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The Force
Our ends know our beginnings, but the reverse isn’t true . . .
All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop.
He is "the King of Manhattan North," a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of "Da Force." Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite special unit given carte blanche to fight gangs, drugs, and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself.
What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the Feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all.
This is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city on the edge and of a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban realism full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting us today.
All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop.
He is "the King of Manhattan North," a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of "Da Force." Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite special unit given carte blanche to fight gangs, drugs, and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself.
What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the Feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all.
This is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city on the edge and of a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban realism full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting us today.
Audiobook
First published June 13, 2017
About the author
Don Winslow
93 books6,831 followersDon Winslow is the author of twenty-one acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestsellers The Force and The Border, the #1 international bestseller The Cartel, The Power of the Dog, Savages, and The Winter of Frankie Machine. Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone. The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border sold to FX in a major multimillion-dollar deal to air as a weekly television series beginning in 2020.
A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,660 reviews
March 10, 2022
…he started out with his eyes firmly on the guiding star, his feet planted on the path, but that’s the thing about the life you walk—you start out pointed true North, but you vary one degree off, it doesn’t matter for maybe one year, five years, but as the years stack up you’re just walking farther and farther away from where you started out to go, you don’t even know you’re lost until you’re so far from your original destination you can’t even see it anymore - Don Winslow
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown - Henry IV Part 2 – W. ShakespeareAfter eighteen years in the NYPD, Detective Sergeant Denny Malone has good cause for unease. The de facto king of Manhattan North has seen considerable upheaval in his kingdom. He may be, effectively, the head of this select unit, charged with going after gangs, drugs, and guns. “Da Force” may have unusually free rein to do as they see fit to accomplish their goals. But a turf war between competing providers of recreational pharmaceuticals is growing increasingly kinetic, with one of the combatants looking to purchase a considerable supply of death-dealing hardware. Not OK. The captain is pressing for a high-publicity bust. There is also the perennial political dance one must perform to keep the brass at One Police Plaza and the political suits from interfering with business as usual. Of course, what passes for business as usual might not look all that good splashed across the front pages of the local tabloids.
Don Winslow - image from Milanonera.com
Bribery may be the grease that keeps the wheels of civilization turning, but it leaves a lot of cops with very dirty hands. Denny is no saint, and no Serpico. He may mean well for the community he is charged with protecting, but his methods often lack the soft gleam of legality. We first meet him as he arrives in federal lockup. The novel then goes back to show how he got there. Slippery slope stuff. See the greased wheels above.
The street stays with you.Lines are crossed here with the frequency of runners reaching the end of the NYC marathon. Early on, Denny and his crew take out a major distributor, whack the principal, and skim off a significant portion of the captured product, a bit of an extra retirement fund. Some people are a tad upset by this. It’s not exactly much of a secret, though, and there are those who would like to see Denny being saluted by the entire force in Dress Blues and white gloves while someone plays Taps.
It sinks into your pores and then your blood.
And into your soul? Malone asks himself. You gonna blame that on the street too?
Some of it, yeah.
You’ve been breathing corruption since you put on the shield, Malone thinks. Like you breathed in death that day in September. Corruption isn’t just in the city’s air, it’s in its DNA, yours too.
Yeah, blame it on the city, blame it on New York.
Blame it on the Job,
It’s too easy, it stops you from asking yourself the hard question.
How did you get here?
Like anyplace else.
A step at a time.
One of the great powers of this novel is the perspective offered on diverse forms of human behavior. Is Denny a brute for roughing up a guy who beat up a kid? Definitely outside the law, but are his actions effective? Denny really does care about the people in his kingdom. He cuts slack when possible, and brutalizes when it is called for. But the law seems a lot more of a recommendation than an absolute.
Winslow offers a close up look at a dark element of police culture. How does being on the take work? Who gets what? How is money distributed? Who is it ok to accept bribes from? What is allowed that would otherwise be justiceable? And why do the cops here consider it ok? He offers as well a moving look at the human relationships that make up police life, the code of honor, the power of partnership, the requirement that all members of the team partake of the ill-gotten, if only as a means of self-protection, the wives who turn a blind eye to where that extra cash may have originated, and what their breadwinner may be up to when the crew parties hard, up to a point anyway. The interaction between the police and people in their area is rich with real affection, as well as the expected cynicism. Some of these scenes are stunningly moving, tissue worthy.
How about the relationship between cops and the local criminal element? You might be reminded of those cartoons in which Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote punch a time clock, go at it, then clock out at the end of the day, friends. The cops and criminals often seem cut from the same cloth, although the baddest of the bad guys are certainly much worse than the worst of the cops. And the bullets really kill. Winslow does not spare the one-percent, either, in his look at layers of amorality.
Don Winslow is a seasoned writer at the pinnacle of his craft.
Malone drives past the Wahi diner and the mural of a raven on 155th. Past the church of the Intercession, but it’s too late for Intercession, past Trinity Cemetery and the Apollo Pharmacy, the Big Brother Barber shop, Hamilton Fruits and Vegetables and all the small gods of place, the personal shrines, the markers of his life on these streets that he loves like a husband loves a cheating wife, a father loves a wayward son.There are wonderful nuggets of law enforcement intel in here. Like the notion of testilying. Or what is considered proper attire for a day on the stand. How about special celebratory nights for a crew? The upside of EMTs not taking a Hippocratic oath. Rules for note-taking on the job. How 9/11 saved the mob. Planning your crimes so they cross as many precinct boundaries as possible, increasing the likelihood that a paperwork snafu will botch a prosecution. On tribes within the force.
Winslow has a Damon Runyon-esque ear for character names. My favorites were a CI named Nasty Ass, and another the cops call Oh No, Henry, and a linguist’s appreciation for the local patois. Or maybe that would be another well-known teller of tales. (I think Dickens is one of the progenitors of noir fiction, writing as he did about the criminal underclass.) He peppers the novel with delicious small side-stories. Tales told in a bar by guys who have been spinning yarns for a lifetime. They give us occasional breathers from the breakneck pace.
He takes on topics that will resonate, from Blue on Black violence, and the resulting reactions, to how the jails are functioning as de facto mental hospitals and detox centers. From a consideration of God and the Church (Denny is not a fan) to the impact of the job on people’s lives. Denny recalls his father. He was a cop on these streets, coming home in the morning after a graveyard shift with murder in his eyes, death in his nose and an icicle in his heart that never melted and eventually killed him. From how cops cope with the daily horrors to how the crime numbers are cooked to support whatever preconceived outcome was desired. On the Iron Pipeline, the route on which legal guns from Texas, Arizona, Alabama and the Carolinas become illegal guns in NYC. The politics of police tactics and voting. The hatred and respect the cops have for the best defense lawyers. Their relationship with reporters. You trust a reporter like you trust a dog. You got a bone in your hand, you’re feeding him, you’re good. Your hand’s empty, don’t turn your back. You either feed the media or it eats you.
Denny may be dirty, but you will be dashing along with him and hoping for the best. Maybe this whole situation can be fixed. He is a rich, multi-faceted character, and you will most definitely care what happens to him. Think Popeye (Gene Hackman) of The French Connection, or Lieutenant Matt Wozniak (Ray Liotta) on the wonderful TV show Shades of Blue.
You might want to secure your seat belt and make sure that your Kevlar is all where it is supposed to be. This is a non-stop, rock’em, sock’em high-speed chase of a novel, a dizzying dash through an underworld of cops, criminals, and those caught in the middle, screeching stops, and doubling backs, hard lefts, harder rights, and Saturn V level acceleration. Once you catch your breath after finishing the final pages I expect you’ll find yourself realizing just what a treat it has been. The Force is not just a great cop book, it is a great book, period, a Shakespearean tragedy of high ideals brought low, with one of the great cop characters of all time. The Force is an instant classic.
Review first posted – February 24, 2017
Publication dates
-----June 20, 2017 - hardcover
-----March 13, 2018 - Trade paper
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Don Winslow has written many books. Some have been made into films. I have read none of them, so can offer no real insight into what carried forward from his prior work, or where new notions or techniques may have come into play. I read this totally as a stand-alone.
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
This page has many links to related interviews and materials
An article by Winslow in Esquire - EL CHAPO AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE HEROIN CRISIS
Interviews
----- Litsack
-----Hi. My name is Don Winslow, and I'm a writing addict - by John Wilkins for the San Diego Union Tribune
-----June 29, 2017 - NY Times - Don Winslow: By the Book
July 26, 2017
I have been a fan of Don Winslow's for more than 20 years, starting when I found his series featuring Neal Carey, one of the more unlikely private investigators I had seen back then. (This was a time when there wasn't such a glut of books featuring unlikely PIs.) Through the years I've read pretty much everything he has written, and I kept hoping there would be a book that would finally catapult him to the level of fame his talent so deserves.
Simply put, his latest book, The Force , is nothing short of a masterpiece, and it appears to be the book which might finally make Winslow a household name. While the story of corruption in the ranks of the NYPD may be a familiar one, in Winslow's hands, it is raw and gripping, one of those books you can't stop reading, and it feels incredibly current. It is definitely one which will make one hell of a movie. (And it already has been optioned, so it will be one to watch!)
The Manhattan North Special Task Force, otherwise known as "Da Force" (as if said with a New York accent), is the NYPD's most elite unit. Created to crack down on the influx of violence, gangs, guns, and drugs infiltrating the city, particularly in the Harlem area, the detectives who serve on Da Force are among the toughest, smartest, most bad-ass cops the city has to offer. At the helm of this unit is Detective Sergeant Denny Malone, who relishes his power and all he can accomplish with it. And boy, does he love his job.
"All Da Force detectives are kings, but Malone—with no disrespect intended to our Lord and Savior—is the King of Kings. Manhattan North is the Kingdom of Malone. Like with any king, his subjects love him and fear him, revere him and loathe him, praise him and revile him. He has his loyalists and rivals, his sycophants and critics, his jesters and advisers, but he has no real friends. Except his partners."
Malone and his partners have given every inch of themselves to the city. They've put themselves at serious risk of injury and death (and have the scars to show for it), and have witnessed the utter horrors that people inflict on one another, whether due to the influence of drugs and alcohol, for revenge or retribution, if they perceive someone is threatening their business interests, or simply out of boredom or cruelty. It's a job that wears you down, but Malone and his partners and his fellow officers love it anyway.
"The cops feel for the vics and hate the perps, but they can't feel too much or they can't do their jobs and they can't hate too much or they'll become the perps. So they develop a shell, a "we hate everybody" attitude force field around themselves that everyone can feel from ten feet away. You gotta have it, Malone knows, or this job kills you, physically or psychologically. Or both."
The thing is, police work is a lot about "what have you done for me lately," so no matter what heroic deeds Da Force does, there's always pressure from higher up to keep crime stats down, keep guns and drugs away, keep people from being murdered. Ultimately, to succeed, you can't be 100 percent idealistic, nor can you be 100 percent innocent. And through their years in the NYPD, Malone and his partners haven't done everything by the book. There may have been times when evidence or weapons were planted, when money changed hands to make things go away, where lawful procedures were skirted or avoided. If the end result is what is desired, what's the problem?
When Da Force makes the biggest heroin bust in the city, they're hailed as hero cops. Yet Malone and his partners actually steal some of the drugs and some of the money before turning everything else in. They're entitled. But this sends them down their slipperiest slope yet, and when Malone catches the eye of the feds for a fairly routine (but still illegal) thing, he finds himself caught in a trap, and has to decide whether to save himself or betray his fellow officers, something he vowed he'd never do.
The Force is magnificently told—it's a big novel with a big vision and a fairly large cast of characters, yet the cops at its center fully grab your attention. Malone is far from perfect and he'll admit that to anyone. He knows that somewhere along the line he and his comrades stepped out of line, but once you get used to the privilege and the perks and the money and the prestige, can you go back and admit your mistakes? This is a man so in love with the job and what they can achieve, he can't think of doing anything else in the world.
Elements of the plot are definitely familiar, but woven together with Winslow's amazing storytelling, it is completely riveting, and I read nearly the entire book on a cross-country flight. Perhaps because of all the references to Serpico I kept seeing a young Al Pacino as Malone, but the characters and the images are so vivid, I watched the book play out in my head as I was reading it. I cannot wait to see this adapted into a movie, because in addition to the violence and bravado and corruption there are moments of true tenderness and emotion and vulnerability.
As you might expect, there is a lot of violence in this book, and in a book which takes place in a culture greatly affected by racism, there is strong language and racial and cultural epithets used throughout. None of it felt gratuitous to me, but I know some may find that triggering or troublesome.
Ever since I learned Winslow would be writing this book, I couldn't wait to read it. Now that I have, I am so excited about the response it has received from critics and readers across the country. He is definitely a writer worth reading, and whether you start with this book or one of his others, you're sure to find an excellent, exceptionally written story.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Simply put, his latest book, The Force , is nothing short of a masterpiece, and it appears to be the book which might finally make Winslow a household name. While the story of corruption in the ranks of the NYPD may be a familiar one, in Winslow's hands, it is raw and gripping, one of those books you can't stop reading, and it feels incredibly current. It is definitely one which will make one hell of a movie. (And it already has been optioned, so it will be one to watch!)
The Manhattan North Special Task Force, otherwise known as "Da Force" (as if said with a New York accent), is the NYPD's most elite unit. Created to crack down on the influx of violence, gangs, guns, and drugs infiltrating the city, particularly in the Harlem area, the detectives who serve on Da Force are among the toughest, smartest, most bad-ass cops the city has to offer. At the helm of this unit is Detective Sergeant Denny Malone, who relishes his power and all he can accomplish with it. And boy, does he love his job.
"All Da Force detectives are kings, but Malone—with no disrespect intended to our Lord and Savior—is the King of Kings. Manhattan North is the Kingdom of Malone. Like with any king, his subjects love him and fear him, revere him and loathe him, praise him and revile him. He has his loyalists and rivals, his sycophants and critics, his jesters and advisers, but he has no real friends. Except his partners."
Malone and his partners have given every inch of themselves to the city. They've put themselves at serious risk of injury and death (and have the scars to show for it), and have witnessed the utter horrors that people inflict on one another, whether due to the influence of drugs and alcohol, for revenge or retribution, if they perceive someone is threatening their business interests, or simply out of boredom or cruelty. It's a job that wears you down, but Malone and his partners and his fellow officers love it anyway.
"The cops feel for the vics and hate the perps, but they can't feel too much or they can't do their jobs and they can't hate too much or they'll become the perps. So they develop a shell, a "we hate everybody" attitude force field around themselves that everyone can feel from ten feet away. You gotta have it, Malone knows, or this job kills you, physically or psychologically. Or both."
