Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead - B

      Ray Carney owns a furniture store on 125th St. in the year 1959. He "was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked, in practice and ambition." That was the case until his loopy cousin Freddy was the wheelman for a major hotel stickup, and told his buddies that Ray could fence their stolen jewelry. The truth is Ray has very limited experience fencing jewelry and would rather sell you a sectional. Somehow, he's now part of a gang, and when Miami Joe decides to keep the loot and starts knocking off his colleagues, Ray's life takes a turn for the worse. Fortunately one of his dad's buddies, Pepper, shoots Joe in Rays showroom, the body goes to Mount Morris Park, Harlem's sort of private cemetery in a city park, and soon, life returns to normal. A few years later things are going well for Ray. He's expanded the store and one of his friends suggests he join a local business club. One of the pillars of the Harlem establishment suggests that $500 will put Ray at the front of the line. When Ray is nonetheless rejected, he asks Willie Duke for a refund. Willie asks his secretary to call the cops. Ray works some magic and a few months later, Willie has to do a bunk after a series of pics of him with a hooker make it to the local Harlem papers.  Payback is even sweeter because one of Willie's fleeced investors is Ray's pain-in-the-ass father-in-law.  In 1964, Ray achieves his life-long dream. He moves his family to Riverside Drive. One last time Freddy gets him involved in something he shouldn't have. This time it costs his cousin his life, but Ray stays just far enough away to come out of it ahead.

    The author is a revered expositor of the Black experience in America and does a fine job again. Plus, it's always a blast to read about NYC in its ever-changing ways and to follow a character like Ray who had a fondness for Rheingold and Chock Full o'Nuts.