This book is a great follow up to the novel Harlem Shuffle. This time the storyline is based in the 1970s. Ray Carney is still selling furniture and has managed to stay away from crime for a good few years. But his teenage daughter wants tickets to see the Jackson Five and the only way to get them is to engage with some old contacts again.

I loved the fact that the same cast of characters are involved in this novel. I particularly like Pepper, his background story and his place in the family now. He is older than Ray but has a history with Ray's father and his role as Uncle Pepper, along with his room in the house is very touching.

There is a real roller coaster of crime and violence throughout this novel. A picture of Harlem in the seventies is made very clear is not somewhere you would want to visit. Presumably, this will be brought up to date in the final novel of the trilogy - I will definitely read it.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great follow-up to Harlem Shuffle, this time set in the 1970s. Carney has supposedly turned his back on crime, but in his desire to get Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter, he turns to old contacts and is soon embroiled again. Underlying this motive is a sense that he is missing the excitement of his old double life.

Whitehead beautifully combines Carney's adventures in the criminal underworld with Carney's reflections on the changing face of New York, his carefully firewalled family life, his uneasy ascent into Harlem's Black middle class and of course the ever-changing world of furniture retail. I love the humour, wry observation, and great cast of characters.
*
Copy from NetGalley

Being a fan of Colson Whitehead, I am not entirely certain how Harlem Shuffle passed me by? As it's the first book in the Ray Carney series it would have been wise to start there but I couldn't be put off Crook Manifesto. What a fabulous title! Yes, I would have had greater depth of story/character development had I proceeded in the correct order but enjoyed this novel nonetheless without it.

Crook Manifesto brings Ray Carney into the 70s with all its greed, corruption, violence and hatred. He has been on the right side of the law running his Harlem furniture shop for years and life is pretty good. Until an act of parental generosity leads him off the straight and narrow and back into doing favours for favours and fencing stolen goods. It's fair to say things get out of hand, as they do, and though it is tense for Ray the reader is in for a treat with the grittiness of the 70s described with amazing eloquence. I was sure Colson Whitehead couldn't possibly be old enough to remember the 70s, but I would be wrong. That life experience translates well to the page as the nefarious corruption and criminality of the age feels tangible in his well chosen words. I remember the time and he nails the sense of a broken system that pervaded the era. Bent coppers, dirty politicians, making more money with crime than honest work, strikes, racial tensions, it's all there.

This is a masterful story full of colourful characters making hard choices to get by. I won't make the same mistake again and will be on the lookout for the next book.

New York in the 1970s and the city has gone to the rats. Ray Carney has stopped fencing and now runs a furniture store but he's promised his daughter that he'll try to get her concert tickets. When he taps up an old contact he finds himself dragged in to trouble. 1973 and Pepper is working security on a blaxploitation movie shooting in Harlem. When the lead actress disappears, Pepper has to try to find her to save the film. 1976 and the city is preparing for the Bicentennial but Carney is concerned that too many buildings in the city are being burnt down as an insurance scam.
The three sections in this book work so well as they show the progression of New York as it disintegrates throughout the decade. The focus is all on Harlem and the changing demographics as well as the changes to crime. The characters are developed really well and the sense of time and place is perfect. Colson is a wonderful writer and this is a wonderful book.

Wanted to like it, it’s a sequel but works as a standalone. After reading reviews on the first book I decided to not read that.
The book was atmospheric but slow and didn’t grip me unfortunately.

As the second of a planned trilogy, we returned to Harlem in the 1970s, and catch up with the life of Ray Carney , a furniture salesman and sometimes fence, and his family and friends. A darker and more violent book than its predecessor Harlem Shuffle this novel reflects the hard times and corruption in New York City, and the hardships that some of its inhabitants face. A tough but enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to the third in the trilogy, and discovering what happens in the lives of these characters next. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

It’s a follow up to Harlem Shuffle and a compelling one at that- set in 1970s New York. Whitehead is such an interesting writer, always look forward to what he does next.

Crook Manifesto is about various characters living in Harlem in the 1970s, but the focus seems to be on Ray Carney, a furniture saleman. The story is mainly about the criminal world of harlem and how it seems to be part of everything and everyone. I didn't realise this was a sequel to Harlem Shuffle. I enjoyed parts, but other sections seemed to drag and felt long. I really enjoyed The Nickle Boys also from this author but this one fell a bit flat for me.