The thing is, police work is a lot about "what have you done for me lately," so no matter what heroic deeds Da Force does, there's always pressure from higher up to keep crime stats down, keep guns and drugs away, keep people from being murdered. Ultimately, to succeed, you can't be 100 percent idealistic, nor can you be 100 percent innocent. And through their years in the NYPD, Malone and his partners haven't done everything by the book. There may have been times when evidence or weapons were planted, when money changed hands to make things go away, where lawful procedures were skirted or avoided. If the end result is what is desired, what's the problem?
When Da Force makes the biggest heroin bust in the city, they're hailed as hero cops. Yet Malone and his partners actually steal some of the drugs and some of the money before turning everything else in. They're entitled. But this sends them down their slipperiest slope yet, and when Malone catches the eye of the feds for a fairly routine (but still illegal) thing, he finds himself caught in a trap, and has to decide whether to save himself or betray his fellow officers, something he vowed he'd never do.
The Force is magnificently told—it's a big novel with a big vision and a fairly large cast of characters, yet the cops at its center fully grab your attention. Malone is far from perfect and he'll admit that to anyone. He knows that somewhere along the line he and his comrades stepped out of line, but once you get used to the privilege and the perks and the money and the prestige, can you go back and admit your mistakes? This is a man so in love with the job and what they can achieve, he can't think of doing anything else in the world.
Elements of the plot are definitely familiar, but woven together with Winslow's amazing storytelling, it is completely riveting, and I read nearly the entire book on a cross-country flight. Perhaps because of all the references to Serpico I kept seeing a young Al Pacino as Malone, but the characters and the images are so vivid, I watched the book play out in my head as I was reading it. I cannot wait to see this adapted into a movie, because in addition to the violence and bravado and corruption there are moments of true tenderness and emotion and vulnerability.
As you might expect, there is a lot of violence in this book, and in a book which takes place in a culture greatly affected by racism, there is strong language and racial and cultural epithets used throughout. None of it felt gratuitous to me, but I know some may find that triggering or troublesome.
Ever since I learned Winslow would be writing this book, I couldn't wait to read it. Now that I have, I am so excited about the response it has received from critics and readers across the country. He is definitely a writer worth reading, and whether you start with this book or one of his others, you're sure to find an excellent, exceptionally written story.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
October 6, 2023
How did you get here?
Like anyplace else.
A step at a time.
- Don Winslow, The Force
I’m a commuter now. I’ve switched cities and I’ve switched jobs and now I ride the train to work in the morning and the train back home at night. It’s a far cry from my former life, when it was a ten-minute trip, door-to-door, to get to my old office. Nine minutes if I hit the lights just so.
I read on the train, and that requires a certain kind of book. It can’t be a throwaway title, a so-called “beach read” or “guilty pleasure,” because that won’t hold my attention, and if it’s not holding my attention, then I’m intensely focused on the fact that I’m on a noisy, rattling train. On the other hand, it can’t be super-complicated or dense, since there are constant interruptions. In other words, I need a book that is both exceptionally captivating but also one that I can start and stop with ease.
Don Winslow’s The Force turned out to be the perfect choice for my inaugural Metro Link book-club-of-one. In fact, as soon as I finished, I began to miss it.
The Force is a blistering, fast-paced, foul-mouthed, tour-de-violence that follows the rise and fall of corrupt New York super-cop Dennis Malone. On the first page, you are told that Malone is in jail. Winslow then flashes back to show you how he got there. To show you how a good officer started engaging in drug rips, graft, beat-downs, and murder, rationalizing the descent at every point along the way.
The basic ingredients of The Force are pretty recognizable. I mean, “corrupt cop” is almost its own genre. This will feel incredibly familiar to anyone who has watched The Shield or American Gangster or Training Day (Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris feels like a model for Malone). Moreover, Winslow’s combination of propulsive plot, local knowledge, grasp of vernacular and idiom, and sprinkling of social commentary follows in the footsteps of such masters as Richard Price and David Simon.
This is not a criticism by any means. I think it’s great when a writer of talent decides to use that skill in a genre piece. It would be going too far to say that Winslow redefines the life-on-the-streets novel. Certainly, though, he delivers a stunning epic of cops and drug dealers and cops who are drug dealers.
Winslow’s change to the usual playbook is in his writing style. The Force is 479 pages long, but it reads at about half that length. The reason is that most of the story is told in single sentence paragraphs. Short, vivid bursts of hardened prose. It’s hard to explain why this works so well, but it does. From the beginning, Winslow creates a staccato rhythm that draws you in and holds you in the story. It’s the kind of book that, after you put it down, you look forward to picking back up.
Unlike The Power of the Dog, Winslow’s sprawling saga of the international drug trade, The Force remains claustrophobically attached to Malone, so that you only know as much as he knows. This is important, because there is a lot going on. The layers of corruption through which Malone passes sets up a series of crosses, double-crosses, and triple-crosses that leave him (and you) guessing the loyalties of the other players. And there are a lot of other players: cops, Feds, street-slingers, mobsters, drug kingpins, and civilians caught in the crossfire.
According to Winslow, The Force is the product of years of intense research. Much of that comes through in obvious ways, such as dialogue that captures specific speech patterns, slang, and terms of art. It also comes through in Winslow’s evocation of New York City, often giving you a street-by-street tour. Through Malone he seems to channel a rough fondness for the place:
Winslow has written extensively about the “war on drugs,” so it is not surprising that drugs are the engine driving the crime in The Force. Specifically, heroin, which as Malone points out, only became an “epidemic” once white people started dying.
The verisimilitude of The Force is part of what makes it so fascinating. You know you are reading fiction, but many parts of it, especially the background context, feels like truth, and in many instances, is truth. He grounds things well enough that I barely minded the preposterousness of some of his set-pieces and narrative twists.
Still, there is a warning here. Winslow makes a lot of claims with regards to corruption, racketeering, and systemic rot. The farther you get into The Force, the higher that corruption seems to go. In a way, Winslow’s writing becomes slyly insinuating. Does he know something the rest of us don’t? I started to wonder. And if he does, why doesn’t he just come out and say it? I’ll admit to a bit of frustration on this score, though that is always the price to pay when you mix facts with fiction.
Perhaps more troubling is Winslow’s overall view of law enforcement. Throughout The Force, most of the cops you are introduced to are on the take. Whether it is small gifts or big payouts, everybody is getting something. Winslow, through Malone, consistently rationalizes this with the defense that “everyone is doing it.” It’d be easy to pass this off as a characterization, except that Winslow goes to great lengths, outside the actual narrative, to dedicate his story to police officers, and to recount the time he spent with them while researching. Obviously, the drug wars being fought on America’s city streets are ethically ambiguous. But you can tell an ethically ambiguous tale while maintaining some sort of moral clarity. David Simon does this incredibly well in Homicide and The Corner. Here, though, I was a bit puzzled by Winslow’s conclusion: Cops are crooked but it’s okay because they’re cops.
That doesn’t detract from The Force by any means. It’s just something I pondered while waiting for the train to arrive. Besides, it’s really a testament to how good The Force actually is. You can read it as a hardboiled thriller, with shootouts, tough talking, and labyrinthine plot-turns. You can read it as a character study tracing the downfall of a once-good man. Or you can read it as a tragedy of failed policies and a failed system that has captured a lot of good people and turned them into villainous versions of themselves.
Like anyplace else.
A step at a time.
- Don Winslow, The Force
I’m a commuter now. I’ve switched cities and I’ve switched jobs and now I ride the train to work in the morning and the train back home at night. It’s a far cry from my former life, when it was a ten-minute trip, door-to-door, to get to my old office. Nine minutes if I hit the lights just so.
I read on the train, and that requires a certain kind of book. It can’t be a throwaway title, a so-called “beach read” or “guilty pleasure,” because that won’t hold my attention, and if it’s not holding my attention, then I’m intensely focused on the fact that I’m on a noisy, rattling train. On the other hand, it can’t be super-complicated or dense, since there are constant interruptions. In other words, I need a book that is both exceptionally captivating but also one that I can start and stop with ease.
Don Winslow’s The Force turned out to be the perfect choice for my inaugural Metro Link book-club-of-one. In fact, as soon as I finished, I began to miss it.
The Force is a blistering, fast-paced, foul-mouthed, tour-de-violence that follows the rise and fall of corrupt New York super-cop Dennis Malone. On the first page, you are told that Malone is in jail. Winslow then flashes back to show you how he got there. To show you how a good officer started engaging in drug rips, graft, beat-downs, and murder, rationalizing the descent at every point along the way.
The basic ingredients of The Force are pretty recognizable. I mean, “corrupt cop” is almost its own genre. This will feel incredibly familiar to anyone who has watched The Shield or American Gangster or Training Day (Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris feels like a model for Malone). Moreover, Winslow’s combination of propulsive plot, local knowledge, grasp of vernacular and idiom, and sprinkling of social commentary follows in the footsteps of such masters as Richard Price and David Simon.
This is not a criticism by any means. I think it’s great when a writer of talent decides to use that skill in a genre piece. It would be going too far to say that Winslow redefines the life-on-the-streets novel. Certainly, though, he delivers a stunning epic of cops and drug dealers and cops who are drug dealers.
Winslow’s change to the usual playbook is in his writing style. The Force is 479 pages long, but it reads at about half that length. The reason is that most of the story is told in single sentence paragraphs. Short, vivid bursts of hardened prose. It’s hard to explain why this works so well, but it does. From the beginning, Winslow creates a staccato rhythm that draws you in and holds you in the story. It’s the kind of book that, after you put it down, you look forward to picking back up.
Unlike The Power of the Dog, Winslow’s sprawling saga of the international drug trade, The Force remains claustrophobically attached to Malone, so that you only know as much as he knows. This is important, because there is a lot going on. The layers of corruption through which Malone passes sets up a series of crosses, double-crosses, and triple-crosses that leave him (and you) guessing the loyalties of the other players. And there are a lot of other players: cops, Feds, street-slingers, mobsters, drug kingpins, and civilians caught in the crossfire.
According to Winslow, The Force is the product of years of intense research. Much of that comes through in obvious ways, such as dialogue that captures specific speech patterns, slang, and terms of art. It also comes through in Winslow’s evocation of New York City, often giving you a street-by-street tour. Through Malone he seems to channel a rough fondness for the place:
Malone comes off the bridge near Fort Wadsworth, where the New York marathon starts, gets off on Hylan and drives down through Donegan Hills, past Last Chance Pond, and then takes a left onto Hamden Avenue.
The old neighborhood.
Nothing special about it, just your basic East Shore block of nice single-family homes, mostly Irish or Italian, a lot of cops and firefighters.
A good place to raise kids.
The truth is he just couldn’t stand it anymore.
The incredible freakin’ boredom.
Couldn’t stand coming back from busts, the stakeouts, the roofs, the alleys, the chases to what, Hylan Plaza, Pathmark, Toys “R” Us, Gamestop. He’d come home from a tour jacked up from speed, adrenaline, fear, anger, sadness, rage, and then go to someone’s cookie-cutter house to play Mexican Train or Monopoly or nickel poker. And they were nice people and he’d feel guilty about sitting there sipping their wine coolers and making small talk when what he really wanted was to be back on the street in hot, smelly, noisy, dangerous, fun, interesting, stimulating, infuriating Harlem with the real people and the families and the hustlers, the slingers, the whores.
The poets, the artists, the dreamers.
Winslow has written extensively about the “war on drugs,” so it is not surprising that drugs are the engine driving the crime in The Force. Specifically, heroin, which as Malone points out, only became an “epidemic” once white people started dying.
Whites started to get opium-based pills from their physicians – oxycodone, Vicodin, that shit. But it was expensive and doctors were reluctant to prescribe too much for exactly the fear of addiction. So the white folks went to the open market and the pills became a street drug. It was all very nice and civilized until the Sinaloa Cartel down in Mexico made a corporate decision that it could undersell the big American pharmaceutical companies by raising production of its heroin, thereby reducing the price.
As an incentive, they also increased its potency.
The addicted white Americans found that Mexican “cinnamon” heroin was cheaper and stronger than the pills and started shooting it into their veins…
The verisimilitude of The Force is part of what makes it so fascinating. You know you are reading fiction, but many parts of it, especially the background context, feels like truth, and in many instances, is truth. He grounds things well enough that I barely minded the preposterousness of some of his set-pieces and narrative twists.
Still, there is a warning here. Winslow makes a lot of claims with regards to corruption, racketeering, and systemic rot. The farther you get into The Force, the higher that corruption seems to go. In a way, Winslow’s writing becomes slyly insinuating. Does he know something the rest of us don’t? I started to wonder. And if he does, why doesn’t he just come out and say it? I’ll admit to a bit of frustration on this score, though that is always the price to pay when you mix facts with fiction.
Perhaps more troubling is Winslow’s overall view of law enforcement. Throughout The Force, most of the cops you are introduced to are on the take. Whether it is small gifts or big payouts, everybody is getting something. Winslow, through Malone, consistently rationalizes this with the defense that “everyone is doing it.” It’d be easy to pass this off as a characterization, except that Winslow goes to great lengths, outside the actual narrative, to dedicate his story to police officers, and to recount the time he spent with them while researching. Obviously, the drug wars being fought on America’s city streets are ethically ambiguous. But you can tell an ethically ambiguous tale while maintaining some sort of moral clarity. David Simon does this incredibly well in Homicide and The Corner. Here, though, I was a bit puzzled by Winslow’s conclusion: Cops are crooked but it’s okay because they’re cops.
That doesn’t detract from The Force by any means. It’s just something I pondered while waiting for the train to arrive. Besides, it’s really a testament to how good The Force actually is. You can read it as a hardboiled thriller, with shootouts, tough talking, and labyrinthine plot-turns. You can read it as a character study tracing the downfall of a once-good man. Or you can read it as a tragedy of failed policies and a failed system that has captured a lot of good people and turned them into villainous versions of themselves.
August 17, 2017
Why bother calling 9-1-1 to report a crime when the cops are the biggest criminals on the streets and everyone knows it?
Denny Malone isn’t just your average police detective. He’s also one of the best cops the NYPD has who runs an elite unit nicknamed Da Force that takes on the worst cases involving gang and drug crimes, and he rules his Manhattan North turf along with the partners he loves like brothers. The thing is that Malone is also as crooked as a dog’s back leg because he beats suspects, rips off drug dealers, routinely perjures himself, and takes kickbacks from defense attorneys for referrals. He also has a steady side gig as a bag man running cash between the mob and city officials as well as cutting deals with judges and prosecutors to throw out cases. However, Malone finds himself jammed up by the Feds and is soon wrapped up a situation where all his options are bad and everything he does is a betrayal of someone he cares for.
