4.0
The Heat's On
ByPublisher Description
Detectives Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones are in the hot seat in one of the most chaotic, brutally funny novels in the groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series. • "A rattlingly good action melodrama spiced with a maximum of humor and a minimum of self-consciousness." —The New York Times
From the start, nothing goes right for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger. They are disciplined for use of excessive force. Grave Digger is shot and his death announced in a hoax radio bulletin. Bodies pile up faster than Coffin Ed and Grave Digger can run. Yet, try as they might, they always seem to be one hot step behind the cause of all the mayhem—three million dollars’ worth of heroin and a giant albino called Pinky.
From the start, nothing goes right for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger. They are disciplined for use of excessive force. Grave Digger is shot and his death announced in a hoax radio bulletin. Bodies pile up faster than Coffin Ed and Grave Digger can run. Yet, try as they might, they always seem to be one hot step behind the cause of all the mayhem—three million dollars’ worth of heroin and a giant albino called Pinky.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Heat's On Reviews
4.0
“Action packed, violent, funny,frenetic crime noir set in Harlem in the early sixties. Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are the best 'loose cannon' cops I have read in fiction- Chester Himes really perfected what is now a ubiquitous trope back in the 1950s with this series. This book is a little more gritty than the other three I have read, with more character development for Coffin Ed and Gravedigger. Himes was a fantastic author, I always get swept up in the fast pacing reading him but there also seems to be a deeper theme in each one of the Harlem detective series too. I feel the theme here is the way greed and racism work in tandem to destroy communities and the determination needed to fight back. This theme is always there, but subtle amongst the gritty and sometimes batshit crazy action. The vivid depictions of Harlem at the time make the book so much more immersive.”
“Five stars for the raw and unflinching portrayal of New York City's reality in the 1950s and 1960s. Chester Himes does not shy away from exploring deep, uncomfortable issues like systemic racism, social stratification, and the everyday struggles of marginalized communities. The way he captures the gritty, often brutal atmosphere of Harlem, alongside the complex lives of his characters, makes this a standout work in crime fiction.”
About Chester Himes
CHESTER HIMES began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 to 1936. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels—including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965)—featuring two Harlem policemen. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. He died in Spain in 1984.
Other books by Chester Himes
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