Between the record levels of crime, the inexorable urban decline, and the violent war between the police and the newly founded Black Liberation Army, times are hard in Harlem, New York City, in 1971. Furniture salesman Ray Carney has turned his back on his past criminal activities and is focused on expanding his business and providing for his family - until he asks an acquaintance from the old days for a favour and finds himself dragged back into the life he swore he'd left behind for good.

The sequel to Colson Whitehead's first Ray Carney novel, Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto is a darkly funny, entertaining and self-aware novel which is a worthy, enjoyable follow-up to its predecessor.

Set seven years after the conclusion of Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto paints a vivid picture of a specific time and place, conjuring the sights, sounds, smells and characters, even down to the Jackson 5 soundtrack that haunts Carney's every move during the first section of the story. Like the previous installment, it is three stories in one, following various 'capers' that Carney is either centrally or tangentially involved in. As the novel unfolds, its narrative spanning five years, we see how life has changed for Carney on a personal level and for the Black people of Harlem on a societal level. Like the hard-boiled crime novels it pays homage to, Crook Manifesto does not shy away from depicting the sordid, decaying urban landscape in which it takes place; this is not a romantic, rose-tinted rendering of New York City.

One of our foremost writers of historical fiction, particularly of the stories of Black Americans, Colson Whitehead's Ray Carney novels are a fresh take on the aforementioned mid-twentieth century crime writing, taking many of the elements that made those stories popular and adding layers to make them function on a deeper level, as well as resonate with modern audiences. The violence is unapologetic, occasionally lurid. The familiar archetypes are there: the bent police detective; the ruthless gangsters; the ordinary man trying to make an honest living but tempted by the lure of ill-gotten gains; the corrupt city officials, and the stone cold killer with - if not a heart of gold - at least some redeeming qualities.

However, where many hard-boiled crime books could be accused of being formulaic and predictable, Whitehead's novels use these tropes to ask important questions: What is a crime? Who is a criminal? Crook Manifesto and its predecessor are not books about race, but are set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement and this underscores much of the plot - from Carney benefiting from his Black neighbours feeling unwelcome in downtown department store showrooms to his ineligibility for membership to a prestigious Black gentlemen's club because his skin is too dark to pass the paper bag test. In Harlem Shuffle, part of the story takes place during the 1964 riots which broke out after the shooting by police of an unarmed Black teenager, a bleak, deliberate mirror to similar events taking place in America almost sixty years later. The final third of Crook Manifesto takes place in 1976, the year of the American bicentennial, and through Carney, Whitehead highlights the hypocrisy of celebrating two hundred years of the so-called Land of the Free when so many of its citizens still have hugely limited opportunities because of their race, class or both. Even though the books are set in a long-ago version of the United States, Whitehead forces the reader to confront how little progress has been made.

Carney is a likeable protagonist, although somewhat more of an antihero in this second outing. Previously, he was a plucky underdog, a likeable everyman whom you couldn't help but root for no matter the escapades he found himself entangled in. By the opening of Crook Manifesto, he clearly sees himself as superior to the other criminals he associates with; he is more legitimate, more respectable, able to walk away at a moment's notice should he choose to. Like the supposedly legitimate businessmen of the Dumas Club he purports to despise, Carney deludes himself into thinking he is different, that his motivations are more noble, when in fact he is as self-serving and callous as the next man when he needs to be, often shrugging off the collateral damage of his schemes with a wide-eyed shrug. At least the crooks acknowledge that they're crooked. His character also suffers from the absence of Freddie, Carney's gregarious, scheming cousin and best friend, who provided an excellent foil to Carney in the first book. However, the reader is still sympathetic to Carney. The deck is stacked against him as a dark-skinned Black man from a dubious background; it's just not enough to work hard and follow the rules. Crook Manifesto, more explicitly than Harlem Shuffle, makes the point that, when the churn of crooks and schemes and corruption is never-ending, and the game is fixed so that you can never win, who are we to judge Carney for making the system work for him?

