From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a brilliant, short novel about a tragic death and a wrongful conviction
Spare and powerful, A Case of Rape chronicles a tragic miscarriage of justice. Mrs. Elizabeth Hancock Brissard, a white woman, has died in Paris under mysterious circumstances. She had overdosed on an aphrodisiac, and there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted. A French couple witnessed four black men attempting to push her out a window before she died. The trial that followed was summary, and its verdict convicting the four men of rape was practically a foregone conclusion. But was it true? A riveting mystery but also a mordant critique of racism and sexism, and featuring an introduction by Calvin C. Hernton, A Case of Rape is the fablelike story of doomed love and justice.
Praise for Chester Himes's A Case of Rape
“A scathing indictment of prejudice. . . . A moving evocation of an impossible love.” —Paris Match
“Himes explores the lives of his five characters, revealing just how deceiving appearances can be when the observer’s vision is clouded by racist assumptions.”—Los Angeles Times
“[Himes] writes with a ruthless honesty, which cannot fail to impress.”—The Guardian
From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a brilliant, short novel about a tragic death and a wrongful conviction
Spare and powerful, A Case of Rape chronicles a tragic miscarriage of justice. Mrs. Elizabeth Hancock Brissard, a white woman, has died in Paris under mysterious circumstances. She had overdosed on an aphrodisiac, and there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted. A French couple witnessed four black men attempting to push her out a window before she died. The trial that followed was summary, and its verdict convicting the four men of rape was practically a foregone conclusion. But was it true? A riveting mystery but also a mordant critique of racism and sexism, and featuring an introduction by Calvin C. Hernton, A Case of Rape is the fablelike story of doomed love and justice.
Praise
Praise for Chester Himes's A Case of Rape
“A scathing indictment of prejudice. . . . A moving evocation of an impossible love.” —Paris Match
“Himes explores the lives of his five characters, revealing just how deceiving appearances can be when the observer’s vision is clouded by racist assumptions.”—Los Angeles Times
“[Himes] writes with a ruthless honesty, which cannot fail to impress.”—The Guardian
