Cotton Comes to Harlem

Cotton Comes to Harlem

by Chester Himes (Author)

Synopsis

Con man Deke O'Hara is out of the state penitentiary and back on the streets hoping to work the scam of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the $87,000 he has schemed has been hijacked and hidden in a bale of cotton. And worse still, Harlem's toughest pair of cops, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are on everyone's trail. Cotton Comes to Harlem, with its combination of blood-soaked realism and black humour, proves to be one of the most entertaining of Himes' Harlem novels, justifying the author's place in the canon of truly great American crime writing.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Edition: Main
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Published: 22 May 2001

ISBN 10: 1841951617
ISBN 13: 9781841951614

Media Reviews
Chester Himes is perhaps the most singular American novelist of the past century, whose insight and innovation are still only beginning to be recognised. * * The Independent * *
I think that as the century draws to a close quite a lot of readers, if they are honest, will conclude that Himes was one of its greatest writers. * * The Scotsman * *
Himes peppers the plot with snazzy lines. By the final chapter, you realise you've been reading a crazy rewrite of The Maltise Falcon. * * Sunday Herald * *
The first great American crime writer. * * The Big Issue * *
Author Bio
Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1909. Expelled from Ohio State University (he was in the same class as Ralph Ellison), in 1928 Himes was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for armed robbery. His writing career began in jail and on release he had a number of controversial novels, including Lonely Crusade, published before he left America for good. It was in Paris that he began writing thrillers, which were extremely successful - his first, A Rage in Harlem, won the 1958 Grand Prix Policier and the subsequent Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones novels were big hits both in France and America. He died in Spain in 1984.