pick(1957) It's a crime novel set in mid-20th-century Harlem, with a cast of not especially sympathetic characters trying to get their hands on a trunk of gold ore. It's twisty, violent, bitterly funny, and I loved it.
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A Rage in Harlem | 
pick(1957) It's a crime novel set in mid-20th-century Harlem, with a cast of not especially sympathetic characters trying to get their hands on a trunk of gold ore. It's twisty, violent, bitterly funny, and I loved it.
After a couple of months off, here's my #bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo list for November.
@TheAromaofBooks
pickA much-needed change of pace for me, and a book which (unusually for me) I finished in a day. Himes wrote the novel while in Paris, escaping from his bitter experience of racism in '50s Hollywood. He was asked to write a crime novel for the French market, and choose Harlem as his setting, despite never having lived there, as he felt it would be most recognisable to his audience as a tough African-American neighbourhood... 👇🏼
"Colored folks in Harlem didn't want to get caught by the police whether they had done anything or not."
Written in 1957, thank goodness law enforcement in the USA had progressed so far since then. Oh, wait a minute... ?
"It was the code of Harlem for one brother to help another lie to white cops."
pickA cool, brutal, funny and action-packed entry into the Harlem Detectives series. It‘s a twisted tale of a young mortician led into a world of crime and crisis as he tries to reunite with his love Imabelle, a femme fatale at the heart of a ring of crooks, con men and a trunk of gold ore. If there‘s a flaw it‘s that there‘s not quite enough of cops Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson.
“He got a cup of coffee and two doughnuts for 30 cents and stood at the counter.” Anyone else run the numbers on money in old books to see where things would be today? Apparently in 1957, a buck was equal to $8.93 today. The character is trying to raise what would be almost $6000 today.
Starting this audiobook for my commute today. Can't go wrong with Samuel L Jackson. I remember a movie of this back in the day.
pick#BooksAcrossOceans #BlackAndWhitePhoto
I really love the Penguin Modern Classic look. So elegant.
Of these, l've only read A Rage in Harlem and loved it. Mystery, adventure, admittedly lots of violence but dulled by humour.
I have a feeling that l'll pick up Selvon and Fitzgerald on the first weekend readalong that will come up 😆
pick#JuneTanz #Gold
This is a very peculiar crime novel set in Harlem in the 1950s (it also written in the 1950s). It starts off with a fraud ment to steal a chest of gold, and it goes on to be a rollercoster of adventures.
Plenty of violence in here, and still the storytelling is so humourous and surreal it creates a world that is at times even endearing.
I really enjoyed it
pickChester Himes wrote some very strong novels and other that are only weird and violent. Penguin has republished six of his mystery novels set in Harlem, l've read three so far. Two are just ok, but the first one, A Rage in Harlem, is really good. Violent, yes, but tempered by humour and surrealism, with some unforgettable characters.
Have you ever read Chester Himes?
pickI did some outside reading today by this lovely fountain, while I was waiting for the others to show up for our ladies' lunch. I managed to finish this one before they arrived. Such a weird combination of macabre, almost Home Alone, humor and gritty, bloody crime drama!
My latest crime fiction read
