtown and Walter Mosley’s “Devil in Blue Dress” is set in the period just after the conclusion of the Second World War. Secondly, the private detectives function as the main characters in three stories. In “The Big Sleep,” a private investigator, Philip Marlowe, arrives at the residence of a …show more content…
Just like Philip Marlowe, Mrs. Marino is a well-known private investigator, but her client comes across as someone who is faking a story. The author claims that business is slow, but she still manages to pay the bills and indulges in the occasional treats (Pruch 472). In the “Devil in Blue Dress,” the primary character, Easy Rawlins, has recently been sacked from his job at a private airplane assembly plant. Toward the end of the story, Easy claims that he also works as a private detective. The economic downturns and the fear of forfeiting his family initially force him to seek a menial job from a white man, former boxer DeWitt Albright (Mosley 478). Albright meets Easy through Joppy, also a former boxer and Easy’s friend. The first task of Easy is finding Daphne Monet, a beautiful white lady, on behalf of a customer who was the woman’s lover before they had parted. Similar to “The Big Sleep” Easy also advances the theme of sexual perversity during his filthy and sexually explicit encounters with Matthew Teran and Richard
All the three excerpts from “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley, “Murder Is My Business” by Lynette Prucha and “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler are detective genre stories set in Los Angles. The investigators and their clients share some similarities and differences particularly with respect to their roles in shaping the plot and the main themes in the stories.
Firstly, the three stories are set in Los Angeles. “The Big Sleep” is typically set during a rainy season while “Murder is My Business” is set in downtown and Walter Mosley’s “Devil in Blue Dress” is set in the period just after the conclusion of the Second World War. Secondly, the private detectives function as the main characters in three stories. In “The Big Sleep,” a private investigator, Philip Marlowe, arrives at the residence of a …show more content…
Just like Philip Marlowe, Mrs. Marino is a well-known private investigator, but her client comes across as someone who is faking a story. The author claims that business is slow, but she still manages to pay the bills and indulges in the occasional treats (Pruch 472). In the “Devil in Blue Dress,” the primary character, Easy Rawlins, has recently been sacked from his job at a private airplane assembly plant. Toward the end of the story, Easy claims that he also works as a private detective. The economic downturns and the fear of forfeiting his family initially force him to seek a menial job from a white man, former boxer DeWitt Albright (Mosley 478). Albright meets Easy through Joppy, also a former boxer and Easy’s friend. The first task of Easy is finding Daphne Monet, a beautiful white lady, on behalf of a customer who was the woman’s lover before they had parted. Similar to “The Big Sleep” Easy also advances the theme of sexual perversity during his filthy and sexually explicit encounters with Matthew Teran and Richard