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Whitehead, Colson. Crook Manifesto. Doubleday. Jul. 2023. 336p. ISBN 9780385545150. $30. lrg. prnt. CD. LITERARY

Furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney returns after the sensational Harlem Shuffle, trying to stay on the straight and narrow and not quite succeeding. In 1971, he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter and approaches old police contact Munson, who wants a favor in return. In 1973, Ray’s partner-in-crime, Pepper, takes a side job doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem and manages to best the hustlers he meets. By 1976, while storeowner Ray finds his way around raging bicentennialism, he asks Pepper to help discover who’s behind a fire that injured one of Ray’s tenants. Again, Whitehead delivers the portrait of one struggling community and roughed-up but durably endearing 1970s New York.

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