A Rage in Harlem Book Details
Paperback: 151 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Reissue edition (December 17, 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679720405
ISBN-13: 978-0679720409
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8 inches
A Rage in Harlem Book Synopsis
A Rage in Harlem is a ripping introduction to Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, patrolling New York City’s roughest streets in Chester Himes’s groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series.
For love of fine, wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson surrenders his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds and then he steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a craps table. Luckily for him, he can turn to his savvy twin brother, Goldy, who earns a living disguised as a Sister of Mercy by selling tickets to Heaven in Harlem. With Goldy on his side, Jackson is ready for payback.
A Rage in Harlem Book Review
Whether or not you're a fan of detective mystery/caper/police procedural fiction writer Elmore Leonard is considered a living master there's a treasure of good reading and fantastic storytelling in store when you crack open one of Chester Himes' so-called "Harlem domestic" series. Take the case of the first one, A RAGE IN HARLEM, one hell of an introduction.
Working stiff Jackson may be the squarest square in Harlem. He's gullible, fearful, a bit superstitious and dense, but not stupid--he's Everyman as a member of the black workingclass. He also has one overriding passion: his woman, Imabelle, a down-home high yellow knockout with a shadowy background.
Plucked clean of his savings by black grifters running an old con game, deep in trouble with his boss and his landlady, Jackson's more worried that Imabelle's somehow in peril. He enlists his estranged street-wise scam artist twin, Goldy, to help find and rescue her. Meanwhile, hard-rock Harlem police detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, themselves death on con artists, are also hunting the gang, wanted for murder in Mississippi. They use Goldy and Jackson to corner the gangsters in their hideout when one throws acid in Coffin Ed's face, triggering a whirlwind of bloodletting and madcap pursuit. The action is fast and furious, building to a spine-tingling climax and wry, incredulous close.
Black crime fiction didn't begin with Chester Himes, but nobody has done it better. He gives you more than your money's worth: snappy pacing, rapid-fire action. His short, staccato paragraphs are like cinematic quick cuts, accenting details of character, scene, mood. The range of detail how people look, what they wear, eat, think; where they come from; particulars of location is meticulous.
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