Chester Himes 
Cotton Comes to Harlem 

 »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…