Fast-paced and hard-boiled, this Harlem Detectives novel follows a pile of stolen money – or it would if anyone could find it…

Alberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta’s dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven’t stopped dropping yet.

The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler * Sunday Times *
A fine crime writer ... in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own * The Times *
Chester Himes is one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition. His command of nuances of character and dynamics of plot is preeminent among writers of crime fiction. He is a master craftsman

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.