Description
Description
'The toughest crime stories in print' Sunday Times The 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 had 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. The Real Cool Killers is loaded with grizzly comedy and with all the raucous, threatening energy of the streets it's set on.
About the Author
About the Author
CHESTER HIMES began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 to 1936. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels--including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965)--featuring two Harlem policemen. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. He died in Spain in 1984.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"The action is slapstick, preposterously violent--Hieronymus Bosch meets Miles Davis."
--Walter Kirn, The New York Times "One of the most important American writers of the 20th century.... A quirky American genius."
--Walter Mosley "For sheer toughness it's hard to beat the black detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. Himes never received the recognition he deserved for his books--they combine elements of George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard, and Richard Stark, with a bleak vision all their own."
--The Washington Post "Himes's Harlem detective series ... are remarkable for their macabre comic sense and wicked and nasty wit."
--Ishmael Reed, Los Angeles Times
--Walter Kirn, The New York Times "One of the most important American writers of the 20th century.... A quirky American genius."
--Walter Mosley "For sheer toughness it's hard to beat the black detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. Himes never received the recognition he deserved for his books--they combine elements of George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard, and Richard Stark, with a bleak vision all their own."
--The Washington Post "Himes's Harlem detective series ... are remarkable for their macabre comic sense and wicked and nasty wit."
--Ishmael Reed, Los Angeles Times
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pub date:
1988-11-28
Length:
160 pages
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