If you’ve watched The Shield this might sound a little familiar. There’s also a lot of the same kind of behind-the-scenes exploration into all the ways that the system is broken which is what The Wire spent a lot of time exploring. This is Don Winslow exploring a lot of that same territory.
I love The Shield. I love The Wire. I love Don Winslow’s writing.
So why didn’t I love this?
I think it’s a matter of tone and character which are tied tightly together by the nature of Winslow’s style. As he’s in done in several other books Winslow uses a conversational stream-of-consciousness flow as narration. We’re getting the story from Malone’s point of view, but it’s as if it’s being told to us by a very good buddy of his who knew what he was thinking and feeling every step of the way as well as giving us the lowdown on the local history so that we understand the context of why everything is happening.
Winslow is a master of this, but it went a little wrong for me this time. The other books where he used it such as Savages and Dawn Patrol were set in Southern California and had this laid back voice to them. Like some half-stoned surfer was telling you the tale over a Corona at some beachside bar. Since The Force is set in New York it now feels like we’re being told the story in some grimy tavern over a shot and a beer, and the guy telling it is a streetwise cop with a go-fuck-yourself-if-you-don’t-like-it attitude. And that’s as it should be.
However, the problem becomes that Malone is a NYPD cop who wants everyone to know that his balls are bigger than anybody else. When he gets into tight spots where those balls are being squeezed his reactions are always to push back hard, and since he’s as much a criminal as anyone he ever arrested all of this starts to come out as blustery rationalizations. So it’s a whole lot of the things a dirty cop is going throw out as reasons why it’s all bullshit.. “I’m out there on the street risking my life like a real cop! The real crooks here are the politicians and the judges and the lawyers and the real estate swindlers. They’re the ones who are really corrupt!”
Again, that’s as it should be, and it’s a natural reaction for this type of character. In the context of the story it’s also true. The issue becomes that it just goes on and on. And then on some more. Since it’s told in such a bombastic in-your-face fashion it gets annoying. Winslow commits so hard to making Malone the biggest swinging dick in the room who refuses to admit defeat as well as responsibility for what he’s done for so long that I actively started to root against him after a while.
That’s not to say that I’m playing the old “But he’s not a likeable character!” card. He isn’t really, but he’s not supposed to be. Vic Mackey wasn’t ‘likeable’ in The Shield, but the show managed the tricky balance of alternately making him the hero and an appalling villain at times. However, at the end of the show’s run the story also had a definite moral judgement about him that was the culmination of the story. I think part of why this suffered in my opinion is that Winslow tries to play the same game by showing the good sides of Malone as a cop and person, but although he does lay a final verdict of a kind on Malone it feels half-hearted and weak.
This is because Winslow continues to make excuses for Malone until the end by carrying on with the storylines regarding the outside corruption so it seems like he tried to split the difference and make Malone both the bad guy and the victim. Which I can see to a certain extent. It is ridiculous to nail a cop to the wall for taking a free cup of coffee while a politician can collect huge campaign donations from business people he can help, and that's all perfectly legal. However, what Malone did goes way beyond taking a cup of coffee, and he was happy to go along with the corruption while it helped make him one of the most connected cops in the city so him crying and beating his chest about it when he gets his hand caught in the cookie jar just came across as self-serving garbage to me after a while.
I realize that a lot of my friends on here have read and loved this book, and I can see why. Winslow is a great crime writer and this is a helluva tale about a dirty cop with all kinds of action and shady deals in a corrupt city. There’s a lot to like, and maybe if I’d never seen an excellent morality tale about one dirty cop with The Shield or a grim portrayal of how corruption and bureaucracy can consume a city like The Wire I would have liked this more. As it is, I couldn’t help but thinking that I’ve heard this story a couple of times before, and I liked those versions better.
It’s certainly not a bad book, but it will be well down my Winslow rankings.
Denny Malone isn’t just your average police detective. He’s also one of the best cops the NYPD has who runs an elite unit nicknamed Da Force that takes on the worst cases involving gang and drug crimes, and he rules his Manhattan North turf along with the partners he loves like brothers. The thing is that Malone is also as crooked as a dog’s back leg because he beats suspects, rips off drug dealers, routinely perjures himself, and takes kickbacks from defense attorneys for referrals. He also has a steady side gig as a bag man running cash between the mob and city officials as well as cutting deals with judges and prosecutors to throw out cases. However, Malone finds himself jammed up by the Feds and is soon wrapped up a situation where all his options are bad and everything he does is a betrayal of someone he cares for.
If you’ve watched The Shield this might sound a little familiar. There’s also a lot of the same kind of behind-the-scenes exploration into all the ways that the system is broken which is what The Wire spent a lot of time exploring. This is Don Winslow exploring a lot of that same territory.
I love The Shield. I love The Wire. I love Don Winslow’s writing.
So why didn’t I love this?
I think it’s a matter of tone and character which are tied tightly together by the nature of Winslow’s style. As he’s in done in several other books Winslow uses a conversational stream-of-consciousness flow as narration. We’re getting the story from Malone’s point of view, but it’s as if it’s being told to us by a very good buddy of his who knew what he was thinking and feeling every step of the way as well as giving us the lowdown on the local history so that we understand the context of why everything is happening.
Winslow is a master of this, but it went a little wrong for me this time. The other books where he used it such as Savages and Dawn Patrol were set in Southern California and had this laid back voice to them. Like some half-stoned surfer was telling you the tale over a Corona at some beachside bar. Since The Force is set in New York it now feels like we’re being told the story in some grimy tavern over a shot and a beer, and the guy telling it is a streetwise cop with a go-fuck-yourself-if-you-don’t-like-it attitude. And that’s as it should be.
However, the problem becomes that Malone is a NYPD cop who wants everyone to know that his balls are bigger than anybody else. When he gets into tight spots where those balls are being squeezed his reactions are always to push back hard, and since he’s as much a criminal as anyone he ever arrested all of this starts to come out as blustery rationalizations. So it’s a whole lot of the things a dirty cop is going throw out as reasons why it’s all bullshit.. “I’m out there on the street risking my life like a real cop! The real crooks here are the politicians and the judges and the lawyers and the real estate swindlers. They’re the ones who are really corrupt!”
Again, that’s as it should be, and it’s a natural reaction for this type of character. In the context of the story it’s also true. The issue becomes that it just goes on and on. And then on some more. Since it’s told in such a bombastic in-your-face fashion it gets annoying. Winslow commits so hard to making Malone the biggest swinging dick in the room who refuses to admit defeat as well as responsibility for what he’s done for so long that I actively started to root against him after a while.
That’s not to say that I’m playing the old “But he’s not a likeable character!” card. He isn’t really, but he’s not supposed to be. Vic Mackey wasn’t ‘likeable’ in The Shield, but the show managed the tricky balance of alternately making him the hero and an appalling villain at times. However, at the end of the show’s run the story also had a definite moral judgement about him that was the culmination of the story. I think part of why this suffered in my opinion is that Winslow tries to play the same game by showing the good sides of Malone as a cop and person, but although he does lay a final verdict of a kind on Malone it feels half-hearted and weak.
This is because Winslow continues to make excuses for Malone until the end by carrying on with the storylines regarding the outside corruption so it seems like he tried to split the difference and make Malone both the bad guy and the victim. Which I can see to a certain extent. It is ridiculous to nail a cop to the wall for taking a free cup of coffee while a politician can collect huge campaign donations from business people he can help, and that's all perfectly legal. However, what Malone did goes way beyond taking a cup of coffee, and he was happy to go along with the corruption while it helped make him one of the most connected cops in the city so him crying and beating his chest about it when he gets his hand caught in the cookie jar just came across as self-serving garbage to me after a while.
I realize that a lot of my friends on here have read and loved this book, and I can see why. Winslow is a great crime writer and this is a helluva tale about a dirty cop with all kinds of action and shady deals in a corrupt city. There’s a lot to like, and maybe if I’d never seen an excellent morality tale about one dirty cop with The Shield or a grim portrayal of how corruption and bureaucracy can consume a city like The Wire I would have liked this more. As it is, I couldn’t help but thinking that I’ve heard this story a couple of times before, and I liked those versions better.
It’s certainly not a bad book, but it will be well down my Winslow rankings.
July 12, 2017
The mean streets of New York, Denny Malone, leader of a special unit of cops, respected and feared, the city is his territory and his group know as Da Force. He is telling his story from a cell, but how did this king of the streets, at the top of his game, descend so low?
When I first started reading this I thought or I hoped this wouldn't be a cliched viewpoint of every had cop story we hear about. The writing though was addictive, and I kept telling myself that this was the top pick in book page. The more I read the more I felt that rather than a cliched this was in your face realism, a realism I found so intense that my leg was jiggling up and down as I was reading. Do I agree with what they did? No, but these men are confronted daily with threats to their lives, drug, guns, gangs, the mob, cartels and expected to clean this up. Pressured from above, their Captain, the commissioner, the mayor, pressured by crime statistics, results wanted but the powers that be don't want to know how it is done as long as the numbers decreased. Nothing clear cut, morals are blurred, lines are blurred. Denny's character? He is not all one thing either, as complex as many of us are, kind and cruel, crooked and honest. It is easy to sit on my couch and disapprove of much here that I have read, but I have a feeling that in many large cities this happens often.
This book has already been optioned as a film, and if done well it should prove to be an impactful one.
This has also been compared to Mystic River and since I was blown away when I read that one and was blown away by the end of this, I find that a very apt comparison.
ARC from publisher.
When I first started reading this I thought or I hoped this wouldn't be a cliched viewpoint of every had cop story we hear about. The writing though was addictive, and I kept telling myself that this was the top pick in book page. The more I read the more I felt that rather than a cliched this was in your face realism, a realism I found so intense that my leg was jiggling up and down as I was reading. Do I agree with what they did? No, but these men are confronted daily with threats to their lives, drug, guns, gangs, the mob, cartels and expected to clean this up. Pressured from above, their Captain, the commissioner, the mayor, pressured by crime statistics, results wanted but the powers that be don't want to know how it is done as long as the numbers decreased. Nothing clear cut, morals are blurred, lines are blurred. Denny's character? He is not all one thing either, as complex as many of us are, kind and cruel, crooked and honest. It is easy to sit on my couch and disapprove of much here that I have read, but I have a feeling that in many large cities this happens often.
This book has already been optioned as a film, and if done well it should prove to be an impactful one.
This has also been compared to Mystic River and since I was blown away when I read that one and was blown away by the end of this, I find that a very apt comparison.
ARC from publisher.
July 7, 2022
CHE DA FORCE SIA CON TE
Serpico è citato più volte nel romanzo di Winslow.
Ho iniziato a leggere questo libro per alternarlo a un’altra lettura di tipo ben diverso (McEwan). È successo che l’altra lettura è passata in coda, e finché non ho finito questo, non sono riuscito a chiuderlo e posarlo.
Ancora una volta Winslow mi colpisce per il suo accurato lavoro di ricerca e documentazione che si capisce è stato lungo e minuzioso: una quantità pazzesca di dati, notizie, fatti di cronaca, rapporti di polizia, informazioni, documenti che vanno a nutrire la trama di Corruzione (The Force, in originale) rendendola ricca, variegata, dettagliata, appassionante.
A questo bisogna aggiungere che Winslow ha cominciato facendo la sorveglianza sui borseggiatori nei cinema, poi è stato un investigatore privato per una ventina d’anni occupandosi di frodi, incendi dolosi, abusi sessuali sui bambini, tutte esperienze che lo portano a dire che l’uomo non è buono. La vita ti fa diventare più furbo, non migliore.
Il vero Frank Serpico, oggi 81enne. Il protagonista del romanzo di Winslow, Denny Malone è proprio uno di quei poliziotti che Serpico ha combattuto.
Non è la New York di Serpico, che viene citato più volte nel romanzo di Winslow: non lo è perché non esiste più un Serpico, adesso a New York ci sono 38 mila poliziotti in servizio e la stragrande maggioranza di loro prende la stecca “per la famiglia”, per mandare al college i figli, per garantirsi una pensione meno micragnosa di quella federale. È la “grande mela”, dolce e marcia.
Murales a Harlem: l’Audubon Mural Project è basato sulla rappresentazione di volatili in pericolo di estinzione, uno dei suoi protagonisti è l’italiano Federico Massa, aka Iena Cruz.
E quindi, una trama ricca e densa di colpi di scena, con ritmo avvincente.
La scrittura è quella solita di Winslow, quella alla quale mi sono abituato dopo 5 o 6 suoi romanzi letti: scorrevole, senza guizzi particolari, fin troppo piana.
E purtroppo, anche qui, Winslow tende a essere roboante, usa l’enfasi, sceglie protagonisti talmente al di sopra dello standard da risultare un po’ esagerati, opta per un finale che m’è sembrato troppo sopra le righe e al limite della credibilità.
Di questo romanzo Stephen King ha twittato: È come “Il Padrino”, ma con i poliziotti al posto dei mafiosi.
L’Audubon Mural Project ha per tema la sopravvivenza, Harlem sembra il quartiere giusto per questi grandi murales, situati a North Harlem, dalle parti di Amsterdam Avenue.
Serpico è citato più volte nel romanzo di Winslow.
Ho iniziato a leggere questo libro per alternarlo a un’altra lettura di tipo ben diverso (McEwan). È successo che l’altra lettura è passata in coda, e finché non ho finito questo, non sono riuscito a chiuderlo e posarlo.
Ancora una volta Winslow mi colpisce per il suo accurato lavoro di ricerca e documentazione che si capisce è stato lungo e minuzioso: una quantità pazzesca di dati, notizie, fatti di cronaca, rapporti di polizia, informazioni, documenti che vanno a nutrire la trama di Corruzione (The Force, in originale) rendendola ricca, variegata, dettagliata, appassionante.
A questo bisogna aggiungere che Winslow ha cominciato facendo la sorveglianza sui borseggiatori nei cinema, poi è stato un investigatore privato per una ventina d’anni occupandosi di frodi, incendi dolosi, abusi sessuali sui bambini, tutte esperienze che lo portano a dire che l’uomo non è buono. La vita ti fa diventare più furbo, non migliore.
Il vero Frank Serpico, oggi 81enne. Il protagonista del romanzo di Winslow, Denny Malone è proprio uno di quei poliziotti che Serpico ha combattuto.
