The personality of the detective hero has always been central to the success of detective fiction, and in Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, Himes has created two of the most complex detectives in the genre. (In fact, French critics refer to Himes as "the Balzac of Harlem" because of his ability to create vivid and memorable characters.) As even their names indicate, the two detectives are harbingers of death. Dressed in black suits, black shirts, and carrying black handkerchiefs, they drive their black sedan through the mean streets of Harlem.

Inevitably, they work the night shift, and bitter experience has convinced them that anything that moves in darkness must be dangerous. They are often too quick to respond to any perceived threat, beating bystanders and criminals alike in an insane fury. People in Harlem believe that the detectives would shoot a person dead for crossing an...