If Cool Machine occasionally falls short of its predecessors, it’s because the propulsive pleasures of the caper sometimes give way to the compulsions of the urban historian. Whitehead has always been fascinated by the sedimentary layers of New York...and at times all the Gotham lore feels indulgent, slowing the narrative pulse. But there’s no doubting Whitehead’s feel for the city. Taken together, the books amount to a street-level social history of modern New York told through fences, gangsters, hookers, politicians, landlords, developers and dreamers — a Dickensian gallery of rogues through whom an entire metropolis comes into view.
Electrifying ... This is a masterwork of crime fiction infused with labyrinthine suspense; brilliant, witty, and dynamic social insights; and profound questions of survival.
Whitehead’s justly celebrated Harlem Trilogy comes to a triumphant, satisfying conclusion ... A master novelist in full command of his powers as a storyteller, prose stylist, and social observer.
