Customer Reviews

Classic Crime in the Ghetto - By: Russel D. Mclean, 20 Aug 2003
With its hip characters, inventive double crosses & evocative images of Harlem, this book is an absolute classicin crime fiction. Clearly an influence on films like Shaft, the action is hard & fast, the division between the worlds of black & white people is defined as a symptom of the agein which it was written & the cast are defined perfectly; like Elmore Leonard would later attempt to emulate, each character is trying to climb up the social ladder just one more rung by any means necessary &in the end, who can blame them?

Coffin Ed & Gravedigger Jones are relatively minor characters here. The focus of the book, rather, is the patsy Jackson, who finds his life spiralling out of control when a scam artist convinces him he has the secret of "raising" ten dollar bills into hundred dollar bills. Each choice Johnson makes throws him further into a maelstrom of trouble & the final, violent confrontations are intensely gripping, exciting & emotionally affecting.

Sometimes, when people call a book a classic, the term is bandied about loosely & innapropriately. But a ragein Harlem is a true classic: a reflection of the age of its conception & not only that but a darn fine, intensely exciting crime thriller which no doubt influenced many crime writers to follow.