{"product_id":"crook-manifesto","title":"Crook Manifesto","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1971, New York City.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is going bankrupt, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney is trying to keep his head down, his business up and his life straight. But then he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up an old police contact, who wants favours in return. For Ray, staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated - and deadly. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1973\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. The old ways are being overthrown by the thriving counterculture, but Pepper, Carney's enduringly violent partner in crime, is a constant. In these difficult times, Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem, finding himself in a world of Hollywood stars 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. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1976.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e Harlem is burning, while the country gears up for the Bicentennial. Carney is trying to come up with a celebratory July 4th advertisement he can actually live with, while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire seriously injures one of Carney's tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it, navigating a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent and the utterly corrupt. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn scalpel-sharp prose and with unnerving clarity and wit, Colson Whitehead writes about a city that runs on cronyism, threats, ego, ambition, incompetence and even, sometimes, pride. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrook Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem, and a searching portrait of how families work in the face of chaos and hostility.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little Brown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41088920879138,"sku":"9780349727653","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0052\/0785\/1042\/products\/Copy-of-Book-Template-2125.jpg?v=1691294159","url":"https:\/\/petronella.pro\/products\/crook-manifesto","provider":"Petronella's Gallery and Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}