A Case of Rape

A Novel

Author  Chester Himes
A Case of Rape

From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a brilliant, short novel about a tragic death and a wrongful conviction

Spare and powerful, A Case of Rape chronicles a tragic miscarriage of justice. Mrs. Elizabeth Hancock Brissard, a white woman, has died in Paris under mysterious circumstances. She had overdosed on an aphrodisiac, and there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted. A French couple witnessed four black men attempting to push her out a window before she died. The trial that followed was summary, and its verdict convicting the four men of rape was practically a foregone conclusion. But was it true? A riveting mystery but also a mordant critique of racism and sexism, and featuring an introduction by Calvin…