The Whites - Softcover

Brandt, Harry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408864584 ISBN 13: 9781408864586

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

Every cop has a personal `White': a criminal who got away with murder - or worse - and was able to slip back into life, leaving the victim's family still seeking justice, the cop plagued by guilt. Back in the 1990s, Billy Graves was one of the Wild Geese: a tight-knit crew of young mavericks, fresh to police work and hungry for justice, looking out for each other and their `family' of neighbourhood locals. But then Billy made some bad headlines by accidentally shooting a ten-year-old boy while bringing down an angel-dusted berserker in the street. Branded a loose cannon, he spent years in one dead-end posting after another. Now he has settled into his role as sergeant in the Night Watch, content simply to do his job and go home to his family. But when he is called to the 4 a.m. stabbing of a man in Penn Station, Billy discovers the victim is the `White' of one of his oldest friends, a former member of the Wild Geese, who is now retired. As the past comes crashing into the present, the Wild Geese seemingly rise from the dead, and the bad old run-and-gun days of the 90s are back with a vengeance. Richard Price, writing for the first time under the pen-name of Harry Brandt, is one of America's most gifted novelists. He has always written brilliantly about New York City, and this electrifying novel - fast-moving and stripped to the bone - marks a heart-stopping new departure.

About this title

Review

Whether you call it a crime novel or a mystery novel or a giraffe with polka dots, is largely irrelevant - The Whites is, simply put, a great American novel * Dennis Lehane * Riveting ... He not only has a visceral ability to convey the gritty, day-to-day realities of their jobs, but also a knack for using their detective work the way John le Carre has used spy stories and tradecraft, as a framework on which to build complex investigations into the human soul * Michiko Kakutani, New York Times * This book literally interrupted my professional and personal life. Once in, I had to stay in and stick with it to the end ... as unstoppable as a train coming through a tunnel ... The Whites is a work of reportage as much as it is a work of fiction. That's what makes it important. It tells it like it is. It provides insight and knowledge, both rare qualities in the killing fields of the crime novel * Michael Connelly, New York Times * The Whites is the crime novel of the year - grim, gutsy, and impossible to put down. I had to read the final 100 pages in a single sitting. I began being fascinated, and ended being deeply moved. Call him Price or Brandt, he knows everything about police life, and plenty about friendship: what your friends do for you...and what they sometimes do to you * Stephen King * The only credible thing to be said about Harry Brandt is that he has written one of Richard Price's best books yet * Michael Chabon * This is high-octane literature, with the best of Richard Price and his souped-up pseudonym Harry Brandt. Price/Brandt gets to the heart of those stories that everyone else refuses to tell. The Whites manages to patrol New York and deepen our sense of the city and all its dark corners * Colum McCann * If a more powerful crime novel is published this year it will be a bleeding miracle * Evening Standard * The Whites is a fine book about the corrupted moral universe in which his all-too-believable New York cops have to work ... Billy is confronted by one hard choice after another as matters build to a tense finale * Mail on Sunday * Magnificent, hugely complex tale of criminality, revenge and redemption * Metro * Price has constructed a maze of a novel that alternates between scenes of intense introspection and scenes driven by dialogue ... The Whites doesn't race so much as lurch and careen along, often with little breathing space between frenetic action sequences, emotional outbursts, and sheer surprise, but Price takes time out for a gem of an interrogation scene * Joyce Carol Oates, New Yorker * No less a judge than Stephen King calls this `the crime novel of the year', and it is hard to disagree ... Price has brought ambiguity, self-doubt and fear among the police to life - as he again displays in this story of Billy Graves ... He is a legend, and deserves to be * Daily Mail * Electrifying ... This is a fast-paced tale with well-written characters and a strong narrative * Daily Express * No less a judge than Stephen King calls this `the crime novel of the year', and it is hard to disagree. Price is acknowledged as one of the great American writers, and this elegant, nuanced story of a rogue New York detective drawn back into the past by a murder in the present amply proves it ... Price has brought ambiguity, self-doubt and fear among the police to life - as he again displays in this story of Billy Graves ... This novel reveals Price's delicate skill at its finest - the author of eight novels, including the brutal clockers, as well as the films Sea of Love and The Color of Money, he is a legend, and deserves to be * Daily Mail *

Book Description

A rogue NYPD detective is dragged back into the past by a murder in the present

FINALIST FOR THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE 2015 IN THE MYSTERY/THRILLER CATEGORY

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1408864584
• ISBN 13: 9781408864586
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352