Non è la New York di Serpico, che viene citato più volte nel romanzo di Winslow: non lo è perché non esiste più un Serpico, adesso a New York ci sono 38 mila poliziotti in servizio e la stragrande maggioranza di loro prende la stecca “per la famiglia”, per mandare al college i figli, per garantirsi una pensione meno micragnosa di quella federale. È la “grande mela”, dolce e marcia.
Murales a Harlem: l’Audubon Mural Project è basato sulla rappresentazione di volatili in pericolo di estinzione, uno dei suoi protagonisti è l’italiano Federico Massa, aka Iena Cruz.
E quindi, una trama ricca e densa di colpi di scena, con ritmo avvincente.
La scrittura è quella solita di Winslow, quella alla quale mi sono abituato dopo 5 o 6 suoi romanzi letti: scorrevole, senza guizzi particolari, fin troppo piana.
E purtroppo, anche qui, Winslow tende a essere roboante, usa l’enfasi, sceglie protagonisti talmente al di sopra dello standard da risultare un po’ esagerati, opta per un finale che m’è sembrato troppo sopra le righe e al limite della credibilità.
Di questo romanzo Stephen King ha twittato: È come “Il Padrino”, ma con i poliziotti al posto dei mafiosi.
L’Audubon Mural Project ha per tema la sopravvivenza, Harlem sembra il quartiere giusto per questi grandi murales, situati a North Harlem, dalle parti di Amsterdam Avenue.
July 27, 2017
This is another brilliant novel from Don Winslow, author of The Power of the Dog and The Winter of Frankie Machine. At the heart of the story is Detective Sergeant Denny Malone of the N.Y.P.D, a deeply flawed character in a corrupt and brutally flawed system.
Malone runs a small elite task force charged with chasing down drug dealers, gun runners, gang members and other such scum. He thinks of himself as the "King of Manhattan North," and to Malone's way of thinking, the ends almost always justify the means. He and his team often act outside of the law in order to "police" the city, and for the most part, their superiors and the Powers That Be turn a blind eye. In a city riven by race and class, the P.D.'s brass want good statistics and the citizens just want the criminals kept away from their doorsteps. How that happens is not much of a concern to any of them.
Denny Malone comes from a long line of policemen, and all he ever wanted was to be a good cop. But from almost the moment he left the Academy, Malone allowed himself to be slowly corrupted until now, he's not any better than and not much different from the thugs he's supposed to be chasing. He and his team administer justice as they see fit, and along the way they rip off cash and drugs, making themselves a fortune in the process. They live like princes, but the day of reckoning is surely coming and when it does, Denny Malone will be sorely tested.
Malone is one of the most compelling figures in crime fiction to come along in years, and Winslow's indictment of the police force, the prosecutors, the lawyers and the politicians who run New York City is searing. This is one of the most depressing stories you'll ever read, and one of the most beautifully written. It's like watching a train wreck unfolding in slow motion. You can't take your eyes off it, and once you pick up this book you cannot put it down until you've reluctantly read the final page. This is easily the book of the summer and one can only wonder where Don Winslow might go from here.
Malone runs a small elite task force charged with chasing down drug dealers, gun runners, gang members and other such scum. He thinks of himself as the "King of Manhattan North," and to Malone's way of thinking, the ends almost always justify the means. He and his team often act outside of the law in order to "police" the city, and for the most part, their superiors and the Powers That Be turn a blind eye. In a city riven by race and class, the P.D.'s brass want good statistics and the citizens just want the criminals kept away from their doorsteps. How that happens is not much of a concern to any of them.
Denny Malone comes from a long line of policemen, and all he ever wanted was to be a good cop. But from almost the moment he left the Academy, Malone allowed himself to be slowly corrupted until now, he's not any better than and not much different from the thugs he's supposed to be chasing. He and his team administer justice as they see fit, and along the way they rip off cash and drugs, making themselves a fortune in the process. They live like princes, but the day of reckoning is surely coming and when it does, Denny Malone will be sorely tested.
Malone is one of the most compelling figures in crime fiction to come along in years, and Winslow's indictment of the police force, the prosecutors, the lawyers and the politicians who run New York City is searing. This is one of the most depressing stories you'll ever read, and one of the most beautifully written. It's like watching a train wreck unfolding in slow motion. You can't take your eyes off it, and once you pick up this book you cannot put it down until you've reluctantly read the final page. This is easily the book of the summer and one can only wonder where Don Winslow might go from here.
December 19, 2018
The Force by Don Winslow is a 2017 William Morrow publication.
Denny Malone- a cop- NYPD, the member of an elite group. He’s seen it all in his eighteen years of service. But his badge is tarnished, and his dirty deeds are coming home to roost. Stealing drugs and skimming copious amounts of cash from a major drug bust, Denny is now under the watchful eye of the Feds, while the racial atmosphere in his city is threatening to boil over at any moment. To complicate matters further, Denny is separated from his wife and kids, and is involved in an interracial relationship with a nurse who happens to have a problem with heroin.
While the feds may have him against the wall, Denny knows things no one would want the public to hear about. Initially, he thinks this might be his ace in the hole. Denny swears to keep his fellow ‘brothers’ safe, that he’s not just covering his own butt. But, as the tensions on the street escalate, the noose is pulled tighter around Denny’s neck and the reader will get a brutal, shocking, up close and personal look at ‘da force’ and life on the streets of New York City.
This is my first book by Don Winslow. I’ve heard awesome things about his books, but never got around to reading one of them. When this book was published in 2017, I grabbed a copy without hesitation, but due to the bulk of the book and the impression that this was a story I wanted to take slow, one that might require my undivided attention and a sharper focus, I kept passing it over, and before long it had slipped so far down the TBR pile it fell off my radar. But, one day a few months back, someone on Twitter ‘liked’ one the author’s tweets, which reminded me of this book, so I made a mental note to look it up again. Strange way to be reminded of a book, I guess, but I am thankful for the prompt, all the same.
This book is mind boggling. It is one of the best crime novels of its kind I’ve read in years. It is packed with layers of grit, drama, tension and suspense, and is utterly engrossing.
However, it is not an easy read in many ways. It is intensely somber and bleak. The prose is tight and poetic even, in its way, but, the language, authentic, though it may be, is rough, very rough.
The story is also very testosterone laden, but again, I think it is more realistic and accurate than the average person wants to believe. In fact, everything in this book is that way, to the point where it became a bit depressing. If only half of this story is based on real life scenarios, and sadly, I think the portrayal of the system was probably spot on, then one might even come away with a feeling of hopelessness.
But this is not exactly new territory, although it is a fresher and more original spin on the classic cop drama. This book did put me in mind of some older books, television programs, and movies from days past that portrayed the realities of big city crime and justice, and the inner workings of the police departments, where corruption, payoffs and greed were standard operating procedure.
Denny’s deep character analysis is also a study of the city and the force and captures the taut atmosphere at on the streets. Do you hate to love Denny, or do you love to hate him? In some ways Denny reminded me of a member of the mob, with his fingers in every pie, wheeling and dealing working the system, compromising, living large and on the edge, instead of a member of law enforcement. The lines were that blurred.
But, at the end of the day, Denny’s frame of mind, his thought process, is at the very center of the entire book, as is the mindset of the city, where the fight isn’t just on the streets, it’s in the twisted system, and is more about politics than keeping citizens safe.
Overall, this novel is a very convincing crime drama, a story one can sink their teeth into, with a lot to chew on.
4.5
Denny Malone- a cop- NYPD, the member of an elite group. He’s seen it all in his eighteen years of service. But his badge is tarnished, and his dirty deeds are coming home to roost. Stealing drugs and skimming copious amounts of cash from a major drug bust, Denny is now under the watchful eye of the Feds, while the racial atmosphere in his city is threatening to boil over at any moment. To complicate matters further, Denny is separated from his wife and kids, and is involved in an interracial relationship with a nurse who happens to have a problem with heroin.
While the feds may have him against the wall, Denny knows things no one would want the public to hear about. Initially, he thinks this might be his ace in the hole. Denny swears to keep his fellow ‘brothers’ safe, that he’s not just covering his own butt. But, as the tensions on the street escalate, the noose is pulled tighter around Denny’s neck and the reader will get a brutal, shocking, up close and personal look at ‘da force’ and life on the streets of New York City.
This is my first book by Don Winslow. I’ve heard awesome things about his books, but never got around to reading one of them. When this book was published in 2017, I grabbed a copy without hesitation, but due to the bulk of the book and the impression that this was a story I wanted to take slow, one that might require my undivided attention and a sharper focus, I kept passing it over, and before long it had slipped so far down the TBR pile it fell off my radar. But, one day a few months back, someone on Twitter ‘liked’ one the author’s tweets, which reminded me of this book, so I made a mental note to look it up again. Strange way to be reminded of a book, I guess, but I am thankful for the prompt, all the same.
This book is mind boggling. It is one of the best crime novels of its kind I’ve read in years. It is packed with layers of grit, drama, tension and suspense, and is utterly engrossing.
However, it is not an easy read in many ways. It is intensely somber and bleak. The prose is tight and poetic even, in its way, but, the language, authentic, though it may be, is rough, very rough.
The story is also very testosterone laden, but again, I think it is more realistic and accurate than the average person wants to believe. In fact, everything in this book is that way, to the point where it became a bit depressing. If only half of this story is based on real life scenarios, and sadly, I think the portrayal of the system was probably spot on, then one might even come away with a feeling of hopelessness.
But this is not exactly new territory, although it is a fresher and more original spin on the classic cop drama. This book did put me in mind of some older books, television programs, and movies from days past that portrayed the realities of big city crime and justice, and the inner workings of the police departments, where corruption, payoffs and greed were standard operating procedure.
Denny’s deep character analysis is also a study of the city and the force and captures the taut atmosphere at on the streets. Do you hate to love Denny, or do you love to hate him? In some ways Denny reminded me of a member of the mob, with his fingers in every pie, wheeling and dealing working the system, compromising, living large and on the edge, instead of a member of law enforcement. The lines were that blurred.
But, at the end of the day, Denny’s frame of mind, his thought process, is at the very center of the entire book, as is the mindset of the city, where the fight isn’t just on the streets, it’s in the twisted system, and is more about politics than keeping citizens safe.
Overall, this novel is a very convincing crime drama, a story one can sink their teeth into, with a lot to chew on.
4.5
Read
June 22, 2017You tell me. Who are the bad guys, who are the good?
Denny Malone, NYPD Detective Sergeant, head of The Manhattan North Special Task Force; all he ever wanted was to be a good cop.
Have you ever dug a hole? That’s the only way I can describe The Force. You dig. The hole gets bigger. The bigger the hole gets it's hard to keep the dirt from seeping back in. If you’re not careful you’ll find yourself becoming part of that fill.
June 20, 2017 – Let the countdown begin!
The Force by Don Winslow
8,899,200 seconds
148,320 minutes
2,472 hours
3 months
15 weeks
103 days
Published! Don't miss it.
“May Da Force be with you!”
My sincere thanks to Edelweiss, William Morrow and Don Winslow for granting me the opportunity to read this exhilarating read. Bound to be the hit of summer reading.
Addendum June 22, 2017
I am a huge fan of Speaking of Mysteries Podcast hosted by Nancie Clare.
The link above should take you to Nancie's interview with Don Winslow.
Denny Malone, NYPD Detective Sergeant, head of The Manhattan North Special Task Force; all he ever wanted was to be a good cop.
Have you ever dug a hole? That’s the only way I can describe The Force. You dig. The hole gets bigger. The bigger the hole gets it's hard to keep the dirt from seeping back in. If you’re not careful you’ll find yourself becoming part of that fill.
June 20, 2017 – Let the countdown begin!
The Force by Don Winslow
8,899,200 seconds
148,320 minutes
2,472 hours
3 months
15 weeks
103 days
Published! Don't miss it.
“May Da Force be with you!”
My sincere thanks to Edelweiss, William Morrow and Don Winslow for granting me the opportunity to read this exhilarating read. Bound to be the hit of summer reading.
Addendum June 22, 2017
I am a huge fan of Speaking of Mysteries Podcast hosted by Nancie Clare.
The link above should take you to Nancie's interview with Don Winslow.
August 28, 2017
I read this book in three days, and at just shy of 500 pages, that tells you how gripping it was. Winslow is a really talented writer, who weaves together a clever, intriguing plot with a strange but successful blend of machismo, humanity and shocking reality. His language is almost musical in its rhythm, which makes this book and his others stand out from most thrillers. I have so much to say about this book, but I have to mull it over a little before I write a longer review. Definitely recommended!
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
May 28, 2019
4.5 stars rounded up
Don Winslow takes his time setting the scene in The Force. Denny Malone is a highly decorated DS who was responsible for the largest heroin bust in NYC history. But he’s willing to bend the rules to suit his needs. Corruption is in the eyes of the beholder. Denny sees himself as king of Manhattan North, dispensing his own brand of justice. Through a combo of flashbacks and present day, we get to watch as Denny and his partners slide down the slippery slope of what's acceptable.
This one touches all the hot buttons - drugs, gun violence, gangs, prejudice. It’s dark, gritty and cynical. I give Winslow credit, he’s got a real way with words. And double credit for making a dirty cop sympathetic. Because, in the scheme of things, he’s still doing more good than bad, and he’s the one putting his life on the line on a regular basis. And as Denny says, they’re the ones telling the parents their child is dead. Through this book, I really came to understand the “Blue Wall” and the brotherhood of the force. And that ending! More twists, turns, deals and compromises than I could ever imagined.
I listened to this and Dion Graham deserves more than five stars for his narration. He was truly amazing.
This is my first book by Winslow, but it certainly lay won’t be the last.
Don Winslow takes his time setting the scene in The Force. Denny Malone is a highly decorated DS who was responsible for the largest heroin bust in NYC history. But he’s willing to bend the rules to suit his needs. Corruption is in the eyes of the beholder. Denny sees himself as king of Manhattan North, dispensing his own brand of justice. Through a combo of flashbacks and present day, we get to watch as Denny and his partners slide down the slippery slope of what's acceptable.
This one touches all the hot buttons - drugs, gun violence, gangs, prejudice. It’s dark, gritty and cynical. I give Winslow credit, he’s got a real way with words. And double credit for making a dirty cop sympathetic. Because, in the scheme of things, he’s still doing more good than bad, and he’s the one putting his life on the line on a regular basis. And as Denny says, they’re the ones telling the parents their child is dead. Through this book, I really came to understand the “Blue Wall” and the brotherhood of the force. And that ending! More twists, turns, deals and compromises than I could ever imagined.
