Description

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At once grotesquely comic and unflinchingly violent: the final entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series, set in New York in the sweltering summer heat.

“A sensual, surreal, cartoonishly violent and breathtakingly bawdy comic universe.” —Los Angeles Times

New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is close to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace—their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence—Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threaten to tear Harlem apart.

About the Author

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CHESTER HIMES began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 to 1936. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels—including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965)—featuring two Harlem policemen. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. He died in Spain in 1984.

Praise For…

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“A sensual, surreal, cartoonishly violent and breathtakingly bawdy comic universe.... A raw but bracing locale ... bursting with life and sadness, joyously bitter as well as unabashedly sensual.”
—Los Angeles Times

“One of the most important American writers of the 20th century.... A quirky American genius.” —Walter Mosley

“Chester Himes is one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition. His command of nuances of character and dynamics of plot is preeminent among writers of crime fiction. He is a master craftsman.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Their deft mixture of race relations and police-work are as entertaining as sociology as they are as mysteries.” —The Boston Globe