A Rage in Harlem (1000 Books to Read)

The tangled web we weave. This was a compelling page-turner. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

A Rage in Harlem is the first in Chester Himes’s cycle of eight Harlem detective novels (nine if you count Plan B, unfinished at the time of his death), and it introduces the two cops—Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson—whose presence ties the books together, even if the duo plays a somewhat peripheral role here. The action of A Rage in Harlem centers on counterfeiting, theft, and confidence games, with all three types of deception applied equally to both love and money by characters hapless and savvy, seductive and scheming, helpless and swindling.