A recently re-released classic of the hardboiled genre, Cotton Comes to Harlem illustrates why African American novelist Chester Himes deserves a prime place in the pantheon of 20th-century crime writing. Twenty years after he served eight years for an armed robbery committed while he was a teen, Himes shook up the mystery world in the 1950s and 1960s with his rollicking and raucous ‘Harlem Detective’ series.

Written while he was living in Paris, Himes’ books starring formidable NYPD cops Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson offer something quite different to his hardboiled peers Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald, so it’s superb that five of the novels have now been re-released. Cotton Comes to Harlem sees Grave Digger and Coffin Ed digging into armed robbery and murder after conman preacher Deke O’Malley’s ‘fundraising’ drive is targeted. Can the two bruising cops recover the local community’s money while dealing with eclectic Harlem residents and various double-crosses as they hunt for the true culprits?

Himes delivers a bawdy, violent tale that veers from tragedy to farce. There’s a fizzing energy as Grave Digger and Coffin Ed work the case, fists-first where necessary, and Himes explores and exposes the prejudices, hypocrisies, issues, and vices of that time (and in many cases, still now). Streetwise and seething; excellent.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson