Cool Machine

The Harlem Trilogy #3

by Colson Whitehead

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead, an exuberantly entertaining novel that brings to life 1980s New York in the magnificent final volume of his Harlem Trilogy

1981. New York City is beginning to emerge from financial ruin and decline, energized by rampant real estate development and a Wall Street unchained by Reagan-era predatory capitalism. Up in Harlem, successful business owner/master fence Ray Carney has just been named Sterling Furniture’s Dealer of the Month. When the banks won’t give his beloved wife Elizabeth a loan for her new travel agency, however, Carney gambles on one last heist, and finds himself entangled with a legendary criminal mastermind.

1983. To some, Carney’s friend and partner in crime, Pepper, is a stone-cold sociopath. To others, a top thief with questionable people skills. Either way, he’s feeling his age in his troubled gut and his aching bones. When he takes on a bodyguard gig as a favor to Elizabeth, he’s plunged into the alien territory of the East Village art and club scene. Luckily for him, whether you’re uptown or down, everyone speaks the same language of violence—Pepper is a native speaker.

1986. Carney has always been haunted by his inability to save his cousin Freddie. Now, twenty years after Freddie’s death, he has a chance to rescue Freddie’s son from the violent forces of the city. But coming out of retirement and teaming up with Pepper again will mean risking the safety and security he’s spent decades building for his family, with only one shot to get it right.

With his usual pitch-perfect prose, Whitehead paints a portrait of a city in transition, where shimmering skyscrapers rise to the heavens as displaced people huddle in abandoned tunnels below. In a dazzling display of protean imagination, Cool Machine roves all over the city, from Windows on the World to the Meadowlands, to show that in New York, and in the lives of Whitehead’s vivid characters, it’s what’s below the surface that reveals the truth.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, New York, Thriller

355 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication July 21, 2026

About the author

COLSON WHITEHEAD is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eleven works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, for The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, which also won the National Book Award. A recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.

Harlem Shuffle is the first book in The Harlem Trilogy. The second, Crook Manifesto, will be published in 2023.

Reviews

[Book Riot Community]

Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:

A literary fiction trilogy is already a rare treat for readers, so one from an incredible two-time Pulitzer Prize winner is a glorious freaking gift. Cool Machine closes out Whitehead's Harlem Trilogy about Ray Carney, an NYC furniture salesman and master fence. This third story is set in the 1980s, when Reaganomics has been unleashed on the economy, and the country is lulled into thinking they have money to spend. In need of a loan to get his wife's travel agency off the ground, Ray makes one more questionable (and certainly illegal) business decision. How will Ray and his partner, the lovable sociopath Pepper, fare this last time around? —Liberty Hardy

[Carol Scheherazade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great novel by one of my favorites. This book ends the Harlem trilogy.
Ray is now getting older but those criminal instincts are still there. New York City (loved the dedication) was changing during these novels and even more so in this last one. The three years are separated and seamless. The character of NYC in this book is my fav one of the series. Whilst Ray changes quite a bit, the city also changes around him. The writing is again very good. A fitting end to the series.

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

In this last installment of his Harlem trilogy, Whitehead provides one final book that is as much about New York City as it is about the heists, betrayals, and other schemes that his characters get swept up in, and rather openly and unashmedly so. And it’s precisely why I enjoyed it as much as I did its two predecessors, because besides being a thrilling ride, Colson Whitehead yet again makes the city come richly and immersively alive in all of its fierce and gritty glory.

[Alan]

Rec. by: Ryan D.; previous work

[Willem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colson Whitehead is een van mijn favoriete schrijvers. Bij elk boek van de Harlem trilogie houd ik meer van de personages. Heerlijk lezen!

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy and set in New York in the 1980s, though at three distinct time periods, 81, 83 and 86, which make up the three distinct parts to the book.

In common though, are the two main characters, Ray Carney, and his tough guy sidekick, Pepper.
Whitehead’s strength is in his writing about the city which is at a particularly exciting time in its history; it makes the book. Otherwise, it lacks the freshness of Harlem Shuffle, which is by some way the best of the trilogy.

In 1981, the bank rejects Carney's wife Elizabeth for a business loan to start a travel agency. He then risks everything on a high-stakes heist, which brings him into contact with one of the city’s most renowned mobsters at a time of great mob violence.

In 1983 New York is just emerging from its economic struggles which raised the crime rate so significantly. Art, music and culture are thriving, as Pepper sees an unlikely opportunity in the East Village club scene. This third of the book does seem out of place, and a little forced.

In 1986 as Wall Street and the arts scene boom Ray Carney comes out of retirement to rescue his late cousin's son from the greed and violence of those who hold power in the city.

The middle section is of the least interest. If that were half its length, perhaps even shorter, the novel as a whole would have benefited.

[Pascal Vanenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lekker slot van de trilogie

[Robert Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool Machine is the final book in Colson Whitehead’s delightful crime trilogy following the life and times (and crimes) of furniture salesman and fence Ray Carney. The first book, Harlem Shuffle, had three short stories set in the 1960s. The follow up - Crook Manifesto - brought Ray into the 1970s. Cool Machine follows the same pattern. Three individual (but related) stories set in 1981, 1983 and 1986, each one zeroing in on a different aspect of crime in New York.

The first story – City at Night – plays out as a heist. In the summer of 1981, Ray ends up falling in with notorious criminal Uncle Rich, and despite his better judgement agrees to help him with a couple of jobs. This is despite the fact that Ray is usually off the tools - he makes his money as the middleman between criminals and those who can offload their goods. This story plays out with rival gangs, secret railway tunnels and an audacious heist of some valuable and significant memorabilia. The second story – Here Comes Sue Simmons – is the spiritual follow-up to Nefertiti T.N.T., the second story in Crook Manifesto. As with that story, the focus is on Ray’s cousin Pepper, in this case trying to track down a suitcase full of stolen money and a valuable African mask while also being tailed by a dead-eyed, violent assassin. The third story – No Radio – brings the focus back to Ray as he tries to help his nephew who is on the run after witnessing a mafia killing. Each of these three stories is a gem in itself but there are plenty of callbacks to earlier characters and events producing a feeling of richness that extends beyond the page.

Ray is once again at the centre of these stories and is a complex character. He has his official side – running a successful furniture business in Harlem. To the point where he is being lauded as Salesman of the Month in the first story and featured in the company newsletter. Ray is a family man now with two grown children who are both on the straight and narrow. But he also has his criminal side. Something that Uncle Rich acknowledges and draws on:

Yes, the fence was working out fine. A cool machine. It was in the man’s blood. Ruthless and cunning, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself.

And in the two stories in which he features most, Ray has to draw on those qualities to get through.

Once again, the other main character of these stories is New York city itself. And in the 1980s New York was a boom town, bursting with new building, full of yuppies but also prone to corruption. Whitehead continues to chart the way that the city and its people were changing particularly through Ray’s eyes and his concept of “churn”.

...Carney came to recognise churn in the streets and avenues, in the very structure of the city itself. Tenements and townhouses went up, were demolished, were replaced by new buildings, which were replaced in turn. Ethnic tribes arrived, struggled, moved on, were replaced by the next group of strivers… The enclaves and ghettos rose, fell and were reborn.

The most amusing aspect of this comes from the title of the third story which refers to the stickers that people would put on their cars to alert would be thieves that they had taken their radio with them. Suffice to say none of the characters who comment on this (and all of them do, including the ageing Mafia hitman) are complimentary about those people.

Cool Machine is an enjoyable and triumphant conclusion to Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy. Whitehead once again delivers three short, sharp and crime stories that take readers around New York and each build to tense conclusions. But overall this is another love letter to a complicated city reflected in the life and adventures of a complicated character.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is 1981: Ray Carney, full-time businessman and part-time fence, has been trying hard to walk the straight-and-narrow as he restores his furniture store operation from a devasting fire. However, the need to help his wife Elizabeth with a sudden cashflow problem in her own business finds Ray getting involved in a few more heists, where things quickly go deadly wrong. It is 1983: Pepper, Ray’s long-time friend, protector, and partner in crime, has been engaged as a bodyguard for Elizabeth’s most important client. The assignment soon turns, throwing Pepper into an unfamiliar world involving the city’s avant-garde art scene, the search for stolen African artifacts, and a series of gruesome murders committed by a deranged hitman. It is 1986: Ray reflects on his life and career, still lamenting the inability to save his cousin Freddie from an untimely end some two decades earlier. When Freddie’s son Robert goes missing under suspicious circumstances with Mafia connections, Ray gets a chance for redemption and enlists Pepper’s help to solve the mystery.

So go the basic plots of the three novellas comprising Cool Machine, the concluding book in Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy. Preceded by Harlem Shuffle, which was set in the 1960s, and Crook Manifesto, set in the 1970s, this volume continues the exploits of Ray and Pepper as they age somewhat gracefully into a new decade. Beyond chronicling the exploits of those two human protagonists, though, the special brilliance of this series is the way the author elevates the city of New York itself to the status of a main character. Indeed, Cool Machine finds the city emerging from a decades-long malaise of economic deprivation and physical decline to a time of hope and prosperity—from Wall Street to the Bronx, if a little unevenly distributed—ushered in by Reagan-era policies. This is the New York City of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, warts and all, but told from the point of view of people living well north of Central Park.

