Crook Manifesto

A Novel

By: Colson Whitehead

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2023 Colson Whitehead (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Dazzling … a glorious and intricate anatomy of the heist, the con and the slow game … [Whitehead] uses the crime novel as a lens to investigate the mechanics of a singular neighborhood at a particular tipping point in time. He has it right: the music, the energy, the painful calculus of loss. Structured into three time periods—1971, 1973 and finally the year of America’s bicentennial celebration, 1976—“Crook Manifesto” gleefully detonates its satire upon this world while getting to the heart of the place and its people.”—Walter Mosley, New York Times Book Review (cover)

“Whitehead’s New York of the ‘70s is a fully realized universe down to the most meticulous details (Parts of “Crook Manifesto” would pair nicely with Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker”) … "Crook Manifesto” and “Harlem Shuffle” also form a joint reminder, as if we still needed one, that crime fiction can be great literature. These books are as resonant and finely observed as anything Whitehead has written. They have the pulpy verve of Harlem’s crime fiction godfather, Chester Himes, combined with the literary heft of Whitehead’s more garlanded novels.”—Los Angeles Times

“Remarkable…For all its slapstick fun, this project also contains the same gravitas as August Wilson’s seminal 10-play Century Cycle about Black life in Pittsburgh … When Carney is reflecting, attempting to better understand how Black Harlemites and Black Americans have survived before and will survive again, Whitehead is at his best. It makes this story feel important, not just entertaining, not just suspenseful, not just another surefire bestseller from a beloved author. These are crime novels, yes; funny and fast-paced. They are also the first two installments of a grand historical epic. Novel writing at its best. Bigger and better, together, than anything Whitehead has written before.”—The Washington Post

A Fantastic Ride

Whitehead vividly engulfs you into 1970’s Harlem with a continuation of the daily happenings of Ray Carney.

Solid Story, great narrator

Enjoyed listening to Ray Carney move through his life but the reader is the star. Just a cool voice that moves you through the challenges of Ray's life trying to move away from the crime life that keeps him close to the action.

A wonderful complement to Harlem Shuffle

I thought this book was fantastic, it really helped deepen the story from Harlem Shuffle, and the variety of storylines made it more exciting than its oft repetitive predecessor. I love how we got to see the nuance of Pepper, Zippo, Elizabeth, the kids and in the end, even Ray. This book could stand on its own, but paired with Harlem Shuffle it really creates a compelling series.

Life in NYC in the early 1970's

An exciting crime ridden ride in early 1970's NYC. He accurately describes a city and its people surviving in a very turbulent time.

Terrific story and performance

Once again, Colson Whitehead gives us a gripping story populated by real people. Even the toughest criminals are so multifaceted they end up being sympathetic.

Spectacular vernacular

Such wonderful description, and so wonderfully described. The reader was brilliant. The fire scenes were were so clear and scary so much history and insight. Blew me away.!

A wild ride

A wonderful set of new characters along with the many from the first book, we are taken on a ride through the seedy underbelly of Harlem. Fantastic story told in a manner reminiscent of a Marlow mystery.

Excellent performance and intriguing story

Dion Graham made this story come alive, just as he did with Harlem Shuffle - best narrator ever!
The story is darker than the preceding book, but the characters are more richly developed. Colson Whitehead is a brilliant writer!

Back to Harlem

I didn’t know how much I needed to go back to Harlem with Carney and Pepper until Crook Manifesto came along. Story is great and the narration is excellent, so much so that it makes the story come alive even more.

Loved it

It was great seeing how old characters had grown and the excitement of the new stories.