Colson Whitehead continues to enthrall me with his Harlem saga. This latest volume is a sort of tryptych telling stories from three different years in the seventies. Carney has been a straight arrow for years now, well relatively. His business is successful and his life is good if a bit boring. His kids are teenagers and the Jackson 5 is big. Carney's attempt to get tickets to a sold out concert reconnects him with the crooked side of Harlem. And so it begins. We get to join Carney and the memorable Pepper on some capers while revisiting the societal upheavals of the 1970s.
This is a review of an ARC provided by NetGalley.

Look Whitehead can do no wrong to me. His books are just so well done. And they are so entertaining while also being important and speaks on issues in our society. We need more historical fiction like the ones he writes.

Thank you publisher and NetGalley for the arc ebook.To be perfectly honestI didn’t like this novel as much as the first,Harlem Schuffle. The main character,Ray Carney as well as several other main characters were equally as good as in the first book,but I was turned off by the Harlem politics of the 70’s. I found myself skimming those parts. The falling down and destruction of Harlem then was terrible but to this day still happening in slum-ridden,vacant cities across America where factories were shuttered and jobs were lost.
I did enjoy,once again,the humor as portrayed by the “baddies”. I would like to see a third book to find out what happens next to Mr.Carney.

Would be totally fine if Whitehead spends the rest of his career writing more Ray Carney novels. The possibilities inherent in the continuing adventures of a canny yet ultimately quite square furniture dealer and (occasional) stolen-goods fence who watches New York and Harlem change underneath his feet are immense.

Beautiful language and an evocative sense of place ground this story of a small-time crook. It's also a nice break from historical novels focusing on World War II. I can't wait to see where the last book takes us!

Ray Carney is back, and back to his crooked double life. But who isn't on the take in NYC in the last 60s, early 70s? Crook Manifesto has all the elements of a page turning crime novel, but it's topped with Whitehead's beautiful language and a fascinating NY city planning history lesson. I can't wait until the third book in the trilogy.

Colson Whitehead's Harlem mysteries are addictive! A continuation of Harlem Shuffle, but prior knowledge is not aabsolutely necessary. Ray is taking on arsonists and it gets personal when a young boy, who leaves above his store is caught in an abandoned house fire. The business of arson in Harlem is lucrative and those benefitting are politicians and police. Whitehead is a wonderful writer!

As usual, beautiful writing and an engaging story from Colson Whitehead. As a sequel, there's some inevitable comparisons to the original, but still an enjoyable read. Whitehead's books are to be savored. Thank you for the advance review copy.

A delight. Now, with the second in the trilogy, patterns emerge and there’s a little less freshness. Nevertheless, the affection, commitment, research and sheer storytelling strength make the novel a simple pleasure. It’s landmark work within and outside the genre. Here’s to volume three.

This is the second in a planned three book series by Colson Whitehead. Fans of the first book "Harlem Shuffle" will applaud this follow up tale. Whitehead once again deftly tells the story of a small time, semi-criminal furniture store owner 10 years later navigating the world of early 1970s Harlem. The troubles of NYC in the seventies abound and bring the political changes, economic upheaval, police brutality, rise of women's rights, drug abuse and a changing Harlem to Ray Carney's world. Whitehead adds further interest by increasing the action around some minor characters especially the tough guy Pepper.

I eagerly await his third book focusing on the 1980s.

I’ve read all of his works and am a huge fan .
Nobody does NYC and Harlem in the 1960s-70s better than he does!!!!
This is really 3 novellas but the central characters from HARLEM SHUFFLE , plus a few newcomers, are all here.I lived in the City in the early 70s and this book brings back memories. The city imo was at its lowest level and Whitehead captures it all here-trash problems, fires everywhere. police and the Black Liberation Army at war, etc.
Ray Carney is once again the central character, trying to stay afloat with his prosperous furniture store, trying to walk the “ straight and narrow” but once again gets drawn in to his former low level criminal life. All of the political figures of The era -Rangel, Dinkins , Percy Sutton etc make an “appearance” adding reality to the period.
In my opinion, Whitehead is at his best when describing the crooked financial schemes and how the powerful use the system to enrich themselves-it’s an “ education”!!!!!!!
Without revealing any “spoilers”, he describes a softer side of Ray, the family man as well as the business man.A very touching scene between Ray and Elizabeth occurs at the end of the third novella, and I, for one, can’t wait for the next Ray Carney adventure.
HARLEM SHUFFLE was good-in my opinion this one far superior.

This sequel to "Harlem Shuffle" is exactly what fans of "Harlem Shuffle" want. Set in 1970’s Harlem, this sequel follows Ray Carney through the trials and tribulations of keeping his furniture business afloat amid chaos.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an early copy of Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

Ray Carney of Harlem Shuffle is again the main focus in Crook Manifesto. However, very strong secondary characters weave into Ray's life and cause complications and dilemmas that he struggles to understand and deal with.

Ray wants to provide for his family and stay out of trouble. This is not easy since his past is now the present and situations arise that place him in a dangerous world of theft and murder. Ray realizes that he is powerless to avoid the realities of his environment.