An issue I had with Harlem Shuffle was the one-dimensional portrayal of the few female characters. Where the men, even some of the very minor characters, were allowed to be complicated and ambiguous, the women were not. Elizabeth Carney was the naïve, trusting wife, her mother Alma was the shrewish mother-in-law, and the character of Marie, Carney's long-time secretary, was essentially 'likes baking'. Thus, I was pleased to see Elizabeth's character in particular developed further in the sequel; there is more focus on her career and ambitions, as well as how her identity begins to change as she, and her children, get older.

Other minor characters get more page time in Crook Manifesto, notably the corrupt Detective Munson, who was introduced briefly in Harlem Shuffle and has a thrilling arc in the sequel. Pepper (no last name), the taciturn, deadpan hood whom Carney first crossed paths with during the opening heist of Harlem Shuffle, reappears and gets a more developed back story and inner monologue, as well as all the best lines. It is apparent that Whitehead really enjoys writing him and, for a ruthless thug-for-hire, he is exceptionally likeable. The title of the book refers to the esoteric honour-among-thieves criminal code Pepper adheres to, and this is surely a nod to the fact that it is as much Pepper's story as it is Carney's.

The pace dipped at a couple of points: I found it difficult to muster much interest in Zippo's back story, or the sub plot about how administrative mishandling could have led to the spate of arsons sweeping the city. It felt slightly like Whitehead had done the research and so felt like he had to include it, regardless of whether or not it added to the story.

When reviewing a Colson Whitehead novel, it is impossible not to draw comparisons to his two seminal Pulitzer Prize-winning works, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, and the Harlem books do not have the same heft, but they are a different genre and they do what they set out to very well.

Overall, Crook Manifesto does a very good job of bringing the gap between Harlem Shuffle and the final part of the trilogy, expanding on the themes and character arcs established in the first book and setting up questions to be answered. I look forward to seeing how it all ends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this look at the darker side of Black New York and the lead character of the furniture store oowner / part time fence was very convincing and entertaining. Compared to Colson Whitehead's oher books it seemed a bit lightweight.

Harlem in the 1970s, brought to life by Colson Whitehead in three separate but linked stories featuring Ray Carney, a furniture salesman and sometime fence. The first story sees Carney sucked into his old life over one violent night, the second focuses on his friend Pepper, and the filming of scenes for a ‘blaxploitation’ movie, and the third on arsonists and the rebuilding of Harlem. While similar stories have been told before, what elevates them is Whitehead’s writing and the characters he creates. I didn’t know when I started reading that this is the second book in a trilogy featuring Carney. This book can be read as a stand-alone, but I will be going back to the first book, Harlem Shuffle, to read about Carney and other characters in the 1960s. Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for an advance review copy.

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead is another stellar story in the life and troubles of furniture store owner Ray Carney, introducing a close friend of his father Pepper, also a native of Harlem.

Carney is doing his best to focus on his legitimate business when an old acquaintance from the police turns up and makes his life a lot more difficult.

In the middle section of the book we meet Zippo, a filmmaker and acquaintance of Carney with an interesting back story. Pepper is hired by Zippo initially to do security for the film set but becomes involved in more than he expected.

Crook Manifesto is a great novel that readers will very much enjoy.

I had to DNF this one unfortunately. It felt overly similar to Harlem Shuffle, and I didn’t feel like there was anything new. I didn’t really get invested in the characters and after getting about halfway through I found it too much of a slog to keep going

A brilliant sequel to Harlem Shuffle. Convoluted at times, but in the best way as Colson Whitehead leads the reader down story rabbit holes via Blaxploitation movies and the history of arson in New York City. All the stories lead back to Ray, our flawed anti hero and Pepper, old associate of Ray’s crooked dad Mike and now firmly rooting for Ray’s family’s safety. Whitehead is equally good at taking us on a crime caper as giving a political overview of how cities are ruined for poor people by capitalism and greed.

He's done it again! I eagerly anticipate Whitehead's books as they are so varied, but inevitably well-researched with believable characters who are easy to invest in. This book revisits characters with whom prior readers have a vested relationship. Plots are interwoven with interesting subplots. Dialogue zings. All-in-all an enjoyable revisit, and a pleasure to read.

I have read and enjoyed Whitehead’s Underground Railroad previously, and had been meaning to read more of his work. Didn’t realise Crook Manifesto was the sequel to Harlem Shuffle when I requested it on NetGalley, oops. Nonetheless really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading books 1 and 3 in the series.

