The shocking and explosive hardboiled classic: From murderers to prostitutes, corrupt politicians and racist white detectives, Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones, Harlem's toughest detective duo, must carry the day against an absurdist world of racism and class warfare.

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Brebis galeuse de sa famille, exclu de l'université, Chester Himes boit, fréquente bordels et tripots, réussit en solitaire un chef-d'oeuvre de hold-up, prend le large et... fait tout ce qu'il faut pour être pincé. Condamné à vingt-cinq ans de travaux forcés, il passe sept ans et demi au bagne. C'est là que sa vocation d'écrivain se révèle.Ces mémoires pleins d'aventures, c'est aussi la vie de bohème des Noirs américains à Paris, les amours malheureuses de Chester Himes pour une vieille voiture qui se refuse à marcher, et mille autres histoires comiques et terribles...

Regrets sans repentir

Tomsson Black, political visionary, business genius, and underground revolutionary, plots to avenge injustice by instigating racial turmoil. The roots of racism extend far back into his ancestry, and persecution and suffering have affected many generations of his family. Tomsson's own misfortunes are the impetus for him to found a criminal underworld whose ultimate purpose is the overflow of white society. This novel, the history of Tomsson Black and an indictment of racism in America, ends in apocalypse. It is Chester Himes's ultimate statement about the destructive power of racism and his own personal fantasy of how the American Negro, through calculated acts of violence and martyrdom, could destroy the unequal system pervading American life. However, after reaching an ideological impasse, Himes, one of the angriest writers in the black protest movement, left this novel unfinished. After his death in Spain in 1984, a rumor persisted that he had left a final, unfinished Harlem story, in which he literally destroys both his Harlem backdrop and his heroes in a violent racial cataclysm. The manuscript, entitled Plan B, is that novel. It was edited and published in France, where it was widely hailed as an unfinished masterpiece by readers and critics alike. This new edition, appearing for the first time in the United States, includes an introduction by Michel Fabre (The Sorbonne) and Robert E. Skinner (Xavier University), who have prepared Plan B for publication.

Plan B

«J'estime que la culture américaine a produit deux variétés de l'espèce humaine qui n'ont jamais existé auparavant sur terre : 1° le mâle nègre ; 2° la femelle blanche.» Chester Himes.

La fin d'un primitif

«Au même instant, le Blanc l'aperçut. Il montra les dents comme un chien qui va mordre et, dans sa main droite, le revolver se releva.» Pour Jimmy, qui travaille de nuit dans un restaurant de Harlem, il est grand temps de sauver sa peau noire. L'homme est blanc et armé. Qu'il soit fou, ivre, névrosé ou bien qu'il se trompe de personne est le cadet de ses soucis. Surtout si le tueur a déjà laissé deux cadavres dans une chambre froide... À Harlem, tout arrive. Fatalité ? Que non ! Jimmy, sous les balles, sent venir une rage au-delà de la peur. Il entend une voix issue d'une mémoire ancienne lui dicter la révolte. Et cette voix, alors qu'il court, de la sueur plein les yeux, lui dit : «Fonce-lui dessus ! Prends son flingue et défonce-lui le crâne !»

Dare-dare

Outside the apartment where a wake is going on, the manager of the A & P across the street is robbed. Reverend Short, a storefront preacher addicted to opium and brandy, is watching from a bedroom window in the flat. He leans too far and falls out; a bread basket, sitting outside the bakery below, saves him. Back inside, he ways he sees a vision of a dead man. Outside, in the very basket Short landed in, lies the body of Valentine Haines. Who murdered Val? It is up to Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson to find out.

Couché dans le pain

«J'estime que la culture américaine a produit deux variétés de l'espèce humaine qui n'ont jamais existé auparavant sur terre : 1° le mâle nègre ; 2° la femelle blanche.»Chester Himes.

From the start, nothing goes fright for Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones. They are disciplined for use of excessive force. Grave Digger is shot and his death announced in a hoax radio bulletin. Bodies pile up faster than Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones can run. Yet, try as they might, they always seem to be one hot step behind the cause of all the mayhem--three million dollars' worth of heroine and a simple albino called Pinky.

Ne nous énervons pas!

Alberta Wright drops dead on the street during a sermon by the charismatic con man Sweet Prophet. Her partner rushes home to avoid the cops, only to find her apartment looted by someone looking for her stash of cash. But soon it becomes apparent that there are number of players in the race for Alberta's dough. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are called in to investigate, but they know full well the bodies haven't stopped dropping yet.

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