Customer Reviews:
 Great Book. June 14, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read it for an english class. It was my favorite book of the semester. My friends and I would just keep guessing what twist would come next, and we were consistantly wrong. Great fun.
Couldn't put it down.... June 7, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I read this book on a flight from Philadelphia to Seattle and just couldn't put it down. The characters come alive, the plot thickens with each passing page and the ending is fabulous.A MUST READ!!!
 The original African American mystery novel November 13, 2002
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is the first African American mystery novel, originally published in 1932, and much celebrated by Walter Mosley, the most successful African American writer of mystery novels. (This book preceded Chester Himes's Coffin Ed and Grave Digger novels by more than a third of a century.)W. E. B. DuBois castigated the group of younger writers of which Fisher was a part for sensationalizing low life rather than celebrating the "talented tenth" of which they were presumably a part. I don't know if Fisher was stung by this, but the protagonists include a physician (like Fisher himself), a policeman who is the only black who has risen to the rank of detective, and an African prince with a princely sense of noblesse oblige. Also an critically important part is played by a mortician, a kind of professional. The main lower-status participants, who liven things up with a running game of the dozens, are not debauched, and the "conjure man" turns out not to be the wacko many thought him to be. The middle of the novel sags. Unfortunately, Fisher did not live to hone his craft, leaving only this and _The Walls of Jericho_ and a few stories.
Excellent January 6, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book transports you into the Harlem streets of the 1930s. It has the vernacular, the attitude, the mystique, and the community values of residents of 1930 Harlem down pat. I found the narrative very inviting. This book has detectives, criminals, lawmen, africans, and mystics. Once you read the first chapter, you will not be able to put the book down. It is a shame that the author did not live long enough to produce much more in this detective series.
WONDERFUL! February 2, 1998
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr. fisher has you guessing until the very end! If you like Mosley, then read the man who inspired him. An excellent murder (?) mystery.
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