Chester B. Himes

Goldy, Jackson's crafty twin brother, tries to help Jackson recover his life savings from the con man who cheated him

A Rage in Harlem

Investigating two separate cases during a long hot summer in New York City, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, two Black police detectives, encounter senseless violence

Blind Man with a Pistol

The Real Cool Killers

From the start nothing goes right for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones. Dead bodies are piling up faster than they can run, and Coffin Ed and Grave Digger seem to always be one step behind the cause of all the mayhem--$3 million worth of heroin and a simple albino called Pinky.

The Heat's on

The Classic Crime Thriller

All Shot Up

Set in Harlem's underside in the 1950s, a fast-paced tale of mystery and intrigue unfolds as Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones work to halt the theft of thousands of dollars marked for the Back-to-Africa movement

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, top Black police detectives, investigate the murder of Valentine Haines, who is found stabbed in a large bread basket

The Crazy Kill

Michel Fabre

Tomsson Black, political visionary, business genius, and underground revolutionary, plots to avenge injustice by instigating racial turmoil. The roots of racism extend far back into his ancestry, and persecution and suffering have affected many generations of his family. Tomsson's own misfortunes are the impetus for him to found a criminal underworld whose ultimate purpose is the overflow of white society. This novel, the history of Tomsson Black and an indictment of racism in America, ends in apocalypse. It is Chester Himes's ultimate statement about the destructive power of racism and his own personal fantasy of how the American Negro, through calculated acts of violence and martyrdom, could destroy the unequal system pervading American life. However, after reaching an ideological impasse, Himes, one of the angriest writers in the black protest movement, left this novel unfinished. After his death in Spain in 1984, a rumor persisted that he had left a final, unfinished Harlem story, in which he literally destroys both his Harlem backdrop and his heroes in a violent racial cataclysm. The manuscript, entitled Plan B, is that novel. It was edited and published in France, where it was widely hailed as an unfinished masterpiece by readers and critics alike. This new edition, appearing for the first time in the United States, includes an introduction by Michel Fabre (The Sorbonne) and Robert E. Skinner (Xavier University), who have prepared Plan B for publication.

A Novel

Plan B

At a Harlem street sermon by Sweet Prophet Brown, fanatical Alberta Wright tells the crowd that she had a dream about three apple pies that burst open, filling her kitchen with hundred dollar bills. Minutes later, she washes down a holy fifty-dollar bread crumb with some water blessed by the Sweet Prophet, goes into a fit, & drops dead. The story only gains momentum when the nickel-plated .38 wielding police duo of Grave Digger Jones & Coffin Ed Johnson are put on the case. The Big Gold Dream is one in a long series of violent, funny, & socially relevant crime thrillers by Chester Himes, who began his writing career while serving out a prison term for jewel theft in the early 1940s.

The Big Gold Dream

From the author of LONELY CRUSADE, a novel which tells of Robert Jones, a man with a steady job, a steady relationship, and plenty of prospects, until a woman accuses him of rape, and suddenly his prospects seem a lot less bright.

If He Hollers Let Him Go

Four Black American men living in Paris are charged with the rape of a white woman

A Case of Rape

Jesse Robinson wakes from his nightmare to dirty, fitful real life in a Harlem slum.

The End of a Primitive

Presents stories written over more than forty years, including some previously unpublished, depicting the struggles of Blacks in American society

The Collected Stories of Chester Himes

Cidade escaldante

Manuel Sánchez Torres

Por amor a Imabelle

Originally published in 1952, this restored autobiographical novel about prison life is now presented in its entirety and captures the harsh realities, determination, and persistence of humanity in the prison world. Reprint. K. PW.

Yesterday Will Make You Cry

Mamie Mason, an influential Harlem society matron, hosts open sexual orgies in hopes of developing harmony between the races

Pinktoes

This third omnibus edition from the Harlem Cycle sees three more novels featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. The novels include: Cotton Comes to Harlem, Blind Man with a Pistol and Plan B. Chester Himes is the author of A Rage in Harlem and The Real Cool Killers.

Chester B. Himes

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