Crook Manifesto is divided into three distinct stories;; a rogue cop out to claim everything he feels he is owed, a Hollywood director with Harlem as the main character, and the world of arsonists doing the bidding of the destroyers of Harlem. When a youngster is seriously injured in one of these insidious arson events, Ray decides enough is enough and sets out to expose the crime.

Amidst all the crime and danger, Colson Whitehead does not disappoint in bringing joy and laughter as well.
This is a complex but satisfying look at 1970s Harlem.

A sequel to last year's fantastic "Harlem Shuffle," "Crook Manifesto" is basically begging to be optioned by HBO and turned into a limited series. More tales of petty crime and arson abound as the story goes from 1971 to 1976, and traces the collapse of NYC along with the misfortunes of furniture store owner and small time crook Robert Carney. A fast and cinematic read that evokes the bad old New York.

The second in his Harlem trilogy, Crook Manifesto reads more like 3 novellas than a single novel. Part one is the story of Carney’s return to crime after the short hiatus which ended the last book. He goes on a spree with his cop contact, Munson, in order to get Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter. Part two sees his pal Pepper as a guard for a local movie shoot. The only Carney connection being a scene shot in the store. Part three is Carney and Pepper together, trying to figure out who torched a nearby building. Through all three parts, Harlem is really the unifying character. We get to see the Harlem of the seventies - grim, decaying, and being used up by the cons and the politicians alike. Glorious descriptions. Moments of hilarity. Another gem.

Set in 70’s Harlem, this novel follows Carney through the years as he tries to keep his furniture business going amidst the chaos surrounding him. Once a fence for stolen goods, he finds himself slowly getting pulled back into that life over Jackson 5 tickets. But as he struggles to stay out of the game, things get more complicated and dangerous in his world.

This novel was a bit difficult to get into at first. The characters were hard to keep straight, and the plot was confusing. But as things got moving, albeit a bit sluggishly at first, the story started coming together nicely.

I ended up enjoying Colson’s prose, as it isn’t typical of the many books I have read. It’s purposeful and gritty, which is necessary to make this novel and its cast of characters believable and authentic to the decade it portrays.

I’m looking forward to the next book in this saga and highly recommend this one to my followers. I’m glad I kept reading. Wonderfully written.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a huge fan of Colson Whitehead, I jumped at the opportunity to read Crook Manifesto which is a continuation of Harlem Shuffle and the story of Ray Carney. Crook Manifesto is set in 1970s New York, a time when the city was burning and developers were relocating from different areas to buy real estate and change the landscape of the concrete jungle.

I love how the plot of the story begins with Carney trying to secure Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter, May. He is trying to stay on a straight and narrow path and outside a life of crime but soon realizes that all of his connections that could help him get the tickets are associates from his former life in the streets. When Carney reaches out to Munson, his former police contact, the last thing he was expecting was to get manipulated into being an accomplice to murder among other crimes.

The plot of Crook Manifesto moved a lot faster for me than Harlem Shuffle. The beginning of the story takes you on a journey where as a reader we are left wondering whether or not Carney will make it out of the situation alive. The second half of the book is where we become more acquainted with specific characters, their beef with each other, past resentments, and future hopes. I love how at the end of the narrative Carney makes the connection between his wife, Elizabeth, being the one to motivate him to be a better man. Carney is a family man to his core after all.

"What else was an ongoing criminal enterprise complicated by periodic violence for, but to make your wife happy?"

In the end, Carney is just trying to do right by his family, his business, and his friends. We learn a lot about where his loyalties lie in this story while he navigates the NYC world of drug dealers, mobsters, hustlers, and crooked cops. Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!

A quasi sequel of Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto continues to follow the escapades of Ray Carney and associates. The book again is more about Harlem in different eras than anything else. As a result, people don't have to worry about reading the titles out of order, as each novella- of which there are three -acts as an independent story arc that loosely connects to a larger whole, but a reader can tackle any of the stories in the two books out of order with little harm to their understanding or enjoyment of the exploits therein. The stories in this book involve Ray needing Jackson 5 tickets, an associate, Pepper, and his exploits in the film industry, and a vengeful story of crows coming home to roost. Very enjoyable, but that was expected with the steady hand of Colson Whitehead.

I'm historically a Whitehead fan but this did not grab me. I read the first in the series and enjoyed it but this one just felt drawn out and tedious.

It was a joy to see all the familiar faces from “Harlem Shuffle” again, and to meet a new group of eclectic characters. However, what I loved in particular was what made the first book in the saga such a delight - the way it so deeply immersed me within a past Harlem and a past New York. This time around, instead of the city in the 1960’s roaring to life through Colson’s words, it was the troublesome 70s that was vividly painted in my mind - a city on edge, a city that is seemingly falling apart at the seams, a city whose neighborhoods are bursting into flames - but like the core characters of the book, despite the chaos and the deterioration, is still resilient, and still going.

Whitehead could comfortably conclude here and leave it as a solid two-part series. Frankly though, I’m hoping that he’ll be able to transport us to 80’s Harlem within the next few years.