With strikingly designed covers, new editions of five novels by Chester Himes have appeared the shelves. Featuring Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones, the reprinting of these hardboiled detective stories is good news – Himes was an American crime fiction genius who is still underappreciated. When it comes to hardboiled crime fiction, critics regard Chandler and Hammett as the gold standard, and maybe Ross MacDonald too. That recognition is thoroughly deserved, but Chester Himes is just as important to the genre. It’s hard to not of conclude that over the years racism has played a part in Himes not being accorded the same status – he was African American. The five novels in new jackets from Penguin Classics – A Rage in Harlem, Real Cool Killers, All Shot Up, Cotton Comes to Harlem and The Heat’s On – ably make the case for his recognition as a master of the detective story. They prove him to be an innovator, a stylist, a noir-ist and a voice against injustice and inequality.
Himes’ principal characters are African American and racism is a theme throughout his stories. These books are a damning indictment of society and as such made a lot of white readers uncomfortable – uncomfortable enough for ignorance and stupidity to marginalise Himes and his social critique. Reading them many decades after they were written, they still stand up and feel remarkably contemporary and fresh in style. Of course, the themes of racism, inequality and othering are as relevant as ever.
Himes has influenced many writers including Gary Phillips, Attica Locke, Iceberg Slim, Walter Mosley, Barbara Neely, Dreda Say Mitchell and Thomas Mullen. He’s also impacted emerging authors like SA Cosby and Joe Ide. His influence extends to all self-respecting exponents of the hardboiled subgenre. These are stories of Harlem, voices not often heard at the time and still under represented now. They strike a chord with a universally disenfranchised class of people and lovers of seriously gritty crime fiction. Here are books drenched in noir sensibilities. It’s not all about the message though, Himes is an entertainer in the purest sense, mesmerising writing, engrossing stories and amazing, colourful characters who rival Dickens in inventiveness.
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