The Essential Harlem Detectives
(Author) Chester himesA friend and contemporary of Richard Wright and James Baldwin - and every bit their equal - Chester Himes was the acclaimed author of literary novels, stories and essays, as well as the classic crime fiction series for which he is best known, featuring detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones. Himes wrote nine novels in the Harlem Detectives series, and in these four popular, accomplished instalments, his cold, wise-cracking sleuths are thrown into a brutal, murderous world peopled with conniving con men, gut-toting gangsters and opium-smoking preachers. Himes's vision of Harlem's criminal underground, enriched by deft plotting and scintillating dialogue, is both riotous entertainment and penetrating enquiry into the fraught tensions of race in postwar America.
Chester himes
Chester Himes was an influential African American writer known for his hardboiled crime novels. His most famous work, "If He Hollers Let Him Go," explored themes of racism and oppression in America. Himes's gritty and realistic writing style paved the way for future black crime fiction writers.