Walter Mosley is a writer that places his stories in the black communities in Los Angeles in the 1940ies. I found Mosley as a writer in blogs of Orson Scott Card who considers Mosley one of his favorite writers. Mosley is also supposedly one of Bill Clinton’s favorite authors.

I picked up Devil in a Blue Dress as one of the more well-known titles of Mosley and started reading. The writing, of course, is excellent. The plot work meticulous. The descriptions and expositions are clear and the dialog is vivid. Mosley creates excellent suspense and drives the story along.

Yet I got lost and I abandoned the book about 15% into it. I found myself just not interested enough in the “fiction” of the whole thing. It was like I was in a college course studying fiction and the professor had assigned “Devil” as a reading assignment for the weekend. If I were in college, and it were an assignment, I am sure I could enjoy this book.

Alas, there is so much more to read and so little time, I decided that there are other choices of reading materials. If I read fiction, there must be something more about it than a great name and a good story. I need the thought-provocation of a good science fiction concept or the immersion in another culture that historical fiction provides to be able to justify reading fiction.

Thanks, Orson Scott Card and Bill Clinton, for a great recommendation, but I pass.