Murderous shenanigans and delicious mayhem in Harlem centered around the very mysterious death of a
African conjure-man and the highly colorful group of suspects that may or may not be responsible for the rather baffling crime...

A cleverly plotted whodunit build with lots of devious twists and turns, sparkling dialogues full of humorous fireworks and blessed with a terrific cast of African American characters, "The conjure-man dies" is a whacky fictional journey that kept me enthralled from start to finish. A delicious treat from the Harlem Renaissance literary movement that deserves to be discovered and enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen and Netgalley for this marvellous ARC

Rudolph Fisher's the Conjure-Man Dies is being re-released. This murder mystery was set and written in the Harlem Renaissance and is considered to be the first written by a Black author, and to have a Black victim, Black suspects, and Black detectives. Detectives there are a plenty, as well as a victim who rises from the dead! Full of vernacular, anatomy, and electrical science, this book should be known more widely. Read it, and tell your friends!

4.3/5

Crime Classic..
The body of N’Gana Frimbo - the African Conjure-man is discovered in his consulting room and Perry Dart, a Harlem detective, is called to investigate. A baffling mystery with a genuine puzzle at its heart and a credible, carefully crafted array of characters. With a plethora of suspects and a melange of motives this is a truly enjoyable entry in the Library of Congress Crime Classics.

3.5 stars.
Set in Harlem, the death of a conjure man mystifies the police detective and doctor working together to solve the case. All the suspects were found within the waiting room of the dead man's business. Their, in some cases, spotty alibis and motives, as well as the contrast between the doctor's scientific approach to the conjure man's "magic", disappearing bodies and mistaken identities, make this an interesting read.

The doctor, Archer, is methodical, and provides the detective with necessary information on blood and fingerprints and has a large role in the solution of the case.

Rudolph Fisher's story feels like a locked room mystery in that it's incredible that Frimbo the conjure man was killed within his consultation room and the small suspect pool, the people in the waiting room, were unsuspecting of the violence happening nearby. The detective and doctor go back and forth and make credible arguments and deductions, based on what evidence they have.

Fisher presents suspects from a wide variety of backgrounds, from the deeply religious housewife to the small time criminal. The colloquialisms and varied life situations lend veracity to the characters, and give a sense of the life in Harlem at the beginning of the Depression.

The pacing is a little slow, as Fisher spends a lot of time providing great character detail, and shows us some of the fascination people had with supernatural practices and beliefs.

I've been gradually expanding my mystery reading to include more classic mysteries, and I'm glad I got a chance to read this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

DNF - I found the flow of the dialogue jarring & therefore had my mind drifting quite often during the read. I realize that this is an old book that is being re-released but, the writing style was not one I could engage with & I found the first half of the book to be very slow-moving.

An excellent mystery and the depiction of a historical moment. It's a fascinating story, highly entertaining, but it's also the great portrait of people in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
The author was an excellent author and it's a pity he died young.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Frimbo is a conjure-man living in 1930s Harlem, who claims to be able to read people's future for them. One night, a group of customers is waiting for a session with him. One of them rushes out saying that he is dead. Dr Archer is fetched from across the road, and he pronounces him dead on the spot. The Harlem police, led by Detective Dart, are called in to investigate.

As Dart investigates, assisted by Archer, things are thrown into chaos when Frimbo reappears, apparently risen from the dead.

Fisher's story has plenty of clever twists, and a resolution that I did not foresee. As with a writer like James Ellroy, the reader needs to get used to the patois and slang spoken by his characters, and there are footnotes to help with some of the more arcane usages.

This is a really interesting initiative of the Library of Congress, and they are saying that this is the first detective novel written by a black American author. As such, its language needs to be appreciated for its historical significance; some of the terms used in the book would be offensive today.

A Two-fer, No A Three-fer, (maybe a Four-fer?).........

First, you get a quality piece of writing set in 1930's Harlem, with all of the historical interest and resonance that suggests. The book is not just "about" the Harlem Renaissance; it was written during the Renaissance by someone who was an important, arguably central, figure. Fisher, (most probably due to his early death and limited output), has been overlooked in favor of his contemporaries and friends, like Langston Hughes, but this edition of "The Conjure-Man Dies" is intended partly to rectify that oversight.


Beyond that, and in any event, next you get a well done, classic, locked room mystery that observes all of the honored conventions. Think Queen or Van Dine. The professional/amateur team of investigators, the varied cast of suspects, the clever but fair twists and turns, the witty dialogue of the lead characters and the sometimes brassy humor of incidental players - all of this marks the best of the classic mystery genre. And it proceeds, crisply and clearly, to a rousing, traditional and quite satisfying conclusion.


