Crook Manifesto

This is a city that runs on cronyism, threats, ego, ambition, incompetence and even - sometimes - pride1971, New York City. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is going bankrupt. Ray Carney, furniture store owner and ex-fence, tries to keep his head down, his business up and his life straight. But then he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and hits up an old police contact, who wants a favour in return. For Ray, staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated - and deadly. 1973. As a thriving counterculture overthrows old ways, Pepper - seasoned crook, and Carney's partner in crime - is a constant. He takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot and finds himself in a world of Hollywood stars and celebrity drug dealers, along with the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters and hit men. 1976. Harlem is burning while the country gears up for the Bicentennial. 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 corrupted.[please leave space for quotes]