Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
UK Publication: July 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by Little Brown Book Group UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

One Word review – Madcap

Synopsis from Goodreads: 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.
1974. 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.

My Thoughts: The second instalment of the Ray Carney story starts out violent and doesn’t let up until the very end. Carney doing his best to go straight is dragged right back into the seedy underworld of Harlem by no less that a corrupt cop with a plan to get away with it all. As soon as he hits up Munson for Jackson 5 tickets Carney is plunged into a world of corruption, bribery and murder and once he is back in that world he finds it impossible to escape.

Following a night of madcap violence, revenge and betrayal Carney is back in the crooked world and the years that follow only serve to cement that place.

Covering most of the 70s the black movements in Harlem, investigations into police corruption, black movies, insurance schemes involving arson and corruption at the highest level Crook Manifesto really gets to grips with the seedy side of Harlem.

Who would like this? If you enjoyed book 1 you will enjoy this. If you don’t mind violence, gang warfare and a book that reads like a movie script go for it.

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