The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes (1958)

When a white man is murdered in Harlem the police will bumble on until they solve the case, or don't.

Mystery Review: The Real Cool Killers takes a sharp turn from Chester Himes' first book in the series, A Rage in Harlem. Here the violence increases, the humor decreases, and the story doesn't rest so easy on the stomach. Perversion and random death are side by side. The novel is carefully plotted and doesn't disappoint, the characters are interesting and credible. As a mystery (detective) novel there's nothing to complain about. But there's a larger picture here. The conflict between two worlds colliding: "If you white people insist on coming up to Harlem where you force colored people to live in vice-and-crime-ridden slums, it's my job to see you are safe." The story includes a teenage gang in Harlem called "The Real Cool Moslems," but in the novel's title Himes is careful to identify their real nature. Then he kicks it up a notch, to a level which is never spelled out in words, but only in actions and emotions. There are three sides to this plane of the story. First, the white cops in Harlem and the continual dehumanizing degradation of their casual racism. At first the reader may be able to let it slide as verisimilitude, but after too much repetition of abuse disguised as humor (and undisguised abuse, for that matter), the reader starts to get queasy. It's a harsh lesson. Second, the residents of Harlem who try to live by the code of the neighborhood, and are reluctant to give up any black person, even known criminals, to the white police and criminal justice system. Finally, the two black detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones (who is given much more stage time in this sequel): "You two men act as if you want to kill off the whole population of Harlem," the [white] chief kept on. "You told me to crack down," Grave Digger reminded him. "Yeah, but I didn't mean in front of my eyes where I would have to be a witness to it." They are caught between their duty to protect and serve and the code of silence. Trapped in this untenable frustration they fray and break. They know the citizens are hurting themselves by protecting criminals, but they also understand that people are going to lie as much as possible to protect their own. At this point the black detectives crack, caught in between two rights and two wrongs -- both sides are right, both sides are wrong, the cognitive dissonance is unbearable. "It's only once in a blue moon they get to see a white man being chased by one of them ... a chance to see some white blood spilled for a change ... that's what Ed and I are always up against when we try to make Harlem safe for white people." Yet the author never spells this out or comments, it's simply woven into the fabric of the whole novel. To think Himes addressed all this in 1958 in a detective novel, when it's still on the front page today.  [3½★]