Whitehead is the master of setting the scene. The world was so rich, immersive, witty and gritty. Ray Carney and Pepper are very endearing characters and their dynamic was so enjoyable. The novel also has very smart things to say about power.

Pick up this book up if: you want a zippy and engaging crime series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved Harlem Shuffle, but found this sequel slightly less convincing. Crime capers really require a strong and clever plot, but tthe middle sections of Crook Manifesto are really quite slow and tedious. The plot appears to suffer from having to follow a predefined set of topics (blaxploitation movies, arson in New York) even when they don't fit very well and take an enormous amount of pages of introduction.

The good atmosphere and evocative descriptions of 1970s Harlem are still there. There is still excellent writing, some brilliant one-liners and the joy of research and writing is evident throughout. The descriptions of Harlem remain vivid and I loved some of the (returning) characters, especially Pepper.

The beginning and end were thrilling. At the start, our hero and small-time crook Ray Carney getting mixed up in a small job with a dirty cop that gets horribly out of hand. The ending follows a similar pattern.

But as said, the middle sections feel artificial, almost as if - in doing his research - the author became determined to address certain topics and cared less about how/whether they fit into the narrative.

I would definitely recommend starting with Harlem Shuffle before starting with Crook Manifesto.

4 stars because even a mediocre Whitehead is still very good.

Will I still read the third instalment? Absolutely!

A masterful follow up to Harlem Shuffle - not surprising, given the author’s own pedigree! This was about 3 novellas with familiar characters from its predecessor. Ray Carney features in them all, though, most fabulously in the first story, which I loved.

Carney is living a straight life until his daughter wants hard to get tickets for the Jackson 5. A call to bent-copper Mansun was always going to have a high price, but even Carney was shocked at how quickly events move!

A gritty, realistic novel - echoes from the past, cousin Freddie, rented-muscle Pepper and Big Mike, Carney’s fire-starting father, all feature! If you enjoyed Harlem Shuffle, this will not disappoint, and judging by the ending there is more to come!

Welcome back Ray Carney, a few years have passed since we last met Ray - its now the 70's and this is not Harlem or NYC's finest era. After four years on "the straight and narrow" its the chance to get some highly prized Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter that catapults Ray back in to his old world. The unwritten rules that govern the underworld, what makes something OK to do or not (even though by most peoples rules neither are really OK) are still dictated by where you live and the colour of your skin. I love the role Pepper plays and the relationship he has with Ray and his family.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Crook Manifesto.

“A man has a hierarchy of crime, of what is morally acceptable and what is not, a crook manifesto, and those who subscribe to lesser codes are … nothing.”

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. Fleet for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Crook Manifesto’ by Colson Whitehead.

This is Book 2 in Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy that combines family saga and literary crime fiction. It chronicles the life of Ray Carney, the owner of a furniture store on 125th Street who also acted as a fence, thus associating with shady cops, local criminals, and various lowlifes.

The first novel, ‘Harlem Shuffle’ covered events in Carney’s life from 1959-1964 and the second novel covers the years 1971-1976. The novel drops into the lives of Carney, his family, and associates in 1971, 1973, and 1976. In an interview Whitehead describes his structure “as three novellas that come together … to make one book.”

‘Crook Manifesto’ is told against the backdrop of events in Harlem, New York City, and ultimately the country as a whole. As such it’s an epic tale populated by a variety of supporting characters including bent cops, mobsters, activists, hustlers, corrupt politicians, celebrity dealers, and even Hollywood stars shooting a Blaxploitation film in Harlem.

I had been surprised by the difference in tone in ‘Harlem Shuffle’ from Whitehead’s previous novels and was also delighted to discover that he had decided to expand Carney’s story beyond the 1960s and was now writing a trilogy. While some background is provided, given the continuous nature of the plot and characters, I would suggest that the novels are best read in order.

Overall, I found ‘Crook Manifesto’ an exceptional work of literary historical fiction that powerfully evoked New York City and especially the community of Harlem during the social and cultural upheavals of the 1970s.

It’s quite violent and gritty at times though is also suffused with wry humour and subtle satire. I shall be anticipating the final book that I understand will follow Carney and company into the 1980s.

Highly recommended.