SOURCE: Turner, Jimmie Richard. “Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones: Violence and Humor in the Mystery Novels of Chester Himes.” Black Scholar 28, no. 1 (spring 1998): 21-2.

In the following essay, Turner comments on the mixture of violence and humor in Himes's detective fiction.

Often mystery novels allow the reader vicarious confrontation with violence that has outcomes that are far more empowering than those available in “real life.” Himes was masterful in manipulating violence in his novels. He exploited warring elements in his existence, while appreciating that expatriation permitted him a new type of creativity and artistry. In an interview in 1970, when asked about the strange mixture of bitterness and comedy in his writing, Himes have the following response, “I see things as a writer, and I write about crimes in a black ghetto. I'm a kind of reporter who offers solutions to the problems in a ghetto where...