‘Highly readable, wholly entertaining.’–Stanley Ellin ‘A well-constructed thriller of a little-known side of Harlem life, with a Black detective to solve the crime and with just enough humour on the side.’–Rumana McManis, New York Times ‘A detective story of the first class, written with adroitness, humor, and a clever plot.’–Boston Transcript ‘…a puzzling mystery yarn which is at the same time a lively picture of Harlem…’–New York Times ‘Captures the historically induced unique qualities of Black people.’–Oliver Henry, The Harlem Renaissance ‘As far as crime fiction goes, The Conjure-Man Dies gets down and dirty in a style more in the American hardboiled fashion than the British country house fashion. And it does seem likely that Fisher, besides reading Agatha Christie, read Dashiell Hammett and other early hardboiled writers.’–L.A. Review of Books ‘The reissue of this 1932 novel should help Fisher get the wider acclaim he merits.’ Publishers Weekly ‘The Conjure-Man Dies is now happily welcomed back to its rightful place both in the history of crime fiction and the wider canon of Black literature.’ BookPage ‘Fisher’s work trod themes familiar to his contemporaries while breaking ground not only as the first known crime novel by a Black author, but also as the first to feature exclusively Black characters.’ Motif