Mystery Readers - Cotton Comes to Harlem, by Chester Himes

This month’s book with Villa Park Public Library is Cotton Comes to Harlem, by Chester Himes. This is an online discussion via Zoom, and registrants will receive the link before the meeting.

Chester Himes’s 1965 novel Cotton Comes to Harlem is the sixth and best-known novel in his Harlem Detective series. The book follows black detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed as they search for $87,000 stolen from hardworking African American families who dream of returning to Africa and to escape poverty in America. The novel’s popularity led to other crime novels featuring African American cops and detectives, earning Himes the reputation as the father of the black crime novel.