So, overall, I liked this. I didn't realize going in that it's 3 interconnected stories so that was a bit jarring. I would say I liked the second one, featuring Pepper, the most. It did take me almost 3 weeks to get through which is more 3x longer than it normally takes me to read a book of this length. I would blame having moved in the middle, and not having time to read, but that wasn't always the case. I just struggled a lot with it at times, for no real reason.

Colson Whitehead is one of those writers. His prose is so gorgeously yet irreverently, easily woven, it's like listening to a perfectly-crafted symphony. I will read literally anything he writes. The plot of Crook Manifesto didn't leave me frantically turning pages in the same way that Harlem Shuffle did, but the writing is every bit as enviably engrossing. It's impossible to give anything by Whitehead less than five stars.

Even as a stand-alone work, Crook Manifesto is a pleasure to read, a realistic portrayal of the late 60s in New York City. Smart and with well-drawn characters!

This might be my favorite Colson Whitehead book so far (although I have a soft spot for "The Intuitionist"). I loved "Harlem Shuffle" and I was surprised to enjoy this sequel even more. It's funnier than I expected, and full of tangents which are easy to follow and weave a huge picture. I would LOVE to watch a movie based on these books. No notes - I just really, really enjoyed this. Anyone who appreciates Colson Whitehead will as well.

Really enjoyed this series, and thought this was a great second piece. It is definitely hard to wait for the third part, but I am intrigued and love the character development along with the theme and story line as I think its hard to find great books of this style.

"Crook Manifesto" takes us back to the universe of Colson Whitehead's excellent "Harlem Shuffle." This time, though, the cast of characters is so massive and the side quests so distracting that there were times I despaired of the whole book actually coming together in a satisfying way. Whitehead's writing is as spectacular as ever, but this time the storytelling didn't feel as masterful.

If Colson Whitehead writes 200 Ray Carney novels, I will stop what I'm doing and read each and every one of them. Whitehead has excelled in so many different genres. His books stay with you in a way that not a lot of writing does these days. Somehow, in spite of the powerfully written, critically acclaimed titles in his backlist, it's his crime novels that are the most thought provoking for me. I spent weeks thinking about the last 10 pages of Harlem Shuffle after reading it and I have never been more excited to return to a written world as I was to go back to Ray's Harlem.

We find ourselves in the 70s in Crook Manifesto, just past the years of civil activism and unrest that New York experienced in the late 60s. Crook Manifesto is divided into three parts, from three different characters perspectives. I found this installation slightly less easy to jump into than I did Harlem Shuffle, but the wait was worth it when I finally got to third section and Pepper and Ray's stories come together. Pepper and Ray are easily two of the most beautifully written characters of the decade, jumping off the page fully formed.

After hearing Whitehead speak about Crook Manifesto, I know that we will receive a third Ray Carney book, this one set in the 80s, and I absolutely cannot wait to read that one!

For fans of Colson Whitehead (obviously), crime and noir novels, and anyone who loves being transported to a place in time.

Colson Whitehead does it again with an exceptionally told tale of a reformed criminal who gets sucked back in by all things- needing Jackson Five tickets for his daughter. Ray Carney is a smart, tough furniture salesman cum fence in Harlem in the 1970s, and this book puts you there with the sights, sounds, and feeling of the era- including weaving in the impact of the Serpico uncovering of the dirty police units as made famous by the movie with Al Pacino.

As I finished the first of this series, I immediately wanted more of this character and the propulsive story Colson Whitehead has created. I say the same after this one- he has crafted a rich, and dynamic story yet again!

In Colson Whitehead's 2nd installment of the Harlem Shuffle series, we reunite with Ray Carney as a thriving furniture salesman. It's been 4 years since the end of the first book and Ray has stayed legitimate. He finds himself rekindling old relationships when he promises to try to get Jackson 5 concert tickets for his teenage daughter.

Pepper, who was introduced in the first book plays a major role in Crook Manifesto. He not only helps Ray out but has a whole section of the book dedicated to his search for an AWOL actress from a film he was working security for.

The main character throughout the book is Harlem itself. Whitehead does a spectacular job of taking us into Harlem of the 1970's. The crime, the destruction, the arson, and the underhandedness of politicians are all highlighted with emphasis on the people who profit from burning rundown buildings and then get redevelopment money to rebuild.

Colson Whitehead is truly a gifted writer and I love his prose. That being said, the number of people mentioned in the book was overwhelming. He constantly named people associated with a character, I never knew if I needed to remember a name or if it was a one-off. It had my head spinning a few times.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This second in the Ray Carney trilogy sets the reader squarely in NYC of the 1970's, right down to Ray playing 1010WINS as he goes about his work to have a background of non-stop news. Ray's journey on the starlight and narrow is curtailed after a few years and as he's quickly drawn back in to a life of crime. Can't wait for the third!

