Antwan Floyd Sr. is a Publisher, Author, and Reviewer. He publishes Crime Fiction novels under his publishing company Maleah Solange Books. He has released two titles in the Black Love Detective Series: Piece Keeper & Cannibal in the City. He has also written Dope Fiction and Dope Fiction pt. 2 "Greed Between the Lines". Originally from Chicago, IL he currently resides in Indianapolis, IN where he is penning his next novel.
The Fictional Black Detective in American Literature and Film
The fictional Black detective in American Literature and
film is an important topic as it pertains to representation of a group of
people and inclusion in this highly popular genre. I write this article
strictly from a fan’s point of view, I am by no means an expert on the topic. I
am in my learning stages and I suppose in a way I am taking you on my journey
of discovery with me.
According to an article that I read posted in the Los
Angeles Review of Books written by Gary Phillips one of the earliest books of
fiction about a black detective was published in 1932 and written by author Dr.
Rudolph Fisher titled The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem which features a Sherlock Holmes–like Dr.
John Archer and police detective Perry Dart — two black investigators out to
solve a murder mystery. Now it so happens that this is one of the titles that I
have read or should I say attempted to read. It was in my opinion very wordy and
drawn out I failed to complete the entire book, I will eventually get back to
it to finish the story but it is in my opinion a hard read.
Then there was
Hughes Allison. He is credited in 1948 as the first black writer to have a
story published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The story was titled
“Corollary,” appeared in the July issue, and featured black police detective
Joe Hill based in part, on a real-life cop Carlton B. Norris, a Newark police
detective.
Persia Walker has written three mystery novels set during
the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance. Walker deftly mixes issues of race and
class, along with actual incidents and figures, in her handling of that period.
In Defender of the Angels: A Black Policeman in Old Los
Angeles by Jesse Kimbrough, the reader gets a glimpse of a city in the 1920s
and ’30s that is rarely depicted from a black point of view.
The Black 22s, produced by David Oyelowo (who will also
star), purchased by the National Geographic channel, and billed as a black
Untouchables about an all-black police squad in Prohibition-era St. Louis.
From new pulp publisher Pro Se Press, and also set in the
1920s, is Alvin Grimes’s 2014 hard-boiled novel, Black Pearl, about a World War
I vet Harlem Hell fighter called Jackson Blaze. Blaze gets mixed up in a gang
war between the Jewish Mafia and boss Jimmy Rose for control of the rackets in
Harlem.
Debuting in the late 1990s and spanning the Prohibition era
to the 1940s, the crime fiction novels of Robert Skinner feature Wesley
Farrell, a mixed-race nightclub owner who passes for white.
Another pulp publisher, Airship 27 brought out two books
featuring African Americans set in the 1930s. In Rutherford Jones in Trouble
Times Three, written by Robert Ricci and featuring three short stories, the
time is 1937 and the place is Oakland. A mousy white guy supposedly runs the
Ford Jones Detective Agency — but he’s a front to assuage white clients, and
his supposed black assistant Rufus is the real hard-case private investigator.
Just wanted to lay a sort of foundation as it may to the
introduction of the black detective in literature and in film, many of these
authors and titles I’ve never heard of but I will go back and begin reading
them to see how they tackled the genre.
Getting to some that I have heard of, I will start with
Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlin’s character which one of his titles was
converted into a movie “The Devil in a Blue Dress” where Denzel Washington
played the starring role of Easy Rawlin’s I saw the movie but never read the
book or any other of the Easy Rawlins’ stories. But I did read all of the
stories in the Leonid McGill series written by Walter Mosley which wasn’t as
widely received as the Easy stories but I thoroughly enjoyed them and hope that
he writes and releases more. Currently he has released a new title called “Down the River unto the Sea” a new
detective tale:
Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators,
until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault
by his enemies within the NYPD, a charge which lands him in solitary at Rikers
Island.
A decade later, King is a private detective, running his
agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. Broken by the
brutality he suffered and committed in equal measure while behind bars, his
work and his daughter are the only light in his solitary life. When he receives
a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid to frame him those
years ago, King realizes that he has no choice but to take his own case:
figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of--and why.
Running in parallel with King's own quest for justice is the
case of a Black radical journalist accused of killing two on-duty police
officers who had been abusing their badges to traffic in drugs and women within
the city's poorest neighborhoods.
Joined by Melquarth Frost, a brilliant sociopath, our hero
must beat dirty cops and dirtier bankers, craven lawyers, and above all keep
his daughter far from the underworld in which he works. All the while, two
lives hang in the balance: King's client's, and King's own. I have yet to read
it, but it is on my reading list.
