All Shot Up - (Harlem Detectives) by Chester Himes (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this gripping installment of the maverick Harlem Detectives series, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones investigate a series of seemingly unrelated, brutal crimes. A gold Cadillac, about as large as an ocean liner, rocks a woman to the pavement in the cold streets of Harlem. Three goons in cop uniforms heist a small fortune and leave an important politician dead. All told eight bodies stack up over the long, bloody weekend, but they won't spoil in this weather. And Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson have to follow the trail of brutal violence, perversion, and cold murder-and avoid getting caught in the fray"--

Book Synopsis

In this gripping installment of the maverick Harlem Detectives series, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones investigate a series of seemingly unrelated, brutal crimes.

Bodies are dropping in the streets of Harlem, but in the bitter winter cold, they won't spoil. A witness sees a Cadillac that looks as though it's made of solid gold hurl an old woman to the street before peeling off. A shoot-out in front of a bar kills two and puts a politician in a coma. Not to mention that a whole lot of money has vanished into thin air. Now detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson have to squeeze the surprising truth out of sparse facts and get to the bottom of this explosive mystery. All Shot Up is an exhilarating ride through hard-boiled Harlem that only Chester Himes could have accomplished.

Review Quotes

Praise for Chester Himes's Harlem Detectives series

"[The stories in Himes's] Harlem detective series . . . are remarkable for their macabre comic sense and wicked and nasty wit." --Ishmael Reed, Los Angeles Times

"Chester Himes is to writing what Miles Davis is to the trumpet, what John Coltrane is to the saxophone, what lips are to love." --Nikki Giovanni

"Every one of his beyond-cool Harlem novels is cherished by every reader who finds it." --Jonathan Lethem

About the Author

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.