I listened to this and Dion Graham deserves more than five stars for his narration. He was truly amazing.
This is my first book by Winslow, but it certainly lay won’t be the last.
September 27, 2017
"The Fire THIS time."
This would have probaly just been another very good cop thriller without Don Winslow's race nuance (sometimes clunky, sometimes heavy-handed) and the novel's final act. Overall, 'The Force' is not as good as his Cartel series (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel), but in my opinion better than Savages. Winslow doesn't pull many punches when dealing with drug dealers, dirty cops, dirty politicos, etc. He really does deserve some major props from jumping right into the Black Lives Matter, Blue-on-Black dynamics. The novel's characters are arranged in such a way that the issues of Ferguson, NYC, Baltimore, LA, etc., are inescapable from the novel's narrative. You can't really tell a story about NYC cops and corruption and NOT step into issues of race. Winslow doesn't flinch. Which is hard to do. Often with the PoPo and the military their is this varnish of heroism that covers-up a lot of individual bad behavior. Some of my best friends are cops and grunts (or former cops and grunts) and they are just as dickish and racist as the rest of the population. Some of the smartest, hardest working folks I know are cops, but the blue uniform also sometimes wraps around some of the most insecure and stupid idiots as well.
Winslow is a helluva story teller and a decent, nice guy. I met him a couple weeks ago at a lecture and book signing and his reputation for being kind to his fans was evident. The publicity grind (books signings, lecturs, readings, etc) that all writers do more or less appears to be mostly grind, but Winslow was cheerful, funny, kind, patient, and carries a natural gift for engaging people and a real curiosity about humanity. In his work it is obvious that he is seeking first a good story, but he is also very interested in people. He doesn't give a shit if it cop or criminal, he likes finding the bends, the cracks, and the dark corners.
I did get to ask him a questions: "Which contemporary writers intimidate you? Make you feel like hanging it up? Question why you even write because they are THAT good?"
Winslow's answer:
1. Dennis Lehane
2. Richard Russo
3. Jim Harrison, RIP
This would have probaly just been another very good cop thriller without Don Winslow's race nuance (sometimes clunky, sometimes heavy-handed) and the novel's final act. Overall, 'The Force' is not as good as his Cartel series (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel), but in my opinion better than Savages. Winslow doesn't pull many punches when dealing with drug dealers, dirty cops, dirty politicos, etc. He really does deserve some major props from jumping right into the Black Lives Matter, Blue-on-Black dynamics. The novel's characters are arranged in such a way that the issues of Ferguson, NYC, Baltimore, LA, etc., are inescapable from the novel's narrative. You can't really tell a story about NYC cops and corruption and NOT step into issues of race. Winslow doesn't flinch. Which is hard to do. Often with the PoPo and the military their is this varnish of heroism that covers-up a lot of individual bad behavior. Some of my best friends are cops and grunts (or former cops and grunts) and they are just as dickish and racist as the rest of the population. Some of the smartest, hardest working folks I know are cops, but the blue uniform also sometimes wraps around some of the most insecure and stupid idiots as well.
Winslow is a helluva story teller and a decent, nice guy. I met him a couple weeks ago at a lecture and book signing and his reputation for being kind to his fans was evident. The publicity grind (books signings, lecturs, readings, etc) that all writers do more or less appears to be mostly grind, but Winslow was cheerful, funny, kind, patient, and carries a natural gift for engaging people and a real curiosity about humanity. In his work it is obvious that he is seeking first a good story, but he is also very interested in people. He doesn't give a shit if it cop or criminal, he likes finding the bends, the cracks, and the dark corners.
I did get to ask him a questions: "Which contemporary writers intimidate you? Make you feel like hanging it up? Question why you even write because they are THAT good?"
Winslow's answer:
1. Dennis Lehane
2. Richard Russo
3. Jim Harrison, RIP
March 14, 2019
Relentless.
It’s like watching Good Fellas except the wise guys are cops.
It’s also like watching The Gangs of New York – our gang is bigger than your gang. The NYPD is the biggest gang on the streets and it’s a turf war. But like in Scorsese’s film, the Feds are the biggest gang of all.
Winslow describes a New York police department task force team, assigned a section of North Manhattan, who patrols for guns, drugs, and every sort of crime. The leader of the task force team, Dennis Malone, is an old school Irish cop whose line has blurred – by becoming the toughest man on the streets to protect and serve, he’s also become the same kind of criminal he’s sworn to bring to justice.
But it’s complicated. This is not just a dirty cop story, about a young idealistic police officer who crossed a line early and then kept going deeper and deeper into the dark side. Malone is still a cop and wants to do the right thing – wants to serve and protect and keep the neighborhoods safe and bring criminals to justice. He wants to be a good father and to be the kind of cop that his father was and much of his inner turmoil is about the conflict between doing what is right while also doing it legally.
At one point he says something like – “I’ll fight fair when everyone else does.” In other words, following the procedure and observing constitutional and civil rights runs contrary to practicing the actual methods of bringing justice. Malone has tapped into a primitive, street justice where a beating – or even an execution – serves the greater good more than what is sanctioned by law.
Winslow also explores the ideas of corruption in the context of public service and of double standards that exist and what levels of corruption are tolerated and even accepted. Malone observes that what is OK for the rich and famous, the politically well-connected and mainstays of society is seen as abhorrent when committed by cops, the blue-collar workers of our criminal justice system, on the streets and in the trenches. Where is the line drawn? A free cup of coffee and a sandwich? A favor? When does this become a bribe or graft?
Winslow pulls no punches here, Malone has crossed a line – he is a dirty cop. He is the Nietzschean gazer into the abyss, he is Conrad’s Kurtz. But Winslow’s Hollow Man still feels and loves and regrets and is torn asunder by the conflicting powers of the most fundamental ideas about what is right and wrong.
Winslow’s narrative style is a fast paced and frenetic stream of consciousness dialogue and internal monologue wherein we analyze the motivations behind Malone’s actions and he shares with the reader a character study of a tortured soul. Malone is drawn not so much as an anti-hero but rather as a tragic hero – we know where his path leads but we cannot look away as he confronts his demons and walks resolutely towards an absolution that may not be recognized by society but one that is ultimately even more personal and real. The final scene is as poignant and appallingly beautiful in its ironic tragedy as any I’ve read before.
Powerful, riveting and engaging. Winslow has long been on my radar and I will read more from him.
It’s like watching Good Fellas except the wise guys are cops.
It’s also like watching The Gangs of New York – our gang is bigger than your gang. The NYPD is the biggest gang on the streets and it’s a turf war. But like in Scorsese’s film, the Feds are the biggest gang of all.
Winslow describes a New York police department task force team, assigned a section of North Manhattan, who patrols for guns, drugs, and every sort of crime. The leader of the task force team, Dennis Malone, is an old school Irish cop whose line has blurred – by becoming the toughest man on the streets to protect and serve, he’s also become the same kind of criminal he’s sworn to bring to justice.
But it’s complicated. This is not just a dirty cop story, about a young idealistic police officer who crossed a line early and then kept going deeper and deeper into the dark side. Malone is still a cop and wants to do the right thing – wants to serve and protect and keep the neighborhoods safe and bring criminals to justice. He wants to be a good father and to be the kind of cop that his father was and much of his inner turmoil is about the conflict between doing what is right while also doing it legally.
At one point he says something like – “I’ll fight fair when everyone else does.” In other words, following the procedure and observing constitutional and civil rights runs contrary to practicing the actual methods of bringing justice. Malone has tapped into a primitive, street justice where a beating – or even an execution – serves the greater good more than what is sanctioned by law.
Winslow also explores the ideas of corruption in the context of public service and of double standards that exist and what levels of corruption are tolerated and even accepted. Malone observes that what is OK for the rich and famous, the politically well-connected and mainstays of society is seen as abhorrent when committed by cops, the blue-collar workers of our criminal justice system, on the streets and in the trenches. Where is the line drawn? A free cup of coffee and a sandwich? A favor? When does this become a bribe or graft?
Winslow pulls no punches here, Malone has crossed a line – he is a dirty cop. He is the Nietzschean gazer into the abyss, he is Conrad’s Kurtz. But Winslow’s Hollow Man still feels and loves and regrets and is torn asunder by the conflicting powers of the most fundamental ideas about what is right and wrong.
Winslow’s narrative style is a fast paced and frenetic stream of consciousness dialogue and internal monologue wherein we analyze the motivations behind Malone’s actions and he shares with the reader a character study of a tortured soul. Malone is drawn not so much as an anti-hero but rather as a tragic hero – we know where his path leads but we cannot look away as he confronts his demons and walks resolutely towards an absolution that may not be recognized by society but one that is ultimately even more personal and real. The final scene is as poignant and appallingly beautiful in its ironic tragedy as any I’ve read before.
Powerful, riveting and engaging. Winslow has long been on my radar and I will read more from him.
August 22, 2020
Dirty Cops, Modern Shakespearean Tragedy
He who "fights monsters," Nietzsche warned, "should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." As the novel opens, NYPD Detective Sergeant Denny Malone is being held in a federal lockup, accused of being a "dirty cop" into whom the abyss now gazes.
Malone is the de facto leader of NYPD's most elite crime-fighting unit, the Manhattan North Special Task Force, whose mission is to rid Washington Heights and the more gentrified Harlem of drugs and guns. Dubbed "king of Manhattan North," Malone wears the crown proudly. Somewhere on the path from his beginning as a young beat cop from Staten Island--son of a hero Irish cop--Malone lost perspective, became greedy, self-serving, and forgot what it means to be a guardian of his community.
The novel brings readers up to Malone's current incarceration by flashbacks into his career, routine, snitches, the brotherhood of partners and his moral fall from grace. Though one might complain that the background is overlong, I found it fascinating. Winslow spent years researching the NYPD culture and interviewing street cops, veteran detectives and high-ranking police bureaucrats for this novel which he has suffused with tales he gathered from the home and street lives of New York's finest. He dedicated the book to law enforcement employees murdered in the line of duty over the time he was writing The Force." The list covers nearly three pages.
Winslow describes the "love-hate relationship" between cops and the community:
Winslow provides a closer look at the dark culture of the NYPD such as the hatred and respect cops have for top criminal defense attorneys, the practice of "testilying" for the "greater good," how jails function as de facto hospitals and detox centers, and cops' relationship with reporters: "You trust a reporter like you trust a dog. You got a bone in your hand, you're feeding him, you're good. Your hand is empty, don't turn your back. You either feed the media or it eats you." As to "suits who love their numbers," Malone calls them a "new management breed of cops" like "the sabermetrics baseball people [who] believe the numbers say it all, and when the numbers don't say what they want them to, they massage them like Koreans on Eighth Avenue until they get a happy ending."
In Detective Sergeant Denny Malone, Don Winslow has created a multi-faceted anti-hero you will care about as a "father loves a wayward son," and who, toward the denouement, you might find yourself pulling for as the noble savage in a system permeated by corruption and duplicity. This sweeping Shakespearean tragedy of character and moral order tracks the downward spiral of a talented and decorated police detective who goes bad "step by step." It's a tale played out down the dark alleys of Manhattan North, among warring clans ruled by corrupt kings, fighting over turf, fortunes and modern-day artillery, as all of New York City is torqued into a racial tinderbox while awaiting a grand jury's ruling on a white cop killing an unarmed black kid.
If you've not heard of Don Winslow, you will soon. He writes highly suspenseful and realistic crime-fiction, so timely they are nearly prescient. Winslow is the best-selling author of "The Cartel," a 2015 epic about narco warfare in Mexico. Last September--nine months prior to the June 19 publication of The Force--20th Century Fox gave him a seven-figure deal for the film rights--a film Ridley Scott will produce and may direct. Fox and Scott already have "The Cartel" in pre-production.
Winslow builds up friction by showing how Malone crossed the line incrementally over the years: shaking down criminals, accepting favors, taking cuts, administering vigilante justice on his own and as favors, and acting as go-between for criminal defense attorneys and venal ADAs. What put him in the incinerator though was the biggest heroin bust in the city's history, which would have been twice as large had he and his partners not taken half the cash and product; this and the fact that Malone executed the drug kingpin as a vendetta for his gang's murdering a snitch's wife and kids.
Malone is painfully aware he is corrupt. He is wracked with guilt over leaving his wife and three kids in Staten Island, while feeling like how he's the worst thing in the world for his beautiful black girlfriend, given her addiction to heroin. And yet, he simply cannot stop; it's not just his greed, but his arrogance: "You need the money, the cash flow," he tells himself, "but it's more than that, admit it. You love the game. The thrill, the taking off the bad guys, even the danger, the idea that you might get caught.”
To cope with the stress of the job and his internal moral turmoil, Malone partakes of dexedrine, booze, hash and veneries.
The feds have him and his only way out is informing on those higher up the chain. Malone also faces betraying his partners, something he swore he'd never do, that is until the feds told him if he didn't they would put his wife in jail, take away his house and leave his kids without parents or a home.
The pressure on Malone ignites as he finds himself attacked from all sides: his by-the-book captain, internal affairs, federal investigators, the U.S. Attorney, the Harlem gangs, his partners who suspect he might be betraying them, the mob for which he does favors, other cops who think he is a rat, the police commissioner, and a mayor's office afraid he knows too much, not to mention Malone's own personal demons.
Ultimately, the novel is an indictment of a bedlam system rife with corruption, graft and favors for the penthouse set, giving color to the phrase, "the fish always stinks from the head downwards."
In the lead-up to the oddly satisfying, cinematic denouement, Winslow ratchets up the racial tension as Malone faces a defining choice that could touch off "the fire this time": whether he is still a real cop who will act as protector of the residents of Manhattan North or a former cop who chooses to avoid penance for his crimes because he's made a deal with the powers-that-be to help hide a high crime.
Winslow takes the reader into a concrete world of gangs and guns, the darkness of NYPD culture, and a racially combustible city set to incinerate. Told to the rhythmic beat of the NYC cop vernacular, this epic boils with vicious battles, blood-soaked hands holding dying cops, and double-crosses by rat bastards to brew up an atmosphere in which, as in Macbeth's Scotland, "foul is fair and fair is foul."
Corruptio optimi pessima (Corruption of the best becomes the worst)
He who "fights monsters," Nietzsche warned, "should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." As the novel opens, NYPD Detective Sergeant Denny Malone is being held in a federal lockup, accused of being a "dirty cop" into whom the abyss now gazes.
