The Crazy Kill

It's Harlem, four in the morning, and gambling Joe Pullen's wake is going with a swing. Then all hell breaks loose. A preacher plummets from a third story window. A young black man steals a bag of money, and Valentine Haines is found stabbed through the heart. Comedy and tragedy, buzzing vitality and gritty realism: these are the essential ingredients of Chester Hime's hugely enjoyable Harlem thrillers. And this is one of the craziest cases that Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones - Hime's irrepressible pair of ace black detectives - have ever had to crack.