The Conjure-Man Dies: A Harlem Mystery: The first ever African-American crime novel (Detective Club Crime Classics) Paperback – January 19, 2021

A rare opportunity for mystery fans to view life in depression era Harlem from the perspective of a black author. Rudolph Fisher was a doctor whose own experiments in “Roentgenology” probably led to his early death from cancer two years after the publication of this book; he was only 37. This book was his only full length mystery work, although he did author at least one mystery novelette, “John Archer’s Nose”, which happily is included in this Collins Detective Club publication.Perry Dart, a black NYPD detective and John Archer, a black detective, investigate the murder of a “conjure-man” named Frimbo who dispenses advice for a living to Harlem clients. As a mystery, this work will generate comparisons to early mystery practitioners, but all binning aside, we have a basic police procedural made more complex by the fact that detective Perry Dart has much of his legwork done for him by private detective wannabe Bubber Brown and most of his meaningful deduction done by Dr. Archer. Dart interviews suspects, supervises the investigation and acts as devil’s advocate to Dr. Archer’s theories on the crime. The crime itself is made more interesting by the fact that the victim, Frimbo, is not actually the initial murder victim and appears to have resurrected himself from the dead.If read purely as mystery entertainment, this book may seem quite ordinary in the genre. There is some clever manipulation of the plot elements, but essentially, I believe, Fisher wrote this book to further explore a theme that pervades his other works, that of black people exploring identity issues regarding their role(s) in American society. Fisher’s portrait of Harlem is clearly that of a virtually hermetically sealed environment, but this environment contains individuals who are striving to establish themselves as fully accredited members of their chosen professions and for conjure-man Frimbo, a man who is attempting to create a black man who can reconcile his ancestry and his present condition to embody an entirely new human.Fisher may have chosen the mystery genre to explore these identity issues, because by its nature a mystery of course involves elements of exploration, rational thinking and resolution to a central issue. In this work the central issue is not the crime and its perpetrator, but the elements required to establish one’s self in a world so clearly by its nature hostile to the creation of something new and different. As an African immigrant of royal descent working various rackets in Harlem, Frimbo is an alien presence to both his neighbors and himself. How Frimbo and his adversaries adapt and remold their chosen roles and how they strive to resolve their issues of self in relation to these roles form the true backbone of this work. More notable as a social document than as a mystery, THE CONJURE-MAN DIES is nonetheless a very entertaining and varied read, including elements of light comedy, mystic philosophy, criminal shenanigans and insights into the psyches of principal and minor characters alike.The relationship between Dart and Dr. Archer is one of mutual respect and their growing relationship is developed quite skillfully and is accompanied by an amusing badinage usually lacking in the more conventional partner pairings in the genre which are often of the master & stooge variety. The main suspect in the crime (whom no one is convinced is actually convinced is guilty, but somebody has to be locked up), Jim Jenkins, presents a figure that today would might be regarded as a stereotype by SJWs, but Fisher has drawn a character that is more than merely a passive woebegone victim. He plays a key role in the contributions provided by borderline scamster and opportunist Bubba Brown to the solution of the mystery.This edition includes an introduction by Stanley Ellin which provides some background on Fisher’s life and attempts to force some connections with Fisher’s mystery writer contemporaries. Ellin also provides an assessment of Fisher’s place in mystery fiction, but the essay seems beside the point. Written in 1971, one regrets that the publisher deemed this work unworthy of a current essay that might have provided the reader with criticism more germane to Fisher’s purpose and motivations for writing this book.

Until recently, I had never heard of Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies, a 1933 detective novel which is held up as the first detective story with an entirely African-American cast of characters. A fascinatingly odd blend of classic mystery, noir elements, social realism, and medical knowledge (due to Fisher's own background), this Harlem Renaissance-era book is undeniably intriguing and compelling, but ultimately, it feels more fascinating as a portrait of a moment in time than it does a classic crime novel. That's not to say that the central crime here isn't interesting, as a Harlem psychic is found dead, only for the body to disappear from the house in which it was found, and then...well, I don't want to spoil that surprise. Suffice to say, The Conjure-Man Dies has a pretty intriguing premise, and Fisher ends up leaving more unanswered and cryptic than you might expect, all while giving us the answers that matter. But what's more compelling is the portrait we get of 1930s Harlem, from the pair of bantering, insulting friends to the local doctor, from the crime lords to the psychics who represent the community's love of superstition and folklore. (Fisher's fascination with this is evident here, given that the latest edition includes a short story about the same characters which also gets into the folklore/tradition area.) Yes, some of the attitudes are going to be held up as dated, but to say that is to ignore the way that Fisher is attempting to capture the world around him - not the way we want it to be, but how it was. The result is a little clunky at times, as Fisher's verbosity occasionally gets away from him and the book spins out, but I was drawn in again and again by the weirdness of the central case and the colorful, entertaining characters. It's undeniably a historical artifact more than a great crime novel, but that doesn't mean you won't have fun with it.

have been interested for a while in early mystery writers .... Rudolph Fisher was one of the first African Americans to write mysteries. This novel was interesting by the way Fisher handled the various black characters and gave them their own unique identities inside of the black community of early Harlem. The mystery itself was complex and bore striking relationships to a Sherlock Holmes investigation but done in the patois of these Harlem natives.

The body of Frimbo, a Harlem "conjure man", or psychic is discovered in his darkened consulting room, and called in to the investigation are Frimbo's across-the-street neighbor, Dr. John Archer, and one of NYC's few black police detectives, Perry Dart. Set in the Harlem of the 1930s (the book was originally published in 1932), it is an intricate, cleverly-plotted mystery, the first written by a black author, Dr. Rudolph Fisher (writer, musician, physician) featuring black detectives. The reprint edition that revives this long out-of-print novel has a disclaimer at the beginning to address language and stereotypes that will be seen as offensive by today's standards. But I have to give them credit for opting to make this work available - Fisher's flesh-and-blood characters, meticulous plotting, sly humor and clever plot twists rank with those of the top Golden Age mystery writers. Sadly, Fisher died at age 37, cutting short a promising career. At the time of his death, he had planned at least two more Archer and Dart novels. This edition includes the novella "Doctor Archer's Nose", a clever locked room mystery. Definitely deserves a wider audience, and well-worth checking out.

GREAT

I really liked getting inside the head of characters from almost a hundred years ago.

A fantastic sense of place and engaging characters make this book a delight to read. Some language that wouldn't be used now, but as it's used by Black characters written by a Black author, it hopefully will be allowed by readers.