COTTON COMES TO HARLEM - CHESTER HIMES

This is my first Himes book. I got a collection of 4 of them at the library and choose to read this one because I know they made a movie about it, so I assume that someone who’s read a bunch of his stuff thought that this novel was the most filmable. This was quite good, so I anticipate reading at least a couple more of his works, so I should have a more informed opinion at some point in the future. This book is basically perfect as a detective/crime novel. It features an interesting crime, the cop main characters are engaging, the action is continuous and the world it takes place in is well-rendered and fascinating. The story involves a con man who, in mid-century Harlem, is running a scam where he’s collecting money for a “Back to Africa” organization. The money get stolen in a robbery and then (spoiler alert) placed in a bale of cotton that multiple characters are trying to find. The detectives on this case are Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. While they are Black cops, they are not, how should we say? progressive cops. HImes makes it clear they frequently kill suspects and get into shootouts and assault people. They have a pretty dark view of the population of Harlem, though they do seem to really care that regular people got ripped off in the scam and are trying to get them their money back. There is another plot line where a YT man is trying to encourage Black Harlem residents to return to the South, which is a pretty funny twist on the Back to Africa angle. The way HImes renders the milieu of Harlem, the shitty soul food restaurants, the Jazz clubs, the petty criminals and street people is amazing. You can tell he really lived this. Like I said, the pacing is really what sells this thing. It moves quickly and strikes the right balance between the plot and the background. This tightrope walk is the most important aspect of genre fiction and HImes nails it. I’m going to have to check out more of his stuff.