- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition (Dec 1989)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679725725
- ISBN-13: 978-0679725725
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 0.9 x 21.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 507,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This police procedural is based in the black community of late 1950's inner city New York. It is the third in the Harlem Cycle featuring cops Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. They are the only law the black community recognise even though they behave like a pair of marshals from the Wild West.
A trait of this author's writing emerges once again, as the murder plot is based on a barely credible co-incidence. It also contains a high quota of violence, especially for a book published in 1959, much of it based on experiences in Mr Himes' own colourful life.
In many ways this was quite a depressing read. The inhabitants of the city are potrayed as serial liars, negative, dishonest and routinely violent. This deeply fatalistic outlook does provide a clue as to the rising racial tension that was building in so many USA cities.
Having read the first three novels in sequence, I now feel it is time to jump to one of the later novels. This was a very slow burner that only came to life over half way through.
This author's reputation is being revisited as Penguin are publishing some of his novels in their Modern Classic format. However, for me his skills remain more geared to the detective story than to social commentary.
A trait of this author's writing emerges once again, as the murder plot is based on a barely credible co-incidence. It also contains a high quota of violence, especially for a book published in 1959, much of it based on experiences in Mr Himes' own colourful life.
In many ways this was quite a depressing read. The inhabitants of the city are potrayed as serial liars, negative, dishonest and routinely violent. This deeply fatalistic outlook does provide a clue as to the rising racial tension that was building in so many USA cities.
Having read the first three novels in sequence, I now feel it is time to jump to one of the later novels. This was a very slow burner that only came to life over half way through.
This author's reputation is being revisited as Penguin are publishing some of his novels in their Modern Classic format. However, for me his skills remain more geared to the detective story than to social commentary.
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