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Run Man Run

A Novel

Paperback
$17.00 US
0"W x 0"H x 0"D   | 9 oz | 24 per carton
On sale Oct 08, 2024 | 224 Pages | 978-0-593-68672-0
In this knockout standalone crime novel from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a white cop’s murderous outburst leads to a pulse-pounding chase to silence a witness

A few days after Christmas, a white cop in New York is as drunk as he’s ever been. And he’s convinced his car has been stolen. He believes the thieves are the Black workers at a luncheonette on 37th and Fifth avenue, and when he staggers in, his .32 caliber goes off. But who would believe it was an accident? Now, two men are dead, and a witness has gotten away.

What follows is a heart-stopping chase of epic proportions. A master of tension and a deft chronicler of racism in post-war America, Himes delivers here one of his most compelling, dramatic novels of suspense.
© Carl Van Vechten, courtesy of the Van Vechten Trust and the Beinecke Library at Yale University
Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 - 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared in Esquire in 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he lived as an expatriate in France and Spain. There, he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels---including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) and Run Man Run (1966)---featuring two Harlem policemen Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. View titles by Chester Himes

About

In this knockout standalone crime novel from the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a white cop’s murderous outburst leads to a pulse-pounding chase to silence a witness

A few days after Christmas, a white cop in New York is as drunk as he’s ever been. And he’s convinced his car has been stolen. He believes the thieves are the Black workers at a luncheonette on 37th and Fifth avenue, and when he staggers in, his .32 caliber goes off. But who would believe it was an accident? Now, two men are dead, and a witness has gotten away.

What follows is a heart-stopping chase of epic proportions. A master of tension and a deft chronicler of racism in post-war America, Himes delivers here one of his most compelling, dramatic novels of suspense.

Author

© Carl Van Vechten, courtesy of the Van Vechten Trust and the Beinecke Library at Yale University
Chester (Bomar) Himes began his writing career while serving in the Ohio State Penitentiary for armed robbery from 1929 - 1936. His account of the horrific 1930 Penitentiary fire that killed over three hundred men appeared in Esquire in 1932 and from this Himes was able to get other work published. From his first novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945), Himes dealt with the social and psychological repercussions of being black in a white-dominated society. Beginning in 1953, Himes moved to Europe, where he lived as an expatriate in France and Spain. There, he met and was strongly influenced by Richard Wright. It was in France that he began his best-known series of crime novels---including Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965) and Run Man Run (1966)---featuring two Harlem policemen Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. As with Himes's earlier work, the series is characterized by violence and grisly, sardonic humor. View titles by Chester Himes