Himes' protagonists, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed, have a partnership so close-knit that they are almost a single character. Dig ger and Ed struggle throughout The Harlem Cycle to achieve some justice for black Harlemites, either ignored or oppressed by the racist legal system, and especially by white cops. In the course of this struggle, they routinely employ savagely violent methods, breaking and bending the law to achieve the Biblical justice of "an eye for an eye", rather than strictly observing the letter of the law. At the end of Plan B, the detectives find themselves holding opposing views about the possibility for violent revolution. Coffin Ed believes that an armed black uprising would result in a genocidal response from the far greater number of white Americans, while Grave Digger believes that a violent revolution is the only way forward for black people following the failure of the...