Recommendations based on A Rage in Harlemby Chester Himes

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Big Sleep

    by Raymond Chandler
    Private eye investigates a complex case involving a wealthy family and blackmail.

    Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the wealthy and elderly General Sternwood, in the month of October. He wants Marlowe to deal with an attempt by a bookseller named Arthur ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Farewell, My Lovely

    by Raymond Chandler
    A hard-boiled detective's adventures as he investigates a complex case of murder and corruption.

    Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Maltese Falcon

    by Dashiell Hammett
    Detective Sam Spade must solve a mysterious case involving a precious artifact and a deadly trio of criminals.

    ‘Sam’ Spade is a private detective in San Francisco , in partnership with Miles Archer. The beautiful "Miss Wonderley" hires them to follow Floyd Thursby, who has run off with her sister. Archer ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Devil in a Blue Dress

    by Walter Mosley
    Set in 1940s Los Angeles, a black WWII veteran is hired to find a missing white woman, but uncovers corruption and danger.

    Set in 1948, the story begins in the Watts area of Los Angeles, with Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, a Houstonian - from that city's Fifth Ward - who lost his job at an aviation defense plant in Los Angeles ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Lady in the Lake

    by Raymond Chandler
    Private investigator Phillip Marlowe investigates the disappearance of a young woman, uncovering a sinister plot.

    Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman, hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife, Crystal. Kingsley had received a telegram from Crystal about two weeks before stating that she was divorcing him and ... (Wikipedia)

  6. Red Harvest

    by Dashiell Hammett
    A private detective infiltrates a corrupt town to clean up the crime and corruption.

    The Continental Op is called to Personville (known as "Poisonville" to the locals) by the newspaper publisher Donald Willsson, who is murdered before the Op has a chance to meet with him. The Op ... (Wikipedia)

  7. A Confederacy of Dunces

    by John Kennedy Toole
    A satirical tale of an eccentric slacker's misadventures in New Orleans.

    Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found, here, "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles ... (Goodreads)

  8. Roseanna

    by Maj Sjöwall
    Detective investigates a murder, uncovering unexpected secrets and corruption.

    A young woman is found dead in the Göta Canal , molested and murdered. The case is almost instantly cold: nobody can identify her and where and by whom she was killed. Then a stroke of luck: through ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Gravity's Rainbow

    by Thomas Pynchon
    A surreal exploration of war and technology, and their impact on the human spirit.

    Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Line of Beauty

    by Alan Hollinghurst
    The story of a young gay man in Thatcher's England, navigating his identity and sexuality.

    The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place in 1983, 1986 and 1987. The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is middle-class and from the fictional market town of ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Sidetracked

    by Henning Mankell
    A police detective's investigation into a mysterious murder, uncovering a dark conspiracy.

    In the award-winning Sidetracked , Kurt Wallander is called to a nearby rapeseed field where a teenage girl has been loitering all day long. He arrives just in time to watch her douse herself in ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Glass Key

    by Dashiell Hammett
    A noir crime thriller of political corruption and a tangled web of loyalty and betrayal.

    The story revolves around Ned Beaumont, a gambler and best friend of the criminal political boss Paul Madvig. Ned finds the body of a senator's son on the street, and Madvig asks him to thwart the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Broom of the System

    by David Foster Wallace
    A humorous exploration of modern life as a young woman struggles to make sense of the world.

    Published when Wallace was just twenty-four years old, The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, ... (Goodreads)

  14. Brighton Rock

    by Graham Greene
    A young gang leader's struggle for power, morality, and redemption in the criminal underworld.

    Charles "Fred" Hale comes to Brighton on assignment to distribute cards anonymously for a newspaper competition (a variant of " Lobby Lud "; in this case, the name of the person to be spotted is ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Monk

    by Matthew Gregory Lewis
    A young monk's descent into moral corruption and his struggle to redeem himself.

    The Monk has two main plotlines. The first concerns the corruption and downfall of the monk Ambrosio, and his interactions with the demon in disguise Matilda and the virtuous maiden Antonia. The ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Collected Poems

    by Langston Hughes
    A compilation of works reflecting the African-American experience through a poetic lens.

    Spanning five decades and comprising 868 poems (nearly 300 of which have never before appeared in book form), this magnificent volume is the definitive sampling of a writer who has been called the ... (Goodreads)

  17. Infinite Jest

    by David Foster Wallace
    A journey through the absurdist world of entertainment, drugs, addiction & death.

    There are four major interwoven narratives: , These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest , also referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat ". The film is so ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

    by Philip K. Dick
    A famous TV personality wakes up in a world where he is a nobody, hunted by the police.

    The novel is set in a dystopian version of 1988, following a Second Civil War which led to the collapse of the United States' democratic institutions. The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Invisible Man

    by Ralph Ellison
    A black man's journey towards self-actualization in a world of racial oppression.

    The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He ... (Wikipedia)

  20. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror

    by Robert Louis Stevenson
    A collection of chilling tales, including the infamous story of a man's inner struggle between good and evil.

    "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Stevenson's famous exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil, has become synonymous with the idea of a split personality. More than a moral ... (Goodreads)

  21. High-Rise

    by J.G. Ballard
    In a high-rise building, social boundaries begin to break down as the inhabitants descend into chaos and violence.

    Following his divorce, doctor and medical-school lecturer Robert Laing moves into his new apartment on the 25th floor of a recently completed high-rise building on the outskirts of London. This tower ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Money

    by Martin Amis
    A satirical look at the power of money and the cut-throat world of 1980s high finance.

    Money tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of adverts who is invited to New York City by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, to shoot his first film. Self is an ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Talented Mr. Ripley

    by Patricia Highsmith
    A young conman's descent into a life of crime, with deadly consequences.

    Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in New York City by whatever means necessary, including a series of small-time confidence scams . One day, he is approached by shipping magnate ... (Wikipedia)

  24. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

    by Philip K. Dick
    A sci-fi exploration of the implications of reality-altering technology and the power of corporate greed.

    The story begins in a future world where global temperatures have risen so high that in most of the world it is unsafe to be outside without special cooling gear during daylight hours. In a desperate ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Native Son

    by Richard Wright
    A young African American man's exploration of his identity, facing the harsh realities of systemic racism.

    Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black ... (Goodreads)

  26. Burial Rites

    by Hannah Kent
    A woman awaits her execution in 19th-century Iceland, reliving her story of hardship, loss and faith.

    Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Child of God

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and disturbing story of a man's descent into depravity.

    Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee , in the 1960s, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as "a child of God much like ... (Wikipedia)

  28. A Scanner Darkly

    by Philip K. Dick
    A dystopian tale of surveillance and paranoia in a world of drug addiction.

    The protagonist is Bob Arctor, member of a household of drug users, who is also living a double life as an undercover police agent assigned to spy on Arctor's household. Arctor shields his identity ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The New York Trilogy

    by Paul Auster
    A series of interconnected stories exploring the hidden mysteries of New York City.

    A 2006 reissue by Penguin Books is fronted by new pulp magazine -style covers by comic book illustrator Art Spiegelman . The first story, City of Glass , features an author of detective fiction who ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Crying of Lot 49

    by Thomas Pynchon
    A surreal journey of uncovering the truth of a mysterious organization.

    In the mid-1960s, Oedipa Maas lives a fairly comfortable life in the (fictional) northern Californian village of Kinneret, despite her lackluster marriage with Mucho Maas, a rudderless radio jockey , ... (Wikipedia)