Harlem Cycle Vol 3
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Blind Man With a Pistol
Plan B
Introduced by Lesley Himes
In this the third and final volume of novels featuring Himes’ dynamic pair of tough Harlem cops, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, the reader is taken to the end of the line of The Harlem Cycle. This omnibus marks the culmination of one of the greatest series of crime novels ever written.
As if in a descending spiral Himes’ Harlem novels seem to get bleaker and bleaker. All of them continue to combine the typical mix of far-fetched plots, vicious humour and crazy characters but a dark and desperate undercurrent seems to flow through these late works. For Himes fans the first ever UK publication of his posthumous work, Plan B, will be of particular interest and importance. Although it was never completed, it remains one of the most cataclysmic and frightening visions of the potential consequences of racism and a fitting end to The Harlem Cycle.
This edition also contains an introduction by Chester Himes’ widow Lesley, which gives many insights into both the man and his work.
'The books have lasting value – as thrillers, as streetwise documentaries, as chapters of black writing at its ribald and unaffected best. On every level they are simply – or not so simply – terrific.' The Sunday Times 'Some of the best crime novels ever written - bloody, bawdy and original - and as irresistible as the day they first blew into print. I can't imagine them being bettered.' Literary Review 'The greatest find in American fiction since Raymond Chandler' The Observer 'One of the few black writers to have used the thriller genre to express black experience in the USA' City Limits 'There stories have everything, well developed plots, strong characters, realism, drama, humour, suspense and, of course, biting social comment.' The Alarm

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Harlem Cycle Vol 2
The Big Gold Dream
All Shot Up
The Heat's On
This second omnibus edition from Himes's famous Harlem Cycle sees three more novels featuring his baddest and greatest creations -- Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones.
Combining fantastic plots with blood-soaked realism, Himes produced some of the greatest crime novels ever. He is rightfully seen as the Godfather of black American crime - writing and this, the second of three compendium editions, gives new readers the chance to appreciate the black humour, gripping storylines and social awareness that justify his description as "A crime writer of Chandlerian subtlety though in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own" - The Times.
'The books have lasting value - as thrillers, as streetwise documentaries, as chapters of black writing at its ribald and unaffected best. On every level they are simply - or not so simply - terrific.' - The Sunday Times

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Harlem Cycle Vol 1
A Rage in Harlem
The Real Cool Killers
The Crazy Kill
With an Introduction by Melvin Van Peebles
Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, Harlem's toughest pair of cops, are Chester Himes's most memorable fictional creations and the stars of nine different novels. Renowned for their meanness and always armed with their legendary nickel-plated colts, they patrol the streets of Harlem and attempt to keep some semblance of law and order.
Gathered together for the first time are the first three novels in what Himes described as his domestic thrillers - otherwise known as The Harlem Cycle. Combining fantastic plots with blood-soaked realism, Himes produced some of the greatest crime novels ever.
"The books have lasting value - as thrillers, as streetwise documentaries, as chapters of black writing at its ribald and unaffected best. On every level they are simply - or rather not so simply - terrific" The Sunday Times "A crime writer of Chandlerian subtlety though in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own" The Times "Those who are familiar with Himes' work will know that he is simply the greatest Black American crime writer, ever. Those who are not will have a wonderful experience in discovering his rare talent. At the affordable price of £6.99 for the paperback, this collection is a must!" The Alarm

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The Collected Stories Of Chester Himes
Spanning over forty years of Chester Himes's writing career, this provocative collection of short stories uncovers the internal struggle of black people caught between rage and resignation in American society.
The black waiter who has pride in his work but is shamed by his treatment; the redneck giant on his way to stop the lynching; the black private laying down his life for a man who hates him; and the kid serving life to keep his brother out of gaol. Stories of pride and poverty, with murder on the street and Mass in the prison, stories of love and hate, social realism and stylised crime.
This is a collection of all Himes's surviving stories - including some never before published - from those written in prison in the early 1930s, to those written during his last years in France and Spain.
Here is some of the sharpest, funniest and angriest writing from one of this century's greatest black writers.
Portrait of Chester Himes by Denese Morden
'A ruthless honesty which cannot fail to impress' The Guardian
'There is no typical Himes story... in the short story, Himes ranks alongside Hemingway for style and Eudora Welty for insight ... He has James Baldwin's shrewd racial insight, Zora Neale Hurston's humanity and Raymond Chandler's narrative pace and verve' THE FINANCIAL TIMES
'When you read Himes you know you are in the hands of a literary master' SATURDAY REVIEW
'Realism with a pleasant irony' Isabel Colegate, DAILY TELEGRAPH

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The End Of A Primitive
Jesse Robinson wakes from his nightmares and fantasies to dirty, fitful real life in a noisy Harlem slum. He's an acclaimed black writer - or was. Now he lives on gin and chocolate and hangover cures, and women don't come near him …
Kriss wakes up alone, divorced, disillusioned, in her plush Manhattan apartment, to resume her high-salary, low-excitement existence on Madison Avenue, and wonders what went wrong …
They have nothing in common, just one amazing, passionate weekend in Chicago, seven years ago, and a sudden, overwhelming urge to meet again, to throw off all that has happened since. But too much has happened, and what's up ahead may be just as passionate, but it might just be deadly .. . illustration by Denese Morden
'Realism with a pleasant irony' Isabel Colegate, Daily Telegraph
'Pungent, violent and mordantly funny ...' NEWSWEEK
(Chester Himes) 'has James Baldwin's shrewd racial insight, Zora Neale Hurston's humanity and Raymond Chandler's narrative pace and verve' THE FINANCIAL TIMES

