Chester Bomar Himes (1909-1984) was the first black American to write detective fiction. He was born in Missouri and educated at Ohio State University Columbus. He married Jean Lucinda Johnson in 1937. He served time in prison and produced some books of 'straight' fiction before starting to write detective novels in his fifties. Himes's series characters were New York detective police Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones.

Bibliography

For Love of Imabelle (1957) aka A Rage in Harlem

The Crazy Kill (1959)

The Real Cool Killers (1959)

The Big Gold Dream (1960)

All Shot Up (1960)

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965)

The Heat's On (1966) aka Come Back, Charleston Blue

Run Man Run (1966)

Blind Man with a Pistol (1969) aka Hot Day Hot Night

The Collected Stories of Chester Himes (1990)