Author:Chester Himes
'The new crime and espionage series from Penguin Classics makes for a mouth-watering prospect' Daily Telegraph
A con-man is swindling the poor folk of Harlem out of their life savings - and now all hell's broken loose.
The 'Reverend' Deke O'Malley has just made $87,000 by duping his followers, only for white gunmen to hijack the rally and escape with the cash hidden inside a bale of cotton. Now ace detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson must get the good people of Harlem their money back by any means necessary, in a raucous, breakneck adventure involving double-crosses, exotic dancers, a racist colonel and a whole pile of bodies...
The greatest find in American crime fiction since Raymond Chandler.
—— Sunday TimesA bawdy, brazen rollercoaster of a novel . . . the wildest.
—— New York Times Book ReviewChester 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.
—— Henry Louis Gates, Jr.A fantasia with a hard brilliant core.
—— Evening StandardA fine crime writer ... in a vein of sheer toughness very much his own.
—— The TimesDeft, taut fiction... Many English writers have been compared to Evelyn Waugh, often wrongly, but this book can stand with the master's best
—— The TimesThe plot crackles like thin ice with dread and suspense
—— Sunday TimesSo exhaustively suspenseful that it should be devoured at one sitting... McEwan fuses a spy-novel plot with themes as venerable as the myth of Adam and Eve
—— NewsweekNever less than wholly entertaining
—— Wall Street JournalHas the spooky, crooked-angled, danger-around-every-corner feeling of a Carol Reid film. It reminded me often of The Third Man and that is no mean feat
—— Jonathan Carroll , Washington Post Book WorldPage turning, twisty and gripping . Characters that you really care about and that are raw and real. A great read!
—— Sinéad MoriartyUtterly gripping!
—— Claudia Carroll'Stylish, intense and brilliantly twisty. This is a terrific summer thriller.'
—— B. P. Walter'I loved The Dive - a twisty, gripping, unputdownable thriller set in a stunning but sinister location.'
—— Roz Watkins'Imagine Lucy Foley's The Guest List transported to a pristine tropical island occupied by travellers, where everyone is running away from something, and nothing and no-one is quite as it seems. The claustrophobic world of beach-bums, influencers and long-term ex-pats, each with their own agenda, is the perfect environment for a fast-paced closed-room thriller that demands to be read in one sitting - prepare to be submerged from the first page and not resurface until that unsettling final line.'
—— Charlotte Philby'Reading The Dive gave me the same wanderlust chills I got when I first read The Beach - Sara Ochs' stunning debut combines an exotic location to die for (literally), a host of itinerant characters with multiple secrets to hide and plenty of locked-room thrills. This is one sun-soaked, escapist thriller you won't want to miss!'
—— C. M. Ewan'A perfect debut thriller. The definition of an up-all-night page-turner.'
—— Michael WoodDive in - a perfect sunlounger read.
—— Chat magazineThis breathless thriller keeps you hooked.
—— Crime MonthlyA strikingly assured and accomplished debut. Sara Ochs clearly has a fine understanding of the conventions and possibilities of the psychological thriller. She has devised an intricate and satisfying puzzle here.
—— Irish ExaminerSet on a beautiful Thai island, danger is always lurking just below the surface in this brilliantly thrilling murder mystery.
—— Fabulous maagzineA ripping tale that neither shies away from big questions nor interesting answers
—— New Scientist