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Cast The First Stone
James Munroe was a cool cat. He took his prison sentence without blinking. He fended off the advances of the convict studs and the convict queens with deft skill. He learned every angle of prison life and how to play them all to win. By his fourth year in prison, James Munroe had it made. He had money, privileges, power, respect. All he didn't have was a human being to love. Then one day a youngster named, Dido moved into his cell block. And James Munroe's shell began to crumble …
A great novel that rips aside the barred doors of prison life. An unforgettable story of what happens to a man in prison; a vivid re-creation of a perverse society with its own rules, its own taboos, its own virtues and grotesque vices. And, strangely enough, it is also a love story - a love between two men…
illustration by Denese Morden
'The greatest find in American fiction since Raymond Chandler' Observer
'An unforgettable novel of love and hate, rage and pride, from one of this century's greatest black writers, standing with "Richard Wright and James Baldwin at the headwater of black American writing".' BOOK WORLD
'When you read Himes you know you are in the hands of a literary master' SATURDAY REVIEW

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The Real Cool Killers
When Harlemites set about each other with knives, it's an everyday kind of happening. But when a white man is shot dead in a Harlem street one steamy evening it means trouble, big trouble.
Plenty of people had motives for killing Galen, a big Greek with too much money and too great a liking for young black girls. But there are complications - like Sonny, high on hash, found standing over the body with a gun in his hand that fires only blanks, a street gang called the Moslems, a disappearing suspect, and the fat that Coffin Ed's own daughter is up to her neck in the whole explosive situation.…
"A crime writer of Chandlerian subtlety though in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own" - The Times
"One of the few black writers to have used the thriller genre to express black experience in the USA" - City Limits
"The books have lasting value - as thrillers, as streetwise documentaries, as chapters of black writing at its ribald and unaffected best! On every level they are simply - or rather, not so simply, terrific" - Sunday Times
Chester Himes was born in Missouri in 1909. He began writing while serving a prison sentence for a jewel theft and published just short of twenty novels before his death in 1984. Amongst his best known thrillers are Cotton Comes to Harlem, The Crazy Kill and A Rage in Harlem.
Illustration: Harlem by Edward Burra. Reproduced by courtesy of The Lefevre Gallery.

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If He Hollers Let Him Go
The violent story of a coloured boy lost in a white man's world.
Her word against his; and she was white. But this wasn't the deep South, it was Los Angeles where a Negro had a chance - to kiss the feet of a white girl. A hard-hitting story of prejudice by one of America's best novelists.

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Run Man Run
Walker, one of New York's not very finest, is a perpetually drunk, psychotic policeman, vicious with anyone unlucky enough to get in his way at the wrong time. Staggering into a restaurant on a freezing day, he kills two Negro workers 'because they were there', and pursues a third who witnessed the murders, determined to kill him as well…
illustration by Denese Morden
'A matchless honesty which cannot fail to impress' Guardian
'Chester Himes delivers savoury entertainment for readers who like their reading meat rare and their action highly seasoned' CITY LIMITS
'Unique and unmissable' THE FACE

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Pinktoes
All Mamie Mason ever wanted was to be the 'hostess with the mostess' and inspire a lot of inter-racial loving at her famous parties in Harlem. Pinktoes is a bawdy, hilarious, Rabelaisian tale of sex, food and gossip which, as the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reports, 'starts in the high gear, with double entendre, puns, double-talk and sheer action increasing the momentum right down to the final guffaw.'
illustration by Denese Morden
' Bloody, bawdy and original - and as irresistible as the day it first blew into print' Literary Review
'... one of the most important black writers of the 20th century' SOUTH MAGAZINE
'Take Candy... tan her...age her in bed ...a galloping, balloon bursting novel' NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE

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About The Author
Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1909. In 1928 he was given a twenty year sentence for armed robbery and it was in jail that he began to write. On release he published a number of controversial novels, which were unpopular, being too black and aggressive for the America of the 1940's.
After leaving America for good, it was in Paris that he began writing thrillers which were a massive success. His first, A Rage in Harlem, won the 1958 Grand Prix Policier (never before awarded to a non-French writer) and the subsequent Coffin Ed and Grave Digger novels were all big hits both in France and America. He wrote a total of 18 novels, two volumes of autobiography and over 50 short stories. He died in Spain in 1984.

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Bibliography

Harlem Cycle Vol 3 (Payback Press) (1997) ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Harlem Cycle Vol 2 (Payback Press) (1996) ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Harlem Cycle Vol 1 (Payback Press) (1996) ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

The Collected Stories Of Chester Himes (Allison & Busby) (1997)

The Heat's On (1945) ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

The End Of A Primitive (Allison & Busby) (1997)

Cast The First Stone (Allison & Busby) (1997)

The Big Gold Dream ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

All Shot Up ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Cotton Comes to Harlem ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

The Real Cool Killers ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

If He Hollers Let Him Go

Plan B ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Blind Man With a Pistol ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Case of Rape (Carroll & Graf)

The Crazy Kill (Payback Press) ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

A Rage in Harlem ( Coffin Ed Johnson & Grave Digger Jones)

Run Man Run (Allison & Busby) (1997)

Pinktoes (Allison & Busby) (1997)

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