The Heat's On
Published on 28. November 1988
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-0-394-75997-5 (ISBN)
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.
Reviews / Votes
"A rattlingly good action melodrama spiced with a maximum of humor and a minimum of self-consciousness."-The New York Times
"One of the most important American writers of the 20th century. . . . A quirky American genius."
-Walter Mosley
"Some of the most exciting-and comic-crime novels ever written."
-The Washington Post
"Chester Himes is the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler."
-San Francisco Chronicle
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
232 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-394-75997-5 (9780394759975)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
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.