{"title":"Books by Chester Himes","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780241639221","title":"Cotton Comes to Harlem","description":"\u003cb\u003e'A bawdy, brazen rollercoaster of a novel . . . the wildest' \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA preacher called Deke O'Malley's been selling false hope: the promise of a glorious new life in Africa for just $1,000 a family. But when thieves with machine guns steal the proceeds - and send one man's brain matter flying - the con is up. Now Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed mean to bring the good people of Harlem back their $87,000, however many corpses they have to climb over to get it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCotton Comes to Harlem\u003c\/i\u003e is a non-stop ride, with violence, sex, double-crosses, and the two baddest detectives ever to wear a badge in Harlem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an Introduction by Will Self","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43172872159410,"sku":"9780241639221","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241639221.jpg?v=1786012652"},{"product_id":"9780241692646","title":"Yesterday Will Make You Cry","description":"'A stark depiction of the “alligator pond” of prison life … Rage tempered with compassion … [its] emotional core continues to smoulder’ The New York Times Book ReviewThrill-seeking teenager Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery in the state penitentiary, where terror and chaos reign, corrupt guards inflict casual violence, and men try to preserve their dignity amid isolation and inhumanity. When a fire breaks out, setting hell and mayhem loose, it seems Jimmy’s entire world is unravelling. But as he develops a tender relationship with fellow convict Rico, hope begins to glimmer, and, through his eventual foray into writing, something resembling redemption. Originally published in 1952, in an expurgated version, as Cast the First Stone, Yesterday Will Make You Cry draws on Chester Himes’s own youthful experiences of imprisonment to face down the scouring truths of harm and love.  ‘Himes at the top of his game … what an amazing book it is’ Melvin Van Peebles","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54926429356405,"sku":"9780241692646","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241692646_4ab57ba8-df25-4efc-9b37-18d9823b27a4.jpg?v=1786012747"},{"product_id":"9780241521083","title":"A Rage in Harlem","description":"\u003cb\u003e'The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJackson's woman has found him a foolproof way to make money - a technique for turning ten dollar bills into hundreds. But when the scheme somehow fails, Jackson is left broke, wanted by the police and desperately racing to get back both his money and his loving Imabelle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first of Chester Himes's novels featuring the hardboiled Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, \u003ci\u003eA Rage in Harlem \u003c\/i\u003ehas swagger, brutal humour, lurid violence, a hearse loaded with gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an Introduction by Luc Sante","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56228800495989,"sku":"9780241521083","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241521083_68f2a62b-a7c6-4afd-a284-50e47566ff05.jpg?v=1786012327"},{"product_id":"9780241521106","title":"The Heat's On","description":"\u003cb\u003e'The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eDetectives Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones have lost two criminals. Pinky ran off - but it shouldn't be hard to track down a giant albino in Harlem. Jake the drug dealer, though, isn't coming back - he died after Grave Digger punched him in the stomach. And his death might cost them both their badges. Unless they can track down the cause of all this mayhem - like the African with his throat slit and the dog the size of a lion with an open head wound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChester Himes's hardboiled tales of Harlem have a barely contained chaos and a visceral, macabre edge all their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56229783699829,"sku":"9780241521106","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241521106_8b7e43ed-54ab-4b49-aa2f-327ae4999d23.jpg?v=1786012329"},{"product_id":"9780241521113","title":"The Real Cool Killers","description":"\u003cb\u003e'The toughest crime stories in print'  \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe night's over for Ulysses Galen. It started going bad for the big Greek when a knife was drawn, then there was an axe, then he was being chased and shot at. Now Galen is lying dead in the middle of a Harlem street. But the night's just beginning for detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Because they have a smoking gun but it couldn't have killed Galen, and they \u003ci\u003ehad\u003c\/i\u003e a suspect but a gang called the Real Cool Moslems took him. And as patrol cars and search teams descend on the neighbourhood, their case threatens to take a turn for the personal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eReal Cool Killers \u003c\/i\u003eis loaded with grizzly comedy and with all the raucous, threatening energy of the streets it's set on.