Malone is the de facto leader of NYPD's most elite crime-fighting unit, the Manhattan North Special Task Force, whose mission is to rid Washington Heights and the more gentrified Harlem of drugs and guns. Dubbed "king of Manhattan North," Malone wears the crown proudly. Somewhere on the path from his beginning as a young beat cop from Staten Island--son of a hero Irish cop--Malone lost perspective, became greedy, self-serving, and forgot what it means to be a guardian of his community.
The novel brings readers up to Malone's current incarceration by flashbacks into his career, routine, snitches, the brotherhood of partners and his moral fall from grace. Though one might complain that the background is overlong, I found it fascinating. Winslow spent years researching the NYPD culture and interviewing street cops, veteran detectives and high-ranking police bureaucrats for this novel which he has suffused with tales he gathered from the home and street lives of New York's finest. He dedicated the book to law enforcement employees murdered in the line of duty over the time he was writing The Force." The list covers nearly three pages.
Winslow describes the "love-hate relationship" between cops and the community:
"The cops feel for the vic's and hate the perps, but they can't feel too much or they can't do their jobs and they can't hate too much or they'll become the perps. So they develop a shell, a we-hate-everybody attitude forcefield around themselves that everyone can feel from ten feet away. You gotta have it, Malone knows, or this job kills you, physically or psychologically or both."Malone developed an interesting take on the New York Times' declaration of a heroin epidemic: "it's only an epidemic, of course, because now white people are dying." He goes on to explain how whites started getting hooked on opioids prescribed by their physicians who stopped prescribing for fear of this very addiction. So white folks went to the open market and opioids became a high-priced street drug. Meanwhile, the Mexican Sinoloa Cartel made an executive decision to undercut American pharmaceutical companies by increasing production, thus lowering prices, of an easier-made form of heroin more potent than opioids. Addicted white Americans, finding this black-tar heroin cheaper and stronger than lortab, norco, vicodin, oxycontin and the like, began shooting up, overdosing and many times dying. "Malone literally saw it happening. He and his team busted more bridge-and-tunnel junkies, suburban housewives and upper Eastside madonnas than they could count."
Winslow provides a closer look at the dark culture of the NYPD such as the hatred and respect cops have for top criminal defense attorneys, the practice of "testilying" for the "greater good," how jails function as de facto hospitals and detox centers, and cops' relationship with reporters: "You trust a reporter like you trust a dog. You got a bone in your hand, you're feeding him, you're good. Your hand is empty, don't turn your back. You either feed the media or it eats you." As to "suits who love their numbers," Malone calls them a "new management breed of cops" like "the sabermetrics baseball people [who] believe the numbers say it all, and when the numbers don't say what they want them to, they massage them like Koreans on Eighth Avenue until they get a happy ending."
In Detective Sergeant Denny Malone, Don Winslow has created a multi-faceted anti-hero you will care about as a "father loves a wayward son," and who, toward the denouement, you might find yourself pulling for as the noble savage in a system permeated by corruption and duplicity. This sweeping Shakespearean tragedy of character and moral order tracks the downward spiral of a talented and decorated police detective who goes bad "step by step." It's a tale played out down the dark alleys of Manhattan North, among warring clans ruled by corrupt kings, fighting over turf, fortunes and modern-day artillery, as all of New York City is torqued into a racial tinderbox while awaiting a grand jury's ruling on a white cop killing an unarmed black kid.
If you've not heard of Don Winslow, you will soon. He writes highly suspenseful and realistic crime-fiction, so timely they are nearly prescient. Winslow is the best-selling author of "The Cartel," a 2015 epic about narco warfare in Mexico. Last September--nine months prior to the June 19 publication of The Force--20th Century Fox gave him a seven-figure deal for the film rights--a film Ridley Scott will produce and may direct. Fox and Scott already have "The Cartel" in pre-production.
Winslow builds up friction by showing how Malone crossed the line incrementally over the years: shaking down criminals, accepting favors, taking cuts, administering vigilante justice on his own and as favors, and acting as go-between for criminal defense attorneys and venal ADAs. What put him in the incinerator though was the biggest heroin bust in the city's history, which would have been twice as large had he and his partners not taken half the cash and product; this and the fact that Malone executed the drug kingpin as a vendetta for his gang's murdering a snitch's wife and kids.
Malone is painfully aware he is corrupt. He is wracked with guilt over leaving his wife and three kids in Staten Island, while feeling like how he's the worst thing in the world for his beautiful black girlfriend, given her addiction to heroin. And yet, he simply cannot stop; it's not just his greed, but his arrogance: "You need the money, the cash flow," he tells himself, "but it's more than that, admit it. You love the game. The thrill, the taking off the bad guys, even the danger, the idea that you might get caught.”
To cope with the stress of the job and his internal moral turmoil, Malone partakes of dexedrine, booze, hash and veneries.
The feds have him and his only way out is informing on those higher up the chain. Malone also faces betraying his partners, something he swore he'd never do, that is until the feds told him if he didn't they would put his wife in jail, take away his house and leave his kids without parents or a home.
The pressure on Malone ignites as he finds himself attacked from all sides: his by-the-book captain, internal affairs, federal investigators, the U.S. Attorney, the Harlem gangs, his partners who suspect he might be betraying them, the mob for which he does favors, other cops who think he is a rat, the police commissioner, and a mayor's office afraid he knows too much, not to mention Malone's own personal demons.
Ultimately, the novel is an indictment of a bedlam system rife with corruption, graft and favors for the penthouse set, giving color to the phrase, "the fish always stinks from the head downwards."
In the lead-up to the oddly satisfying, cinematic denouement, Winslow ratchets up the racial tension as Malone faces a defining choice that could touch off "the fire this time": whether he is still a real cop who will act as protector of the residents of Manhattan North or a former cop who chooses to avoid penance for his crimes because he's made a deal with the powers-that-be to help hide a high crime.
Winslow takes the reader into a concrete world of gangs and guns, the darkness of NYPD culture, and a racially combustible city set to incinerate. Told to the rhythmic beat of the NYC cop vernacular, this epic boils with vicious battles, blood-soaked hands holding dying cops, and double-crosses by rat bastards to brew up an atmosphere in which, as in Macbeth's Scotland, "foul is fair and fair is foul."
Corruptio optimi pessima (Corruption of the best becomes the worst)
December 27, 2019
Ψάχνοντας για αυτό ��ο βιβλίο κανείς θα συναντήσει τον όρο Αστυνομική λογοτεχνία καθώς επίσης και συγκρίσεις με τον Νονό. Το βιβλίο είναι μια υπόσχεση επιών διαστάσεων, όπου ηρωικοί μπάτσοι, στην αφρόκρεμα της αστυνομίας, άγουν και φέρονται σαν αρχιμαφιόζοι. Είναι τελικά ένα τέτοιο έπος, ένα Νονός της "άλλης πλευράς";
Θεωρώ πως είναι άδικο για ένα καλό βιβλίο να προσπαθούμε να το πουλήσουμε με βαρύγδουπους, πιασάρικους τίτλους, αλλά τούτο το βιβλίο είναι ακριβώς ό,τι πουλάει: ένα εξαιρετικό καλογραμμένο ψυχογράφημα της Νεο Υορκέζικης Αστυνομίας και δή του ξεχωριστού ��μήματος, της λεγόμενης "Δυναμης" (εξού και The Force). Ο άρχων της ομάδος, Μαλόουν, είναι και ο Βασιλιάς του Μανχάταν. Έχει εκτιναχθεί σε δημοφιλία μέσα από τα κατορθώματά του. Ωστόσο πολύ γρήγορα θα έρθουμε αντιμέτωποι με τις πρακτικές της αστυνομίας από τα χαμηλότερα κλιμάκια μέχρι τα υψηλά αξιώματα. Δωροδοκίες, χρηματισμοί, κολλητηλίκια με μαφιόζους, ακριβή ζωή, ξενύχτια, μπουρδελότσαρκες - ό,τι κάνει δηλαδή ο κακοποιός με την μόνη διαφορά πως, όπως χαρακτηριστικά λέει κάποιος στο βιβλίο, αντίθετα με τον κακότυχο εγκληματία, κανείς αστυνομικός δεν πεινάει. Και φυσικά κάπου έρχεται η κάθαρση, το βιβλίο ανατρέπει την ρουτίνα και ξεκινάει η αντίστροφη μέτρηση.
Ένας συνδυασμός του Νονού, του τηλεοπτικού The Wire και του Πατσινικού Serpico δίνουν ζωή σε μια εξαιρετική ιστορία. Δε νομίζω να έχω ξαναδιαβάσει αστυνομική λογοτεχνία -με την αυστηρή έννοια του όρου, αυτής που ασχολείται με μπάτσους ως επί το πλείστον- και κάτι μου λέει πως τούτο εδώ ξεφεύγει από τα στεγανά αυτού ή οποιοδήποτε άλλου υπό-είδους στο οποίο εντάσσεται. Εξαιρετικό!
Θεωρώ πως είναι άδικο για ένα καλό βιβλίο να προσπαθούμε να το πουλήσουμε με βαρύγδουπους, πιασάρικους τίτλους, αλλά τούτο το βιβλίο είναι ακριβώς ό,τι πουλάει: ένα εξαιρετικό καλογραμμένο ψυχογράφημα της Νεο Υορκέζικης Αστυνομίας και δή του ξεχωριστού ��μήματος, της λεγόμενης "Δυναμης" (εξού και The Force). Ο άρχων της ομάδος, Μαλόουν, είναι και ο Βασιλιάς του Μανχάταν. Έχει εκτιναχθεί σε δημοφιλία μέσα από τα κατορθώματά του. Ωστόσο πολύ γρήγορα θα έρθουμε αντιμέτωποι με τις πρακτικές της αστυνομίας από τα χαμηλότερα κλιμάκια μέχρι τα υψηλά αξιώματα. Δωροδοκίες, χρηματισμοί, κολλητηλίκια με μαφιόζους, ακριβή ζωή, ξενύχτια, μπουρδελότσαρκες - ό,τι κάνει δηλαδή ο κακοποιός με την μόνη διαφορά πως, όπως χαρακτηριστικά λέει κάποιος στο βιβλίο, αντίθετα με τον κακότυχο εγκληματία, κανείς αστυνομικός δεν πεινάει. Και φυσικά κάπου έρχεται η κάθαρση, το βιβλίο ανατρέπει την ρουτίνα και ξεκινάει η αντίστροφη μέτρηση.
Ένας συνδυασμός του Νονού, του τηλεοπτικού The Wire και του Πατσινικού Serpico δίνουν ζωή σε μια εξαιρετική ιστορία. Δε νομίζω να έχω ξαναδιαβάσει αστυνομική λογοτεχνία -με την αυστηρή έννοια του όρου, αυτής που ασχολείται με μπάτσους ως επί το πλείστον- και κάτι μου λέει πως τούτο εδώ ξεφεύγει από τα στεγανά αυτού ή οποιοδήποτε άλλου υπό-είδους στο οποίο εντάσσεται. Εξαιρετικό!
August 14, 2017
I love Don Winslow's writing (The Cartel is a favorite) but this book missed the mark. The overall story, of police corruption, from the POV of a corrupt cop, is compelling but the writing just didn't work for me. There were all kinds of style tics and flourishes that kept pulling me out of the story. The use of the N word so much, got under my skin though I understand the context within which it was used and that it was being used for authenticity's sake. Oh there was this thing with rap lyrics that just made me cringe. I cringe even remembering it. The pacing felt off. The first part was so slow and then at the end everything felt rushed. The overall ending was super readable and had me turning the pages faster and faster. The action was well written and one character, Claudette, I found was beautifully written. The author clearly did a ton of research and at times it felt like he was just showing how much research he did. Like we get it. You know a lot about cops but let's get back to the story please! Overall not the book for me but if you like lots of action and cop stories this might be for you.
July 17, 2017
This is the the type of great book you don't see everyday; that you might go all year without reading. A book where you simultaneously want to see what the hell happens on the next page but also want to slow down your reading because you don't want it to end. A book that on one hand is crazily entertaining but also makes you hit Google and read articles to learn more about its timely issues.
1) One of the best books I've read this year
2) What might have to be considered the Best Cop Novel, perhaps ever.
3) The best Richard Price novel Richard Price never wrote.
This is the third book by Don Winslow that I've given 5 stars to. The guy really does have a talent for slinging stories that are both heavily engaging with a lasting effect and also very researched and informative. A great storyteller that should have the same success as the most popular authors. One of the things that really impressed me was how awesome Winslow's attention to detail is and how EVERY SINGLE THING matters by the end. Everything character, every idea, even every setting connects in important ways and it always excites me to see an author so dedicated to making that happen.
Hell isn't having no choice. It's having to make a choice between horrific things.At the risk of this sounding like hyperbole, Don Winslow takes a crooked cop story that's a combination of The Shield and The Wire (yes, it's just as amazing as that sounds), and crafts:
1) One of the best books I've read this year
2) What might have to be considered the Best Cop Novel, perhaps ever.
3) The best Richard Price novel Richard Price never wrote.
This is the third book by Don Winslow that I've given 5 stars to. The guy really does have a talent for slinging stories that are both heavily engaging with a lasting effect and also very researched and informative. A great storyteller that should have the same success as the most popular authors. One of the things that really impressed me was how awesome Winslow's attention to detail is and how EVERY SINGLE THING matters by the end. Everything character, every idea, even every setting connects in important ways and it always excites me to see an author so dedicated to making that happen.
You tell yourself what you gotta tell yourself to do what you gotta do. And sometimes you even fuckin' believe it.The story of Manhattan Task Force Detective Denny Malone is the epic tragedy of a crooked city cop at the top of his game slowly losing his grip on his kingdom. Throughout the novel, it's mesmerizing to witness him struggle to keep control and to get his head out from under the slowly rising waters of corruption, lies, dirty deeds and violence created by both he and the system he's a part of.
All cats are gray in the dark.Trust me, this will be seen as one of THE books of the year.
September 4, 2020
Excelente novela de Winslow. No decepciona nunca.
Esta vez nos sumerge en un cuerpo de policía y nos adentra en sus vísceras, en su humanidad, en su imperfección.
Es un libro que me hizo dudar sobre la corrupción en sí misma y en la propia injusticia de nuestro sistema capitalista dónde quién menos arriesga es el que más gana y el que más pone su propia vida en riesgo es quién se va a casa sin nada con que alimentar a sus hijos.
Grandes personajes y una trama enlazada de manera brillante. Héroes y antiheroes. Corrupción y arrepentimiento. Todos son culpables y inocentes a la vez. Como la vida misma.
