ABSTRACT
Walter Mosely’s Devil in a Blue Dress, published in 1990, is a landmark example of revisionist hardboiled fiction. This case study reads the novel from the perspective of critical criminology, with a focus on the racially inflected, or even racist, criminal justice system of the United States. Devil in a Blue Dress’ open representation of this racialized version of justice is central to its social critique, and to its challenge to the generic norms of crime fiction.