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56229930566005,"sku":"9780241521113","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241521113_63247b29-9fa7-40ce-8d16-7266e99c7bef.jpg?v=1786012330"},{"product_id":"9780241692424","title":"If He Hollers, Let Him Go","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe searing debut novel by Chester Himes, ‘written with youthful panache and a bellyful of anger’ (\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobert ‘Bob’ Jones – crew leader, shipyard worker, educated, employed – is finding life impossible. Though he’s recently been promoted to supervisor, he is disrespected and resented by white colleagues; and despite his relationship with the high-class Alice, he is crudely baited by the manipulative Madge. Over the course of four fraught days in Los Angeles, he is plagued with increasingly violent urges as the bigotry and cruelty he faces day-in-day-out become unbearable. Chester Himes’s shattering debut is a masterful reckoning with the poisonous effects of racism, and a monumental protest novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A relentless, gripping, classic novel, one of the most powerful exposés of what it is like to be black in America’ \u003ci\u003eLA Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56229956157813,"sku":"9780241692424","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241692424_81e36ccd-3a37-4095-affd-a200078935f2.jpg?v=1786012743"},{"product_id":"9780241692639","title":"The Crazy Kill","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA classic thriller from the Harlem Detective series, where love, jealousy and many-peopled mayhem abound\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBig Joe Pullen is dead and his wake is getting boozy. When the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window trying to see a thief fleeing the robbed store opposite, his life is saved when he lands in a bread basket, cushioned by the corpse of Valentine Haines. It’s up to detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who stabbed Valentine – though no one at the wake is keen to say much to the police. Shot through with dry, dark humour, this is Chester Himes at his hardboiled noir best.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56230132744565,"sku":"9780241692639","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241692639_c2ec21c1-d293-493e-a01e-9f3246bdfbed.jpg?v=1786012746"},{"product_id":"9780241521090","title":"Cotton Comes to Harlem","description":"\u003cb\u003e'A bawdy, brazen rollercoaster of a novel . . . the wildest' \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA preacher called Deke O'Malley's been selling false hope: the promise of a glorious new life in Africa for just $1,000 a family. But when thieves with machine guns steal the proceeds - and send one man's brain matter flying - the con is up. 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A hit-and-run victim's been hit so hard she got embedded in the wall of a convent. A shootout with three heistmen dressed as cops has left an important politician in a coma - and a lot of money missing. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the ones who have to piece it all together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAll Shot Up\u003c\/i\u003e is chaotic, bloody - and completely unforgettable. Chester Himes wrote detective fiction darker, dirtier and more extreme than anyone else dared.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56230144442741,"sku":"9780241521120","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241521120_cb96a7ec-c299-4864-965b-09142a0dca25.jpg?v=1786012331"},{"product_id":"9780241692615","title":"Blind Man with a Pistol","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe final novel in the trailblazing Harlem Detective series, set in a New York City at boiling point\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBawdy and tough-talking, wickedly funny and wantonly sensual, \u003ci\u003eBlind Man With a Pistol\u003c\/i\u003e is a surreal joyride through Harlem in a heatwave. Detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are side-tracked from investigating a series of organised race riots when a white man with a cut throat and no trousers falls dead at their feet. Told in a thrilling chaos of impressions over the course of one day and one night, this case will take Jones and Johnson into the pounding heart of Harlem.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56231035568501,"sku":"9780241692615","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241692615_7a65c6d4-7588-464a-9e3f-a969cff84e8f.jpg?v=1786012744"},{"product_id":"9780241752104","title":"All God's Chillun Got Pride","description":"Best known for his hardboiled Harlem Detective series, Chester Himes was also a superb literary writer, beginning his creative life by writing short stories in the 1930s while serving jail time for armed robbery. Selected here are some of his best stories – from a satirical tale about a student bet that purportedly disproves the existence of racism in Los Angeles to a chilling drama in which a snake invades a family home.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56231317045621,"sku":"9780241752104","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241752104_00aa1d2d-fe4e-464d-a24e-f65bdc58a879.jpg?v=1786012273"},{"product_id":"9781841594170","title":"The Essential Harlem Detectives","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 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.\u003cbr\u003eHimes 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308053606773,"sku":"9781841594170","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781841594170_826164e5-8e09-4184-aba1-d09f8fb42ec0.jpg?v=1786027859"},{"product_id":"9780241692622","title":"The Big Gold Dream","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFast-paced and hard-boiled, this Harlem Detectives novel follows a pile of stolen money – or it would if anyone could find it…\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta’s dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven’t stopped dropping yet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311655694709,"sku":"9780241692622","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241692622_a35f2baa-fd0d-48ff-9e1f-a48794fb5445.jpg?v=1786012745"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-chester-himes.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}