Excellent novel by Winslow. He never disappoints.
This time he immerses us in a police force and takes us into its vagaries, into its humanity, into its imperfection.
It's a book that made me doubt the corruption itself and the very injustice of our capitalist system where the one who least risks is the one who earns the most and the one who most puts his own life at risk is the one who goes home with nothing to feed his children.
Great characters and a brilliantly linked plot. Heroes and anti-heroes. Corruption and repentance. All are guilty and innocent at the same time. Like life itself.
Esta vez nos sumerge en un cuerpo de policía y nos adentra en sus vísceras, en su humanidad, en su imperfección.
Es un libro que me hizo dudar sobre la corrupción en sí misma y en la propia injusticia de nuestro sistema capitalista dónde quién menos arriesga es el que más gana y el que más pone su propia vida en riesgo es quién se va a casa sin nada con que alimentar a sus hijos.
Grandes personajes y una trama enlazada de manera brillante. Héroes y antiheroes. Corrupción y arrepentimiento. Todos son culpables y inocentes a la vez. Como la vida misma.
Excellent novel by Winslow. He never disappoints.
This time he immerses us in a police force and takes us into its vagaries, into its humanity, into its imperfection.
It's a book that made me doubt the corruption itself and the very injustice of our capitalist system where the one who least risks is the one who earns the most and the one who most puts his own life at risk is the one who goes home with nothing to feed his children.
Great characters and a brilliantly linked plot. Heroes and anti-heroes. Corruption and repentance. All are guilty and innocent at the same time. Like life itself.
May 4, 2022
The ultimate corrupt cop saga
This is the story of a special group within the NYPD (called "The Force") whose aim is to clean up Manhattan North of the threat of drugs and weapons. A group that takes bribes and payouts, steals what should have been confiscated from busts, runs prostitutes, uses uppers and downers to get through the day, and more. This group also takes pride in their work, considers each other to be closer than blood, trusts each other with their lives, and truly wants good to triumph over evil.
The problem is, the distinction between good and evil becomes increasingly murky - step by step.
It's the insidious fall from grace of Denny Malone, the King of Manhattan North, and the leader of The Force, that fascinated me more than anything. He could have been anything - a lawyer, a politician, a teacher, a cabinet maker, whatever. His profession didn't matter to me so much. It's the step-by-step fall into the muck that this book is about. It's ending up where you never thought you ever would, as if you sleepwalked into a nightmare world. "How did I get here?" One little compromise and one little lie and one little secret, and then another. And then they get bigger. And they pile up and up and up and suddenly you're on top, but trapped by this new false world you've built, and there's no where to go but down.
Of course, it IS all about being a cop, and how much of the system is rotten and unfair and almost unfixable. It's about race and poverty and how even a junkie can have a heart and have something to teach a king.
Though it may not win any prestigious literary awards with its commercial lean and somewhat stock characters, and the fact that it went on longer than I'd have liked, Don Winslow has written a competent thriller.
This is the story of a special group within the NYPD (called "The Force") whose aim is to clean up Manhattan North of the threat of drugs and weapons. A group that takes bribes and payouts, steals what should have been confiscated from busts, runs prostitutes, uses uppers and downers to get through the day, and more. This group also takes pride in their work, considers each other to be closer than blood, trusts each other with their lives, and truly wants good to triumph over evil.
The problem is, the distinction between good and evil becomes increasingly murky - step by step.
It's the insidious fall from grace of Denny Malone, the King of Manhattan North, and the leader of The Force, that fascinated me more than anything. He could have been anything - a lawyer, a politician, a teacher, a cabinet maker, whatever. His profession didn't matter to me so much. It's the step-by-step fall into the muck that this book is about. It's ending up where you never thought you ever would, as if you sleepwalked into a nightmare world. "How did I get here?" One little compromise and one little lie and one little secret, and then another. And then they get bigger. And they pile up and up and up and suddenly you're on top, but trapped by this new false world you've built, and there's no where to go but down.
Of course, it IS all about being a cop, and how much of the system is rotten and unfair and almost unfixable. It's about race and poverty and how even a junkie can have a heart and have something to teach a king.
Though it may not win any prestigious literary awards with its commercial lean and somewhat stock characters, and the fact that it went on longer than I'd have liked, Don Winslow has written a competent thriller.
March 14, 2023
I sat on reviewing this one for quite some time. It was too hard. Gritty, violent, depressing, sad and smart all at once, if that is possible. The first book I have read by this author, and I was impressed. I loved the imagery of all this mess and mixed-up sensibilities.
Smart but taken by money and power, Denny Malone has become known as The king of Manhattan North, clearly good at the fundamentals of his job as part of a task force involved in controlling the drug problem. He is able to perform some good, but this is at a cost to everyone and everything he is involved in.
His family suffers, he is on the take at every stage, as are his crew of detectives playing the game. I sensed his colleagues were worse.
No one is crystal clean, his bosses; it just seems to be the way of it there. He has left his family; his new partner is a woman trying to be clean. This book contains many references to drugs, and jonsing is all part of everyone’s life. Even Denny partakes in many substances. He loves his kids, he doesn’t dislike his estranged wife, but it all seems to be too late.
Lots of surface camaraderie amongst fellow officers, but it clearly becomes evident every man is out for himself. Denny’s downfall is hinged on being what he said he would never be – what they all said they wouldn’t be.
Human life, frailty, and nuances of life on the street, love, loss, greed and power. There are real people out there behind the drugs and poverty. Denny does make a difference, and the reader may want him to come out on top, but he’s a bad guy. Books that stir empathy and the gunning for the protagonist that is deeply flawed, unethical, dirty, fraudulent – at the same time as having good qualities as well.
A wonderful book which I will admit to having my authors mixed up until today, weeks after reading the book. I thought I was reading Lou Berney which I very much enjoyed November Road I thought this book was by the same author.
I was sucker punched by the ending, was left feeling the same way as November Road. Deep in thought and consumed by the story. Always a good thing of course.
Smart but taken by money and power, Denny Malone has become known as The king of Manhattan North, clearly good at the fundamentals of his job as part of a task force involved in controlling the drug problem. He is able to perform some good, but this is at a cost to everyone and everything he is involved in.
His family suffers, he is on the take at every stage, as are his crew of detectives playing the game. I sensed his colleagues were worse.
No one is crystal clean, his bosses; it just seems to be the way of it there. He has left his family; his new partner is a woman trying to be clean. This book contains many references to drugs, and jonsing is all part of everyone’s life. Even Denny partakes in many substances. He loves his kids, he doesn’t dislike his estranged wife, but it all seems to be too late.
Lots of surface camaraderie amongst fellow officers, but it clearly becomes evident every man is out for himself. Denny’s downfall is hinged on being what he said he would never be – what they all said they wouldn’t be.
Human life, frailty, and nuances of life on the street, love, loss, greed and power. There are real people out there behind the drugs and poverty. Denny does make a difference, and the reader may want him to come out on top, but he’s a bad guy. Books that stir empathy and the gunning for the protagonist that is deeply flawed, unethical, dirty, fraudulent – at the same time as having good qualities as well.
A wonderful book which I will admit to having my authors mixed up until today, weeks after reading the book. I thought I was reading Lou Berney which I very much enjoyed November Road I thought this book was by the same author.
I was sucker punched by the ending, was left feeling the same way as November Road. Deep in thought and consumed by the story. Always a good thing of course.
May 22, 2021
More detailed review to come but I highly recommend this book. The characters were well developed and it was a lot more than just a novel about "bad cops"
I loved the details about New York. One of the cities I have always wanted to visit.
This book was full of surprises and kept me interested to the very last page. I will read more from this author. Interesting and suspenseful read
I loved the details about New York. One of the cities I have always wanted to visit.
This book was full of surprises and kept me interested to the very last page. I will read more from this author. Interesting and suspenseful read
January 17, 2022
Truth, justice and the American way. The American way is: truth and justice maybe say hello in the hallway, send each other a Christmas card, but that’s about the extent of their relationship.There is a real “your mileage may vary” element to The Force. I lost count of the number of times that characters use the n-word. Racist, sexist, and homophobic characters abound. If you accept that this book is a realistic portrayal of the NYPD, then it is a terribly depressing one. Literally every cop, almost everyone in the criminal justice system, and almost everyone in government, is taking bribes and personally acting to subvert justice. And if you refuse to accept that every cop is a bribe-taking racist, then you are left with a book full of unrealistic stereotypes of what a writer thinks a dirty system would look like.
But despite those big picture concerns, there's a lot to recommend about The Force. It is well written, establishing a large number and variety of characters early and then picking up the pace over the last two thirds of the story. The plot moves fast despite being complex, trusting the reader to pick up the details and still keep up. The dialogue is believable and snappy. With the Manhattan setting, and the big picture look at the criminal justice system, I thought this book reminded me in many ways of The Bonfire of the Vanities. I can also understand those who compare this book to The Godfather, though I wouldn't rate this book as high as either of the classics.
A very entertaining read. Recommended, if you can get past the content concerns.
March 26, 2019
THE FORCE is a brutal look at what all too often happens to policemen on the job.
It made me laugh, almost made me cry, it made me angry and it also kept me listening.
Don Winslow knows how to tell a brutal and real tale and even though hardly anyone is likable? You can't stop reading his books until you're done. You just can't.
*Thanks to my local library for the free audiobook download. Libraries RULE!*
It made me laugh, almost made me cry, it made me angry and it also kept me listening.
Don Winslow knows how to tell a brutal and real tale and even though hardly anyone is likable? You can't stop reading his books until you're done. You just can't.
*Thanks to my local library for the free audiobook download. Libraries RULE!*
October 29, 2017
I’m late to the party with this one & there are already a ton of reviews to help you decide whether or not to add it to your TBR pile. I doubt I have anything new to add so I’ll just toss out a few thoughts.
First of all, this came with an incredible amount of buzz…always dangerous. But I picked it up after hearing it compared to Ken Bruen, an author I’ve long admired.
I’ll be honest…by the time I reached about 150 pages it was firmly in 3 star territory. Denny Malone is the MC & we spend a massive amount of time in his head. Every character & location is seen through his personal lens & it’s a somewhat distorted view. As he tours his “kingdom” we get a full history lesson on every colleague, criminal, building & intersection that comes to mind as he reminisces about his impressive career. I confess I found this part a tough slog as it’s all Denny all the time & I can’t say I particularly enjoyed his company.
The story picked up at about the 200 page mark as the plot finally kicked in & things got interesting. Other characters began to get more air time & they’re a compelling crew from all walks. Very few of them come off well & Machiavelli himself wouldn’t stand a chance. The level of corruption on all sides is breathtaking & there’s no question of it ending well, just who will be left standing.
Winslow’s knowledge of the history of New York’s crime, cops, politicians & scandals is encyclopedic. I can’t begin to imagine the hours of research & the whole thing reads like a dark, violent love letter to the city.
Perhaps that is where the comparisons to Bruen came from. His books are also bleak, gritty cop tales. But that’s where any similarity ends. His MC Jack Taylor is far from angelic but is honest with himself about who he is, unlike Malone who shies away from examining himself (and his motives) too closely. Instead he convinces himself he’s a man of the people & doing everything for the sake of the city he loves. Make no mistake…Denny is all about Denny. Taylor’s philosophical musings are full of self deprecating black humour & combined with Bruen’s elegiac prose, the result is a character you become invested in. For me, that makes all the difference. So while I can stand back & admire this book as a whole, ultimately I just couldn’t muster enough interest in Denny’s fate & it was other characters that kept me reading.
Renewed pace & intricate plotting in the second half bumped it up to 4 stars. But as usual, it’s all about personal taste & there are many glowing reviews on here that may give you a better idea of what to expect.
First of all, this came with an incredible amount of buzz…always dangerous. But I picked it up after hearing it compared to Ken Bruen, an author I’ve long admired.
I’ll be honest…by the time I reached about 150 pages it was firmly in 3 star territory. Denny Malone is the MC & we spend a massive amount of time in his head. Every character & location is seen through his personal lens & it’s a somewhat distorted view. As he tours his “kingdom” we get a full history lesson on every colleague, criminal, building & intersection that comes to mind as he reminisces about his impressive career. I confess I found this part a tough slog as it’s all Denny all the time & I can’t say I particularly enjoyed his company.
The story picked up at about the 200 page mark as the plot finally kicked in & things got interesting. Other characters began to get more air time & they’re a compelling crew from all walks. Very few of them come off well & Machiavelli himself wouldn’t stand a chance. The level of corruption on all sides is breathtaking & there’s no question of it ending well, just who will be left standing.
Winslow’s knowledge of the history of New York’s crime, cops, politicians & scandals is encyclopedic. I can’t begin to imagine the hours of research & the whole thing reads like a dark, violent love letter to the city.
Perhaps that is where the comparisons to Bruen came from. His books are also bleak, gritty cop tales. But that’s where any similarity ends. His MC Jack Taylor is far from angelic but is honest with himself about who he is, unlike Malone who shies away from examining himself (and his motives) too closely. Instead he convinces himself he’s a man of the people & doing everything for the sake of the city he loves. Make no mistake…Denny is all about Denny. Taylor’s philosophical musings are full of self deprecating black humour & combined with Bruen’s elegiac prose, the result is a character you become invested in. For me, that makes all the difference. So while I can stand back & admire this book as a whole, ultimately I just couldn’t muster enough interest in Denny’s fate & it was other characters that kept me reading.
Renewed pace & intricate plotting in the second half bumped it up to 4 stars. But as usual, it’s all about personal taste & there are many glowing reviews on here that may give you a better idea of what to expect.
October 13, 2017
Don Winslow presented a hard-boiled crime drama that grabbed me by the collar with both hands and never let go. It was an exciting trip through the Big Apple with New York City's finest. It came fully enriched with profane police lingo and gangbanger street slang. Languages unto themselves. Action-packed scenes followed this character-driven storyline through the streets and alleyways of upper Manhattan. This superbly-written storyline did not fail to deliver a stunning, dramatic ending.
Detective Sergeant Denny Malone was kingpin of the Manhattan North Special Task Force. NYPD's most respected, elite unit. They were responsible for reducing violent crimes and drugs in their precinct. No matter what it took, who they rolled over, they got the job done. It could be said, they were the CIA of the NYPD Blue.
