In terms of literary precedents, one of the most important influences on Himes' work is that of the hard-boiled school of American detective fiction, by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane.

Himes himself acknowledges his debt to the hard-boiled school, claiming that all he did to the form was "make the faces black."

This comment should not be taken at face value, as Himes's work shows a keener race and class consciousness than earlier hardboiled writers, as well as an intimate knowledge of the harshest of city areas, far more dangerous than Chandler's "mean streets."

Indeed, Himes's Harlem setting could almost be said to be a character in itself.

Nonetheless, his mode of narration, his heroic protagonists, their wry humor, their level of violence and the breathless, lastminute resolution of convoluted plots all owe a great deal to hard-boiled detective fiction.

Himes' detective fiction is...