Brian W. Smith is another author in the genre that I’ve read
he has a mystery series titled: The
Sleepy Carter Mysteries: He is
homeless. He is a genius. He's solving the toughest murder cases in the city of
New Orleans. But only one person knows he's alive.
Another author that writes in the genre I really enjoyed is
author Niles Manning he has written two titles in the series called The Grainger Files.
There are others scattered here and there acclaimed actor Blair
Underwood and Tananarive Due co-authored several mystery titles in the Tennyson Hardwick series. Valerie Wilson
Wesley, Nora De Loach, and I’ve even come across a title written by former NBA
legend Kareem Abdul Jabaar titled: Mycroft
Holmes which I found interesting and I’m not sure if it has ever been done
or not so don’t quote me. But as far as my understanding goes for those that
are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes mythos Mycroft Holmes is the older
brother to famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and Jabaar wrote his story
with Mycroft as the antagonist sleuth.
I suppose that Mycroft Homes deviates from the black
detective character in fiction but I mention this title for two reasons. One:
Kareem Abdual Jabaar is a black author. Two: It is a sedge way into the final
author and title series I am going to speak on titled: Watson and Holmes which was released as a comic written by Karl
Bollers and Rick Leonardi. I think that their series is interesting because
they took these two classic characters updated them to today’s time and made
them Black: Collecting the entire first arc of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson re-envisioning as African Americans living
in New York City's famous Harlem district. Watson, an Afghanistan war vet,
works in an inner-city clinic; Holmes, a local P.I. who takes unusual cases.
When one of them ends up in Watson's emergency room, the unlikely duo strike up
a partnership to find a missing girl. Watson & Holmes bump heads along the
way as they enter a labyrinth of drugs, guns, gangs and a conspiracy that goes
higher and deeper than they could have imagined.
Moving on to the black detective in film, the earliest that
I remember seeing on film was Richard Roundtree in the title role of Shaft. I
didn’t mention this earlier in my literary black detectives because although
the hero in this tale was a black man, the story (and later the movie from
which the movie was adapted) was written by a white man, a classic all the
same. Shaft spawned a few spin-offs all played by Richard Roundtree.
Decades later a re-boot of the Shaft movie was done and
portraying the Black private dick with all the chicks, was Samuel Jackson, the
nephew of the original Shaft in which Richard Roundtree reprised his role.
Now, decades after that I’ve read an article that it is once
again getting another re-boot via Netflix both Richard Roundtree and Samuel
Jackson will reprise their roles, this time they will be joined with Jessie T.
Usher as Samuel Jackson’s son (also John Shaft) looks like a film to be on the
lookout for.
Others are A Man
Called Hawk a television spin-off from the show Spencer For Hire. In the
show A Man Called Hawk Avery Brooks played the titular role.
More recently there was Rosewood
starring Morris Chestnut in the role of Miami pathologist Dr. Beaumont
Rosewood, Jr. He finds secrets in people's bodies using his state-of-the-art
laboratory equipment.
As a sidebar I will mention the BBC detective series Luther
starring Black British actor Idris Elba, which was also very well written and
portrayed on screen.
Without going on and on these are a few examples of the diverse
stories and the authors and actors of color who portrayed these sleuths in all
faucets of life. It shows that the black detective be it in written word or
portrayed in television or on film have a diverse, rich, and often times
complex range and unique ability of getting the job done and shows that
inclusion is not only necessary for the genre to grow and become more but is
craved and desired by readers and purveyors of everything mystery/crime
fiction.
Antwan Floyd Sr. author of Piece Keeper & Cannibal in
the City: Black Love Detective Series.
Teresa Prince, a small town girl with a big heart, had dreams of working in law enforcement her goals put on pause in the worse way possible. Will she overcome this tragedy and emerge triumphant with her mind and soul intact? Or will the mental anguish be too much for her to bare?
James, a twisted soul with ideas of love and grandeur with a woman that doesn’t feel the same for him, at least not yet. That will all change if he has anything to do with it. Also, her old flame has stepped into the picture. Will James be able to win her over and make her the love of his life before the flame is rekindled between her and her ex? Or will he be left in the cold while they live happily-ever-after?
Black Love was always a white collar kind of guy more so than a gangster when an unfortunate incident occurs in a small town in Illinois he rushes to the side of his ex-fiancé to attempt to save the day. It does not take long to figure out that not everyone wants to see justice served. On top of that, his feelings for his past love may not only cause conflicts in the case but also add a rift to his new relationship. Will Black put his past behind him and find out who violated Teresa?
In this fast-paced tale of pain, misguided passion, and lost love we follow these three souls as they embark on a journey of romance, rape, and retribution. When there’s no one to count on but yourself will you stand and deliver? Or bend and break? Each will face that question in the midst of what they once thought was true. They all find out that when love turns to war, someone has to be the Piece Keeper!
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