After eighteen years on the force, Denny had seen it all. Most despicable though were all the politicians, lawyers, police brass and drug dealers getting rich from all the dirty money. Big-time corruption was everywhere. It seemed everybody had their hands in it. Everybody except Denny. Except his crew. They were the ones that took the risks. They were the ones that went through the doors. Down the stairwells. Why shouldn't they be sharing in the cream? They were the most deserving of getting their just slice of the pie. Real money. Not just complimentary coffee and a donut.
Watching everyone get rich from funds that went under the table had finally gotten to him. Not getting any younger, he was approaching his twenty and would like to have a comfortable nest egg put away before leaving the force. His salary alone would not make it happen. His two closest teammates, Russo and Montague were on the same page. Their opportunity to make the big bucks was either now or never. Not when they retired from the force. Too late. All that was needed was one big score to set them all up. They knew if caught, they risked their job, their pension and even jail time. And jail is the last place they'd want to be. Could they pull it off? Put it all on the line? Only one way to find out.
Detective Sergeant Denny Malone was kingpin of the Manhattan North Special Task Force. NYPD's most respected, elite unit. They were responsible for reducing violent crimes and drugs in their precinct. No matter what it took, who they rolled over, they got the job done. It could be said, they were the CIA of the NYPD Blue.
After eighteen years on the force, Denny had seen it all. Most despicable though were all the politicians, lawyers, police brass and drug dealers getting rich from all the dirty money. Big-time corruption was everywhere. It seemed everybody had their hands in it. Everybody except Denny. Except his crew. They were the ones that took the risks. They were the ones that went through the doors. Down the stairwells. Why shouldn't they be sharing in the cream? They were the most deserving of getting their just slice of the pie. Real money. Not just complimentary coffee and a donut.
Watching everyone get rich from funds that went under the table had finally gotten to him. Not getting any younger, he was approaching his twenty and would like to have a comfortable nest egg put away before leaving the force. His salary alone would not make it happen. His two closest teammates, Russo and Montague were on the same page. Their opportunity to make the big bucks was either now or never. Not when they retired from the force. Too late. All that was needed was one big score to set them all up. They knew if caught, they risked their job, their pension and even jail time. And jail is the last place they'd want to be. Could they pull it off? Put it all on the line? Only one way to find out.
May 5, 2019
Durante toda su lectura, no he podido dejar de visualizar “The Shield”, la magnífica serie de Tv. Denny Malone es la rencarnación de Vic Mackey, y Nueva York sustituye a los Ángeles en esta angustiosa novela de corrupción policial. Por cierto, el título en español deja mucho que desear, aunque la trama esté llena de dicha corrupción.
Malone es el policía que sólo quería ser policía, pero que acabó siendo el rey del norte de Manhattan.
Están todos en el ajo, desde los políticos hasta los de Asuntos Internos. Una vez traspasado un pie de la raya de lo moralmente aceptable, ya no hay marcha atrás. Cuesta abajo y sin frenos. ¿Quiénes son los malos y quiénes los buenos? ¿Es ficción o es real?
Sin llegar al nivel de “El poder del perro”, “Corrupción policial” (“The force”) está sin duda a la altura de un Don Winslow que se mueve a sus anchas por este tipo de historias. Es un digno sucesor de escritores como Ellroy o Chandler, y eso es apuntar hacia un nivel casi sublime.
Malone es el policía que sólo quería ser policía, pero que acabó siendo el rey del norte de Manhattan.
Están todos en el ajo, desde los políticos hasta los de Asuntos Internos. Una vez traspasado un pie de la raya de lo moralmente aceptable, ya no hay marcha atrás. Cuesta abajo y sin frenos. ¿Quiénes son los malos y quiénes los buenos? ¿Es ficción o es real?
Sin llegar al nivel de “El poder del perro”, “Corrupción policial” (“The force”) está sin duda a la altura de un Don Winslow que se mueve a sus anchas por este tipo de historias. Es un digno sucesor de escritores como Ellroy o Chandler, y eso es apuntar hacia un nivel casi sublime.
June 15, 2024
Antes de empezar a leer este libro daba por hecho dos cosas; la primera que me iba a gustar mucho porque a poco que mantuviera el estilo y la intensidad de la trilogía de El Poder del Perro Winslow ya me tiene totalmente ganado y la segunda que iba a atizar a las instituciones y correrían ríos de aguas muy turbias.
Las dos cosas se han dado.
La novela me ha tenido absorbido estos días, me ha gustado mucho, qué bueno que es este autor. Y por supuesto al margen de la trama, Winslow saca los trapos sucios de todo el cuerpo de policía, poder judicial... no pondrá en ningún sitio que está basada en hechos reales, pero muy cerca estará.
—Los policías solo son personas —observó ella sin venir al caso.
—Empiezan así, según me han dicho.
Denny Malone, nuestro único protagonista principal, es un policía corrupto, criminal, violento, putero... ante semejante elemento parece imposible sentir algo de empatía por él, pero lo cierto es que es un gran personaje y en este tipo de novelas cinematográficas encaja perfectamente. Es el sargento de la Unidad Especial Manhattan Norte, más conocida como La Unidad. Junto a él tenemos a otros policías que los considera como hermanos, que sin ser protagonistas principales tienen mucho peso en la novela.
Él así mismo se considera el Rey de Manhattan Norte y encabeza como un criminal mafioso una organización compuesta por sus propios compañeros de La Unidad.
❝Los agentes de La Unidad no son policías uniformados, de paisano o infiltrados.
Son reyes.
Su reino no está hecho de campos y castillos, sino de manzanas enteras y bloques de vivienda social.❞
—Don Winslow.
Todo transcurre exclusivamente en la ciudad de Nueva York, el autor nos lleva de paseo para conocer la criminalidad que hay en su interior. La policía y sus familias, jefes al servicio de los cárteles, yonkies, confidentes, camellos, abogados, todo estrechamente conectado. También está muy presente el conflicto racial y todos los altercados a raíz del movimiento Black Lives Matter.
Hay paralelismos con la trilogía de la droga. Malone y Art Keller son dos personajes que están convencidos de estar en el lado bueno de la ley, pero sienten tanto odio hacia sus enemigos que acaban corrompidos y usan métodos que ni se les pasaba por la cabeza en sus inicios como agentes de la ley.
Uno de los atractivos de este libro son las constantes reflexiones de Malone, llena de contradicciones.
Y por otro lado la eterna y poco fructífera lucha contra el narcotráfico. El dinero es le verdadero Rey.
El estilo de Winslow es el habitual aunque en esta novela es aun más directo, ritmo vertiginoso y da igual el número de páginas que hubiese tenido que me hubiese parecido corto. Sus novelas y esta en concreto son adictivas. Como él mismo dijo en una entrevista: ❝A veces olvidamos que leer es también un acto físico, que oímos las palabras dentro de nuestra cabeza, y yo intento dar las notas y los acordes precisos.❞
En resumen, novelón. 5⭐ bien merecidas.
PD: Lástima que Don Winslow haya decidido dejar la escritura para dedicarse a la política, por suerte para mí aun hay novelas del autor que aun no han pasado por mis manos y seguro que disfrutaré.
Las dos cosas se han dado.
La novela me ha tenido absorbido estos días, me ha gustado mucho, qué bueno que es este autor. Y por supuesto al margen de la trama, Winslow saca los trapos sucios de todo el cuerpo de policía, poder judicial... no pondrá en ningún sitio que está basada en hechos reales, pero muy cerca estará.
—Los policías solo son personas —observó ella sin venir al caso.
—Empiezan así, según me han dicho.
Denny Malone, nuestro único protagonista principal, es un policía corrupto, criminal, violento, putero... ante semejante elemento parece imposible sentir algo de empatía por él, pero lo cierto es que es un gran personaje y en este tipo de novelas cinematográficas encaja perfectamente. Es el sargento de la Unidad Especial Manhattan Norte, más conocida como La Unidad. Junto a él tenemos a otros policías que los considera como hermanos, que sin ser protagonistas principales tienen mucho peso en la novela.
Él así mismo se considera el Rey de Manhattan Norte y encabeza como un criminal mafioso una organización compuesta por sus propios compañeros de La Unidad.
❝Los agentes de La Unidad no son policías uniformados, de paisano o infiltrados.
Son reyes.
Su reino no está hecho de campos y castillos, sino de manzanas enteras y bloques de vivienda social.❞
—Don Winslow.
Todo transcurre exclusivamente en la ciudad de Nueva York, el autor nos lleva de paseo para conocer la criminalidad que hay en su interior. La policía y sus familias, jefes al servicio de los cárteles, yonkies, confidentes, camellos, abogados, todo estrechamente conectado. También está muy presente el conflicto racial y todos los altercados a raíz del movimiento Black Lives Matter.
Hay paralelismos con la trilogía de la droga. Malone y Art Keller son dos personajes que están convencidos de estar en el lado bueno de la ley, pero sienten tanto odio hacia sus enemigos que acaban corrompidos y usan métodos que ni se les pasaba por la cabeza en sus inicios como agentes de la ley.
Uno de los atractivos de este libro son las constantes reflexiones de Malone, llena de contradicciones.
Y por otro lado la eterna y poco fructífera lucha contra el narcotráfico. El dinero es le verdadero Rey.
El estilo de Winslow es el habitual aunque en esta novela es aun más directo, ritmo vertiginoso y da igual el número de páginas que hubiese tenido que me hubiese parecido corto. Sus novelas y esta en concreto son adictivas. Como él mismo dijo en una entrevista: ❝A veces olvidamos que leer es también un acto físico, que oímos las palabras dentro de nuestra cabeza, y yo intento dar las notas y los acordes precisos.❞
En resumen, novelón. 5⭐ bien merecidas.
PD: Lástima que Don Winslow haya decidido dejar la escritura para dedicarse a la política, por suerte para mí aun hay novelas del autor que aun no han pasado por mis manos y seguro que disfrutaré.
June 15, 2017
It is always such a pleasure to pick up anything that Don Winslow writes. THE FORCE is a magnificent, roller-coaster of a novel set in a New York police precinct, where there is honour, bravery, corruption, intrigue and death.
July 5, 2017
I was excited to read this because 1) I'm a big fan of Winslow's "Savages" and the "Cartel" series, and 2) I live in a town with its share of police brutality and corruption, and I was curious to see Winslow's take on the issues.
Unfortunately for me, I kinda hated this book.
The problems start right from the first page, as Winslow writes in a grating tone that's both hyper-masculine and painfully melodramatic. Winslow is doing the third-person limited POV thing, where he adopts to perspective of his lead character. In this case, that character is an arrogant, corrupt, brutal police officer from Staten Island. The problem here is that Winslow is also intent on getting his own politics across to the reader as. plainly. as. possible. So when I read a detailed critique of the NRA or the prison-industrial complex, I'm pretty sure that's Winslow talking, not the thuggish protagonist. But when I read racist dismissals of Black Lives Matter and justifications for brutality, perjury, and 4th amendment violations, I have to assume that's the character talking and not Winslow. The resulting narrative confusion took me out of the story entirely.
Not that there is much of a story to begin with. It's basically a jumble of tough guy cliches and subplots lifted from The Shield and The Wire with a truly bonkers third act twist tacked on for good measure. I believe our main characters are supposed to be conflicted and charismatic antiheroes, but mostly they come off as unpleasant assholes. Winslow's thesis, as it were, is that most cops genuinely do want to protect and serve, but they are ruined by the war on drugs and the overwhelming culture of corruption surrounding them. I'd be more inclined to agree with this thesis if his cop characters weren't so miserable to listen to for 400 pages.
2 stars instead of 1 because Winslow seems like a good dude, and because he deserves some credit for trying to earnestly address issues of racism and police brutality inside a mainstream cop novel.
Unfortunately for me, I kinda hated this book.
The problems start right from the first page, as Winslow writes in a grating tone that's both hyper-masculine and painfully melodramatic. Winslow is doing the third-person limited POV thing, where he adopts to perspective of his lead character. In this case, that character is an arrogant, corrupt, brutal police officer from Staten Island. The problem here is that Winslow is also intent on getting his own politics across to the reader as. plainly. as. possible. So when I read a detailed critique of the NRA or the prison-industrial complex, I'm pretty sure that's Winslow talking, not the thuggish protagonist. But when I read racist dismissals of Black Lives Matter and justifications for brutality, perjury, and 4th amendment violations, I have to assume that's the character talking and not Winslow. The resulting narrative confusion took me out of the story entirely.
Not that there is much of a story to begin with. It's basically a jumble of tough guy cliches and subplots lifted from The Shield and The Wire with a truly bonkers third act twist tacked on for good measure. I believe our main characters are supposed to be conflicted and charismatic antiheroes, but mostly they come off as unpleasant assholes. Winslow's thesis, as it were, is that most cops genuinely do want to protect and serve, but they are ruined by the war on drugs and the overwhelming culture of corruption surrounding them. I'd be more inclined to agree with this thesis if his cop characters weren't so miserable to listen to for 400 pages.
2 stars instead of 1 because Winslow seems like a good dude, and because he deserves some credit for trying to earnestly address issues of racism and police brutality inside a mainstream cop novel.
May 20, 2020
Serpico meets Goodfellas. Winslow continues his themes from Savages, Power of the Dog, and The Cartel of drugs, money, power, and corruption. This time he takes us on a journey through the life of Denny Malone who grew up wanting to be a good cop and ended up as the dirtiest crookedest backstabbingest one of all.
And the questions that Winslow began exploring in books like Savages continue. How do you deal with the criminals and Savages without becoming one yourself? Can you successfully fight this battle without getting corrupted? The drug flow has resulted in so much money and power that are there are any limits to what it corrupts?
This book is a full-on adrenaline rush of powerful themes and emotions starting with the story of the hard band of brothers holding the thin line against the criminal element in north Manhattan and the King of the band was Denny Malone. The story tells how it all started With a cup of coffee or a taste of confiscated goods and cash and grew into envelopes and slush funds and an entire web that could all come crashing down.
This is the real deal in crime fiction. It's dirty, nasty, realistic, and it's yet another home run from Winslow.
And the questions that Winslow began exploring in books like Savages continue. How do you deal with the criminals and Savages without becoming one yourself? Can you successfully fight this battle without getting corrupted? The drug flow has resulted in so much money and power that are there are any limits to what it corrupts?
This book is a full-on adrenaline rush of powerful themes and emotions starting with the story of the hard band of brothers holding the thin line against the criminal element in north Manhattan and the King of the band was Denny Malone. The story tells how it all started With a cup of coffee or a taste of confiscated goods and cash and grew into envelopes and slush funds and an entire web that could all come crashing down.
This is the real deal in crime fiction. It's dirty, nasty, realistic, and it's yet another home run from Winslow.
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