From “the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler” (San Francisco Chronicle) comes a hard-hitting, entertaining entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series about two NYPD detectives who must piece together the clues of the scam of a lifetime.
Flim-flam man Deke O’Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta’s state penitentiary than he’s back on the streets working a big scam. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he’s counting on a big Harlem rally to produce a massive collection—for his own private charity. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. As NYPD detectives “Coffin Ed” Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones face the complexity of the scheme, we are treated to Himes’s brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best.
“Chester Himes is the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“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.... A master craftsman.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Every one of his beyond-cool Harlem novels is cherished by every reader who finds it.” —Jonathan Lethem
From “the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler” (San Francisco Chronicle) comes a hard-hitting, entertaining entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series about two NYPD detectives who must piece together the clues of the scam of a lifetime.
Flim-flam man Deke O’Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta’s state penitentiary than he’s back on the streets working a big scam. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he’s counting on a big Harlem rally to produce a massive collection—for his own private charity. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. As NYPD detectives “Coffin Ed” Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones face the complexity of the scheme, we are treated to Himes’s brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best.
Praise
“Chester Himes is the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“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.... A master craftsman.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Every one of his beyond-cool Harlem novels is cherished by every reader who finds it.” —Jonathan Lethem
