Carrying on the story of rising furniture store owner and part-time dabbler in crookery Ray Carney from Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto takes us through the early seventies. Three linked novellas - 1971, 1973 and 1976, all of which I remember well, albeit I was in rural England, corrupt East Yorkshire, then parts of Lancashire where in those days coppers feared to tread.
The first story, Ringolevio, brings Ray out of criminal retirement to help bent copper Detective Munson out of a spectacular hole. It ends badly for Munson, but at least Ray gets tickets for the Jackson 5 for his daughter May. In Nefertiti TNT Ray's store is taken over by a movie crew making a blaxploitation movie helmed by former local firebug and boudoir photographer Zippo, whom we remember from the second story in Harlem Shuffle. The actress playing the titular warrior for justice (who had a mention in the first story of the first book) goes awol and friend of the family and feared enforcer Pepper is offered folding money to retrieve her. It is really a Pepper story, rather than a Ray, but none the worse for that. And finally, The Finishers, in which both Ray and Pepper get dragged into a showdown at the Dumas Club, which we remember well from Shuffle. It is a club where corrupt politicians get to mingle with the business elite of Harlem.
I loved Shuffle, I loved Manifesto even more. I don't know if Whitehead has a third instalment up his sleeve (Manifesto only came out in 2023). If he does, I'm reading it.
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