It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
A Rage in Harlem

A Rage in Harlem

Summary

'The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler' Sunday Times

Jackson'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.

The first of Chester Himes's novels featuring the hardboiled Harlem detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, A Rage in Harlem has swagger, brutal humour, lurid violence, a hearse loaded with gold and a conman dressed as a Sister of Mercy.

With an Introduction by Luc Sante

Reviews

  • Outrageous, shocking, wonderful
    New York Times Book Review

About the author

Chester Himes

Chester Himes was born in Missouri in 1909. Aged nineteen he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, where he began to write short stories. Upon release, he took a variety of jobs while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he wrote the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more