Supper Sleuths
Supper SleuthsThe issues that face African-American detectives and crime solvers are the same ones that white sleuths face while also dealing with the social problems that real life African Americans face. According to NoveList writer Dorothy Broderick, in the early days of mysteries containing African-American detectives, much of the focus was on the antagonism their presence invoked in their white co-workers. In most modern titles, their presence is taken for granted and they are allowed to be good at their jobs without having to fight the establishment (NoveList 9/27/05).
According to Paula L. Woods (author of the Charlotte Justice series) and editor of the anthology, Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes, the “foremother of African American mysteries is Pauline E. Hopkins”, who wrote “Talma Gordon,” a locked room mystery short story in 1900. The first mystery novel to feature African American characters set in a black community was The Conjure-man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem (1932) by Rudolph Fisher. Hughes Allison’s police procedural “Corollary” (1948) was the first mystery story by an African American to be published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Woods states in her anthology’s introduction, that Hughes’s story “also reflects a harsher reality and highlights the role of the detective, Joe Hill, as an intermediary between black and white cultures” (xvi).
Chester Himes developed his hard-boiled Harlem detectives in the same vein as Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett leading the way for modern writers like Walter Mosley, known for his Easy Rawlins series that takes place in the 1940s to 1960s. Modern-day Los Angeles is reflected in the works of Gar Anthony Haywood’s Aaron Gunner series and Gary Phillips’s Ivan Monk series. Fans of Paretsky and Grafton will enjoy Chassie West’s DC cop Leigh Ann Warren. Cozy readers may want to start with Barbara Neely & Nora DeLoach. Evanovich fans may enjoy Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Newark-based Tamara Hayle.
The accompanying list contains detectives—amateur or professional. Journalists and academics have been left off this list because they are represented on the Investigative Reporters and Campus Crimes lists.
Thank you to Beebe Reference Librarian Beth Radcliffe for her thorough research on this list.
The following is a list of titles by author. Whenever possible, the series is in order of publication date. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and please let us know if you feel that a title should be here. Please read one or more titles, and come prepared to discuss your impressions of them with the group.
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