On top of that, though, and sometimes overlooked, you get to read about and meet authentic characters who live outside of and beyond the stereotypes that otherwise constrained black characters in all other forms of popular entertainment of that era. These feel like real, authentic people inhabiting a real place, and the tale will transport you as well as might be hoped to Depression-era Harlem.


As a bonus, the book opens with a fine introduction by Leslie S. Klinger that places the author and the book in their time, and that celebrates the overlooked skill and style, and missed potential, of Rudolph Fisher. At the back we get more bonus commentary, biographical detail and suggested further and additional reading.


This book is one of the results of a new publishing collaboration between the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press. The project, Library of Congress Crime Classics, features books originally published between the 1860's and the 1960's. Most of the books to be published highlight, in one way or another, a significant first. The first female detective, the first police procedural written by a woman, or even the first noir with a sense of humor, (which, incidentally, was written by C. W. Grafton, Sue Grafton's dad). While not all of their books will be to everyone's tastes, the success and appeal of "Conjure-Man" certainly demonstrates the value and rewards of looking about off the beaten track.


(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

This was not my first time reading The Conjure-Man Dies. I read this book for the first time in a college class about the Harlem Renaissance and I loved it. Fisher deserves/deserved to be recognized in the same mouthful as Hammett, Chandler, Queen, and Stout and the world is worse off because he wasn't. Everyone should read this book just to experience one of the lost masters mystery genre.

This is a significant reprint and Poisoned Pen/Library of Congress Crime Classics has done the book justice. It gets five stars for just making a wide release of this book happen but it also is a five star worthy reprint.

The Conjure-Man Dies is a detective novel long forgotten, but now getting a new lease on life thanks to the Library of Congress. The novel, the first to feature a black detective, tells of the investigation into the death of Frimbo, an African soothsayer practicing in Harlem. Dr. John Archer, a.black physician (like the author), who lives across the street from the now deceased Frimbo, joins forces with Detective Dart, a black man, to solve the murder. Without spilling the beans, the plot is somewhat convoluted, helping to maintain interest, and the resolution is a surprise.

This well written novel is more than just an historical curiosity. While it gives the reader an insight into life in Harlem during its golden age, it is also a deftly plotted murder mystery, and the characters who populate the novel are well drawn. It’s a shame the author died young, as the association between Dr. Archer and Detective Dart laid the foundation for future stories.

For those offended by racial stereotypes in books, despite the period in which they were written, The Conjure-Man Dies is full of dialogue that was presumably spoken in the streets of Harlem that may now seem offensive to modern readers. This should not detract from an otherwise enjoyable reading experience.

My thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy of this reissue of a mystery and Harlem Renaissance classic.

One of the the great things about mystery stories and novels is that they have the ability to no only make you think about puzzles and who did what, but with their setting they can teach you about a place and time you might not know much about, or even thought to care about. For example Hollywood in the 1950's, the Soviet Union in the early 1980's. And other countries say France or England, or the growing in popularity Scandinavia, even Japan, and Kuala Lumpur. To this list of time and places add this lost classic of murder in 1930's Harlem. The Library of Congress Crime Classics is reissuing The Conjure-Man Dies, by Rudolph Fisher one if not the first books written by a black author, featuring a black detective and an all black cast, featuring a slice of life view of a long vanished era and place.

Dr. Archer is called by two young men to the rooms of a African conjure-man, a psychic/ psychologist, who has been murdered, seeming in a locked room with only one other man, who swears he had idea what happened to the victim. Strange things happen, the body disappears and soon the conjure-man returns, hale and hearty and with a promise that he will solve his own murder. Suspecting something much more mysterious Dr. Archer joins with Perry Dart, one of the NYPD's 10 black detectives to find out what is really going on in this baffling case.

The mystery if fun and very much of it's era. Bodies disappearing, strange rooms, odd characters, women kind of just there, a group of suspects brought together near the end for the big denouement. Plus the mix of science and pseudoscience, false clues, blind alleys and a lot of talking. Very much in the Ellery Queen S. S. Van Dine kind of stories. The writing is very good and interesting with a different narrators that take the story from the formal rooms to the streets. There is a lot of humor, and a lot of love for the characters, the neighborhood. Plus the characters are not portrayed as they would be in mystery books of this era. They are not servants, or heavies or conductors, they are doctors, detectives, and people trying to get by and seem much more real then most bit characters are portrayed in these kind of stories.

A good mystery but a better book about a time and place that has faded away, and one not known to many people. The author's death at a young age is a shame as I would think a series featuring Archer and Dart might have been successful, but that might be a charitable thought considering the era, Recommended for fans of classic mysteries and for people who want to read about Harlem before the Chester Hines and the Grindhouse Blaxploitation movies portrayed the area.