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The Crazy Kill
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The Crazy Kill Paperback - 1989

by Chester Himes


From the publisher

Love and jealousy erupt into violence in The Crazy Kill, a classic thriller in Chester Himes's trailblazing Harlem Detectives series. One early morning, Reverend Short is watching from his bedroom window as the A&P across the street is robbed. As he tries to see the thief get away, the opium-addicted preacher leans too far and falls out--but he is unscathed, thanks to an enormous bread basket outside the bakery downstairs. As the crowd gathers to see what happened, a shocking discovery is made: There is another body in the bread basket, and Valentine Haines is dead, really dead. It's up to Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out who murdered Val.

Details

  • Title The Crazy Kill
  • Author Chester Himes
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reissue
  • Pages 160
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, Westminster, MD, U.S.A.
  • Date 1989-12-17
  • ISBN 9780679725725 / 0679725725
  • Weight 0.47 lbs (0.21 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.38 in (21.59 x 13.97 x 0.97 cm)
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
  • Library of Congress subjects Detective and mystery stories, Police - New York (State) - New York
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 89022624
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

“[Himes] put a spin on crime fiction—emphasizing urban atmosphere, street smarts and uptown carryings-on—unlike anything the genre had previously seen.”
    —The Boston Globe

“One of the most important American writers of the 20th century. . . . A quirky American genius.”
    —Walter Mosley

“A perverse blend of sordid realism and macabre fantasy-humor.”
    —The New York Times  
 
“For sheer toughness it’s hard to beat the black detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. Himes never received the recognition he deserved for his books—they combine elements of George V. Higgins, Elmore Leonard, and Richard Stark, with a bleak vision all their own.”
    —The Washington Post

About the author

Chester Himes was born in Missouri in 1909. He began writing while serving a prison sentence for a jewel theft and published just short of twenty novels before his death in 1984. Among his best-known thrillers are Blind Man with a Pistol, Cotton Comes to Harlem, The Crazy Kill, A Rage in Harlem, The Real Cool Killers, and The Heat's On, all available from Vintage.

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The Crazy Kill
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The Crazy Kill

by Himes, Chester

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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The Crazy Kill
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The Crazy Kill

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The Crazy Kill
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The Crazy Kill

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The Crazy Kill
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CRAZY KILL
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The Crazy Kill
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The Crazy Kill

by Himes, Chester

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