Crook Manifesto Crook Manifesto
Book 2 - Ray Carney

Crook Manifesto

A Novel

    • 4.2 • 185 Ratings
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, BookPage

“Dazzling” –Walter Mosley, The New York Times Book Review.


It’s 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It’s strictly the straight-and-narrow for him — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire.  But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated – and deadly.

1973. The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney’s endearingly violent partner in crime.  It’s getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem.  He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook – to their regret.

1976.  Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations.  Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. ("Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!"), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes.  When a fire severely injures one of Carney’s tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.

CROOK MANIFESTO is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family.  Colson Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem is sure to stand as one of the all-time great evocations of a place and a time.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2023
July 18
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
336
Pages
PUBLISHER
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
2.3
MB

Customer Reviews

Sugar Ray Gee ,

CROOK MANIFESTO

Excellent read, I love the entertwine
of historical events and figures!!

Scott's take on things ,

Disjointed Story

I loved Harlem Shuffle but I did not like the sequel. The Nefertiti section seemed like a separate book. There’s a lot of action in this book; people are going all over the place but I never cared very much about the characters.

RayTrader ,

Excellent!

Stories of the New York I grew up in…
Not to be missed!

One-Shot Harry One-Shot Harry
2022
The Quaker The Quaker
2019
John Henry Days John Henry Days
2001
A Man in Full A Man in Full
2010
More Twisted More Twisted
2007
Rules of '48 Rules of '48
2008
The Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad
2016
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
2019
Harlem Shuffle Harlem Shuffle
2021
Zone One Zone One
2011
The Intuitionist The Intuitionist
1998
Sag Harbor Sag Harbor
2009
Every Man a King Every Man a King
2023
The Fraud The Fraud
2023
Birnam Wood Birnam Wood
2023
Creation Lake Creation Lake
2024
The Committed The Committed
2021
Blacktop Wasteland Blacktop Wasteland
2020