Crook Manifesto

Colson Whitehead's work, which evokes the sleazy glory of 1970s New York, is the continuation of his Harlem tale.

1971 is the year. The city is heading towards bankruptcy, there is an abundance of trash on the streets, violence is at an all-time high, and the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army are engaged in a shooting war. Ray Carney, the proprietor of a furniture store and former fence, struggles to keep his head down and his business growing amidst this collective psychological breakdown. His days of smuggling stolen merchandise across town are ended. He follows the straight and narrow until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May, at which point he contacts his legendary fixer, Munson, an old police acquaintance. However, Munson needs to approach Carney for some favors of his own, and that's when things turn dangerously tricky.

1973. A new generation has emerged from the counterculture, and the established methods are being replaced, but one thing has remained constant: Pepper, Carney's charmingly violent co-conspirator. As it becomes more difficult to assemble a trustworthy team for heists, hijackings, and other misdemeanors, Pepper takes a side job providing security for a Harlem Blaxploitation film. A strange world of Hollywood stars, budding comics, and famous drug traffickers awaits him, along with the typical array of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. To their disappointment, these enemies undervalue the seasoned rascal.

1976. Block by block, Harlem is burning as the nation prepares for the Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is attempting to create a July 4th advertisement that he can approve of. His wife Elizabeth is running for office on behalf of her childhood friend, the former assistant district attorney and aspiring politician Alexander Oakes ("Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!"). Carney hires Pepper to investigate potential arsonists after one of his tenants sustains serious injuries in a fire. Our unscrupulous pair must fight their way through a collapsing city ruled by the violent, the dodgy, and the completely corrupted.