Reading order · 9 books · 1957 to 1983 · Set in New York
Harlem Detectives Books in Order
Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are two tough Black police detectives in Harlem, who keep order with their fists and their long-barrelled revolvers. The novels are violent, absurd and very funny, full of con men, preachers and hustlers. Chester Himes wrote most of them while living in France.
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Series facts
- Books
- 9
- Published
- 1957 to 1983
- First book
- A Rage in Harlem
- Latest
- Plan B (1983)
- Setting
- Set in New York
The reading order
Every Harlem Detectives book in publication order. Choose a title for its cast and summary.
9 books · Set in New York
- 1A Rage in Harlem1957With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesJackson, a naive undertaker’s assistant, loses all his savings to a gang of con men who promise to turn ten-dollar bills into hundreds, and his beautiful girlfriend Imabelle is somehow involved.Buy on Amazon
- 2The Real Cool Killers1959With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesA white man is shot dead in a Harlem street after a fight in a bar, and the trail leads to a teenage gang.Buy on Amazon
- 3The Crazy Kill1959With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesA preacher falls out of a window into a basket of bread, and climbs out to find a dead man in the basket.Buy on Amazon
- 4The Big Gold Dream1960With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesA religious woman who has won big on the numbers collapses at a revival meeting, and her winnings disappear.Buy on Amazon
- 5All Shot Up1960With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesCoffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones chase a fortune taken from a Harlem politician, as killings pile up across Harlem.Buy on Amazon
- 6Cotton Comes to Harlem1965With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesA preacher’s back-to-Africa rally is robbed of eighty-seven thousand dollars, and the money ends up hidden in a bale of cotton.Buy on Amazon
- 7The Heat's On1966With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesCoffin Ed and Grave Digger hunt a shipment of heroin that has vanished in Harlem, with a gentle albino giant caught in the middle.Buy on Amazon
- 8Blind Man with a Pistol1969With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesHarlem is in chaos, with riots, rival movements and murders, and a blind man with a pistol starts shooting in the subway.Buy on Amazon
- 9Plan B1983With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger JonesSomeone is supplying guns to the people of Harlem, and as violence spreads, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed face their final case, in Himes’s unfinished last novel.Buy on Amazon
Do you need to read them in order?
Read in order, starting with A Rage in Harlem. Each case stands alone.
Who appears in which book
The series’ main characters, book by book. Lead means the book is told around them; minor covers cameos.
| Book | Coffin Ed Johnson | Grave Digger Jones | Jackson |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 A Rage in Harlem | LLead | LLead | LLead |
| 2 The Real Cool Killers | LLead | LLead | |
| 3 The Crazy Kill | LLead | LLead | |
| 4 The Big Gold Dream | LLead | LLead | |
| 5 All Shot Up | LLead | LLead | |
| 6 Cotton Comes to Harlem | LLead | LLead | |
| 7 The Heat's On | LLead | LLead | |
| 8 Blind Man with a Pistol | LLead | LLead | |
| 9 Plan B | LLead | LLead |
Characters in the Harlem Detectives books
3 characters from Chester Himes’s chart, with the number of Harlem Detectives books each appears in.
| Character | Books | First in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Coffin Ed JohnsonHarlem detective with an acid-scarred face | 9 | A Rage in Harlem 1957 |
| Grave Digger JonesHis partner | 9 | A Rage in Harlem 1957 |
| JacksonNaive undertaker's assistant | 1 | A Rage in Harlem 1957 |