The sequel to Harlem Shuffle takes place in 1971 and finds Ray Carney getting involved in a heist once again in order to get Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter. Carney had been mostly out of the game and was selling furniture and finds that things have changed since he last fenced items. The next part in 1973 follows Carney's partner Pepper as he discovers the questionable world of Hollywood and is tasked with finding the missing star of a film. The final part is in 1976 and back with Carney as they deal with a rash of fires set for the insurance money and the subsequent redevelopment of the neighborhoods. Overall, a well-written continuation of the series told with humor and beautiful prose even when exploring topics such as corruption and exploitation. Whitehead always ties in the history of the era and has engaging social commentary on the times.

Having read Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto, I cannot wait for the third novel in this series. Whitehead has me hooked on Ray Carney and Pepper, men you hate and yet can’t help but respect and care about. These novels had me reading through the night, damn whatever work I had the next day!

Harlem Shuffle is the first of the series, set in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It introduces the reader to the primary protagonist, Ray Carney, a black man who grew up and lives in Harlem, NYC. Carney is a successful business owner selling furniture, both new and gently used. His product is both legitimately sourced and… well, less so. The novel revolves around his world and the choices he has to make as a black man living in a white world, in a community where the lines between the licit and illicit are and have always been fluid. His wife, Elizabeth, for example, works in a travel agency who designs agendas for black folks in need of safe passage through white territory governed by Jim Crow legislation and prejudice. This is an era in which lynchings are common. A world before the American Civil Rights movements began.

The novel revolves around Carney and his immediate circle of friends, employees, and family, including his shiftless cousin, Freddie and his overbearing, “politics of respectability” in-laws. Split into three parts, each segment taking place three years apart, the novel is a collection of events that define Carney’s legitimate and less-legitimate career. Each segment revolves around a specific heist or… shall we say, project Carney gets involved in, willingly or otherwise.

Crook Manifesto follows the same format, except that it picks up where Harlem Shuffle leaves off but three years later in 1971. It is a new era in Harlem now. New York City is a different world than what it had been, but little has changed in Harlem. It is still a white man’s world, still a world in which the boundaries between the legal and illegal are fuzzy. Carney finds himself still doing the Harlem shuffle. Carney’s “projects” are criminal and noble, focused on vengeance and utterly righteous. He is a man of many talents and flaws, the kind of man everyone knows because that’s who we are: good and bad and everything in between.

The main attraction of the novel and the series as a whole is not the characters and their stories, or even the world of Harlem in the mid-20th century — though any one of these draws is enough for me — but Whitehead’s delicious prose and witty turn of phrase. Whitehead can evoke an image with just a handful of words, delivered with the kind of finesse only a slick Harlem player possesses; the prose is as smooth as the cons and crimes carried off in the novels. Whitehead’s words pack a punch, sharp and powerful like the ones Pepper throws. The words flow like music, like funk, and you, Reader, you will find yourself dancing to Whitehead’s beat long into the night.

The characters, and Whitehead’s smart crafting of their stories, does warrant mention. Carney, Pepper, Freddie, Marie, Munson, Zippo, Elizabeth, and Big Mike are each their own literary masterpieces. These are real people, visible and tangible. There is an enormous cast, but as the novels build, the reader will find that they make up the urban village that is Harlem, this closed and vulnerable world, an enclave of blackness in white New York. In Harlem Shuffle we fall in love with these characters, understand them and their desires. In Crook Manifesto Whitehead reprises them and we get a deeper view into their vulnerabilities, their powers, their strengths.

Whitehead’s attention to history and the culture of the past is also commendable. Events of the past are woven into the fabric of the story, as it was in reality, a necessary foundation for the way things end up shaking out. No world, even Black Harlem, exists in a vacuum; the events of New York politics as much as Civil Rights events happening in other parts of the country reverberate in Harlem, in the Carney’s living room, in Carney’s furniture showroom.

I. Cannot. Wait. For the next installment in this series.

Crook Manifesto is a historical fiction, crime novel and literary fiction work that reads like a Netflix series. It is the sequel to Harlem Shuffle and the 2nd in the Harlem trilogy. This books spends a nice bit if time catching us up with the characters we experienced in HS, making it a boom that could've been a stand alone. Harlem Shuffle was 1960s Harlem, but Crook Manifesto is 1970s Harlem with all the sites and sounds of that place and time. You are there! Ray Carney has been trying to be straight since the previous novel in a city and a world of crookedness. He is driven by his desire to keep his family happy as a provider, but finds in impossible to get tickets to a Jackson 5 concert. He calls a crooked police officer with connections and ends up derailing himself from the straight train. This novel is loaded with history and social commentary that examine the mechanism that move our world above ground. It's packed with humor, history and an honest social commentary on class, race, and corruption from places we want to trust. It reads like a Netflix series, where each of the 3 parts is a season and each chapter and episode.
Thank you to Netgalley and Double Day for the Advance Reading oppertunity. I loved it and will be buying my own!

