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The Crazy Kill
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Brief Description
The Crazy Kill is a classic thriller from the Harlem Detective series, where love, jealousy, and many-peopled mayhem abound. Big Joe Pullen is dead, and his wake is becoming increasingly boozy. During the wake, the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window while trying to...
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The Crazy Kill
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Description
The Crazy Kill is a classic thriller from the Harlem Detective series, where love, jealousy, and many-peopled mayhem abound.
Big Joe Pullen is dead, and his wake is becoming increasingly boozy. During the wake, the opium-addicted Reverend Short falls out of a window while trying to see a thief fleeing the robbed store opposite. Remarkably, his life is saved when he lands in a bread basket, cushioned by the corpse of Valentine Haines.
It falls to detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to uncover who stabbed Valentine. However, no one at the wake is eager to speak much to the police.
Shot through with dry, dark humour, this is Chester Himes at his hardboiled noir best.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780241692639
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 28 November 2024
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 11.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 147g
Pages: 192
About the Author
Chester Himes was born in Jefferson City, Missouri in 1909 and grew up in Cleveland. Aged 19 he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in jail. In jail he began to write short stories, some of which were published in Esquire magazine. Upon release he took a variety of jobs, from working in a California shipyard to journalism to script-writing, while continuing to write fiction. He later moved to Paris where he was commissioned to write the first of his Harlem detective novels, A Rage in Harlem, which won the 1957 Grand Prix du Roman Policier. In 1969 Himes moved to Spain, where he died in 1984.
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