While Plan B, as with the rest of Himes's detective novels, stands perfectly well alone, it can also be read as the conclusion of the long-running "Harlem Cycle". In this way, the reader can chart Himes' development of Digger and Ed, from their relative unimportance in A Rage in Harlem (where the narrative focuses more on the criminals than on the police), to their central role in All Shot Up, and their eventual demise in this work. It seems as if Himes' vision gets more bleak as the series progresses: the scams that the criminals run on Harlem residents become nastier, while Digger and Ed's violence seems more pointless, and their ability to bring events to a fair conclusion becomes more and more suspect. In the final three works, Digger and Ed, previously heroic and dangerously competent, are shown to be increasingly clumsy, slowing down under...