Starts off slow but when it picks up, this sequel kept me engaged and hungry for more, Colson Whitehead is one of the best authors of his generation in my opinion, His writing is so well done.

"Keep your secrets in your pocket - an unspoken job requirement at Carney's Furniture."
Crook Manifesto dives deep into the seedy history of the five boroughs of New York City in the 1970s, following Ray Carney and several characters of questionable repute, first introduced in The Harlem Shuffle. Pulitzer Prize winning author depicts a series of criminal incidents by which furniture store owner Ray Carney is drawn further into the nefarious underworld of violence, corruption, and greed. Unfolding in multiple installments, Crook Manifesto reads like a gripping series of short stories, laced together by a common setting and shared characters.
In each episode Ray Carney finds himself in compromising situations related to old compatriots that he tried to leave behind after the shocking conclusion of Harlem Shuffle. In Crook Manifesto, the misguided but endearing protagonist learns lessons about systemic corruption that operates in daylight, even with the cooperation of local authorities. Throughout the course of this engaging novel, several additional themes are explored.
The most riveting and climactic capers in Crook Manifesto involve a serial arsonist, driven by a dark compulsion to see the world lit up in dancing flames. When this enemy begins to operate outside of the normal boundaries of his dubious profession, people are hurt and trying to put out the flames becomes personal for Carney.
Crook Manifesto fascinates readers with a glimpse of a dark chapter in the city's recent past; one largely forgotten in the realm of literature. Colson Whitehead creates imminent suspense, likeable characters with questionable morals, and a setting that reveals the dark cracks in the shining towers that now dominate New York City.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Publishers for an advanced copy to read and review!

Ray Carney has stepped out of his fence role, only to be dragged back into the underworld of Harlem as he searches for Jackson Five tickets for his daughter. But that world has changed, and the steaks are a little higher now. Can he stay out of harm's way and get the tickets without completely destroying his reputation?

I read the first book in this series, Harlem Shuffle, earlier this year. I thought that was helpful as it meant I remembered a lot of the characters we meet in Crook Manifesto. Unfortunately for me, that's where everything stopped. I really struggled to get into the storyline, and I found myself confused as to why an entire third of the book is devoted to another person's point of view entirely. There were many times I wanted to put the book down, but I kept hoping it would resolve and get better. After not really caring as much for either of the Ray Carney novels, I do not think I will continue to read this series. This realization was a huge bummer as I really enjoy Colson Whitehead's writing, and really appreciate the way he ties in history to his books.

"Everybody's research when you're crooked, another variable in a setup down the line."

Whitehead presents another trilogy of tales centered around Ray Carney, furniture salesman, and occasional crook.

The first story takes place in 1971, and involves Carney, a good dad who'll do whatever it takes to score Jackson 5 tickets for his baby girl, even if it involves being taken hostage by a crooked cop. In the second tale, Carney takes a seat while Pepper, my favorite character searches for an AWOL actress.

"Pepper needed some scratch for operating expenses, sure, but more than anything he was bored. It had been a long time since he had beat a man senseless."

The book concludes nicely in 1976. While America celebrates the Bicentennial, Harlem is on fire, and some of Carney's past crimes are coming back to haunt him.

Another fine novel by one of our best authors. I'm looking forward to the next book.

"Crime isn't a scourge, people are. Crime is just how folks talk to each other sometimes."

The Ray Carney series is not for me.

I mistakenly requested this from NetGalley not realizing it was the sequel to Harlem Shuffle. This is my own mistake.

My issues with Crook Manifesto are the same as Harlem Shuffle. I find the book descriptions incredibly interesting. The writing is so dense and filled with side characters, back stories, and minute details that I have trouble following the plot. I gave this book a good try but decided to DNF at 40% because I was having too difficult of a time following what was happening.

For anyone who enjoyed Harlem Shuffle, definitely pick this one up. Whitehead does an incredible job of transporting the reader into Harlem in the 1970's. His descriptions and details make it very easy to envision life during that time. It was great having some familiar characters return in the book - and the heists and crimes were delivered wonderfully. My only major complaint is that at times there were too many characters, making it difficult to figure out which ones to pay attention to. Maybe that was intentional, as you never knew who you could trust. Overall, a wonderfully done book - a mixture of darkness and light to make it an enjoyable read.

The book follows Ray Carney through New York City in the 70's. Trash is everywhere, crime is at an all time high and the NYPD and Black Liberation Army are battling. Ray is just trying to stay on the straight and narrow, focusing on his furniture store. When Ray's daughter wants Jackson 5 tickets, Carney finds himself back in the game. Will he and his partner be able to stay out of prison and safe?

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Coming off Harlem Shuffle (which was not my favorite book) I didn't know about this one. I have to say this book surprised me in a great way! I loved reading through Harlem in the 70's and picking up where the other book left off before it. I think this was a good second book in the trilogy and I am excited to see where it finishes!