“The Heat’s On” by Chester Himes (republished by Penguin Modern Classics)
Sometimes a cop just can’t help getting a bit rough…
Here we go again: the sixth book in Chester Himes’ Harlem Series of nine detective novels from the 1950s and 1960s is The Budapest Times’ fourth dose of the criminal mayhem in which this African-American author specialised. As before, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin ...
“Cotton Comes to Harlem” by Chester Himes (published by Penguin Modern Classics)
Where everything and nothing is black and white
Any aficionado of crime novels and films knows the “good cop, bad cop” routine, where a seething cop batters about a suspect until the accused turns to the sympathetic “good” cop for protection and spills the beans. It’s a cynical trick, of course. But ...
“The Real Cool Killers” by Chester Himes (published by Penguin Modern Classics)
A case of mayhem in Harlem
It’s a matter of regret now that on my only visits to New York City, three times (I think) in the 1980s-90s, I chickened out and never visited Harlem. After all, the city had a fairly heavy vibe back then and if a honky ...
“A Rage in Harlem” by Chester Himes (published by Penguin Modern Classics)
Black skins, black hearts, black humour
Anticipation bubbled up when we noted the reissuing of five 1950s-60s novels by Chester Himes this March. It’s our belief that worthy art/entertainment – call it what you will – has a habit of coming round again if you missed it first time, and ...
“For the Glory. The Life of Eric Liddell” by Duncan Hamilton (published by Black Swan)
God, gold and goodness
“Chariots of Fire” won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture, putting excitement into athletics as it told the story of two runners who won gold medals for Britain in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Surprisingly, perhaps, this occupies only the first third of ...
Péter Esterházy in the streets he called home
Photos, quotes celebrate a son of Óbuda
Forty posters displaying previously unpublished photos of celebrated Hungarian writer Péter Esterházy and popular quotes of his chosen by contemporary writers and poets have gone on public display in the streets of Óbuda, where the author lived all his life until his death aged ...
“Fall. The Mystery of Robert Maxwell” by John Preston (published by Viking)
Tycoon in too deep after years of profligacy
Did he fall, did he jump or was he pushed? Whichever – accident, suicide or murder – the fatal fall of notorious business tycoon and media magnate Robert Maxwell from his luxury yacht Lady Ghislaine in November 1991, left him floating bloated and naked ...
“Film Noir Style. The Killer 1940s” by Kimberly Truhler (published by GoodKnight Books)
Women to kill for, women to die for
It’s a shocking omission, says Kimberly Truhler, that the costumes and their designers are too often left out of the conversation when it turns to film noir, that genre which explores the dark side of human nature, particularly sins such as lust and greed ...
“The Ox. The Last of the Great Rock Stars” by Paul Rees (published by Constable)
A fully paid-up member of the ’hope I die before I get old’ generation
For The Who’s bass player, John Entwistle, “The Ox” was a nickname to wear as a badge of honour, celebrating the iron constitution that allowed him to live the rock ’n’ roll life to the extreme. The epithet was, says his biographer, an acknowledgement ...
“The Little Man from Archangel” by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
Wayward wife brings community prejudice to surface
At a time today when some Americans have been stirred into hatred of their “foreign” compatriots thanks to disparagement from on high about the “China virus” and “kung flu”, Simenon’s 1957 novel is prophetic in showing what can happen when an outsider who thinks ...