Having read with considerable enjoyment the first two books in the trilogy, I was really looking forward to this final installment. Happily, nothing about Cool Machine was in any way disappointing. In telling this part of Ray and Pepper’s saga, the author maintained a stylistic symmetry—the story is packaged in three sections set a few years apart within a single decade—that I found useful in creating a sense of continuity across the entire project. Also, as in Crook Manifesto, the first novella in this volume features Ray’s story, while the second focuses on Pepper’s activities, and the last section brings Ray and Pepper together for a final collaboration. That was a satisfying division for me because, although I suspect that Ray was meant to be the main protagonist with his moral dilemmas creating the dramatic tension, I found Pepper to be a far more interesting character. As always, Whitehead’s writing is sharp throughout and the crime capers presented here are even more interesting than those in the previous two novels. This is an easy book to recommend, particularly for those who are already invested in the series.

[Daniel Sepúlveda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puntaje: 3 Estrellas.

Colson Whitehead es un nombre que siempre está presente en las listas de recomendacioens literarias. Recuerdo haber escuchado por primera vez de él cuando publicó su novela “El ferrocarril subterráneo” y pensar que algún día lo iba a leer, pues había quedado intrigado con la sinopsis y las opiniones de otros lectores.

Cool Machine es el cierre de la aclamada Trilogía de Harlem de Colson Whitehead. Ambientada en la vibrante, caótica y cambiante Nueva York de los años 80, la obra se divide en tres secciones cronológicas (1981, 1983 y 1986). A través de estas páginas seguimos los pasos de Ray Carney, un comerciante de muebles que no logra desprenderse del todo de su faceta como "perista" (vendedor de mercancía robada), y su temible pero fascinante socio, Pepper. Desde atracos que salen mortalmente mal debido a líos mafiosos, pasando por la escena artística del East Village y el tráfico de antigüedades, hasta una búsqueda desesperada por salvar al hijo de un viejo socio, la novela funciona como un recorrido criminal por las entrañas de una ciudad que transita entre la decadencia económica y la opulencia de la era Reagan.

Aunque la premisa es sólida, el libro sufre un bajón fuerte en la segunda sección (1983); todo el viaje de Pepper por el submundo del arte moderno se siente estirado, forzado y desconectado del alma de la trilogía. Además, Whitehead abusa de la exposición pesada, utilizando diálogos poco naturales para refrescarle la memoria al lector sobre eventos de los libros anteriores o para explicar tramas de fondo de manera muy tosca.

Por último, me hizo falta ver un poco más de emociones; Ray Carney parece extrañamente plano o indiferente ante traumas brutales, como presenciar tiroteos y muertes a su alrededor, lo que me impidió conectar profundamente con su dilema moral.

El punto fuerte e incuestionable del libro es la ciudad de Nueva York. Whitehead tiene un talento descomunal para convertir las calles, los barrios y el ambiente ochentero en un personaje vivo que late, cambia y respira en cada página.

Por otro lado, Pepper se roba el espectáculo por completo. Es un personaje brutal, peligroso y lleno de matices que resulta mucho más magnético e interesante que el propio protagonista. Las tramas criminales, cuando entran en acción, están llenas de giros ingeniosos y cliffhangers al final de cada capítulo que te obligan a seguir leyendo. La estructura simétrica del libro y el ingenio de la prosa demuestran que, a nivel técnico y de estilo, Whitehead sigue siendo un autor muy dotado.

En resumen, Cool Machine es un libro entretenido, y según he escuchado de otros lectores, digno para la trilogía, pero se queda a medio gas si lo comparamos con sus predecesores. Precisamente por esto, y tras haberle dado una calificación de 3 estrellas, me he quedado con muchas ganas de probar con otra novela del autor en la que su narrativa brille con todo su esplendor literario. Mis próximas lecturas de Whitehead serán, sin duda, obras que he visto por años en mis recomendaciones de Goodreads como Los chicos de la Nickel o El ferrocarril subterráneo.

[Ryan Davison · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s impressive that Ray Carney has thrived as a legitimate furniture dealer for decades, but it’s damn near miraculous he’s still breathing after an equal amount of time as a NYC fence.

We get three truly kick-ass stories in Cool Machine, connected vignettes set in 1981, ’83, and ’86. Each is a thrilling piece of entertainment loaded with literary flair and deeper meaning. Carney has had success in business and family, but maybe due to reasons of nature or nurture, his itch for that last big score is not yet sated.

Set pieces move like perfectly oiled gears and highlight the genius behind Whitehead’s prose and storytelling. Yes, he approaches scenes with the keen eye of an insider, but weaves social and political themes into the fabric of the plot like a trained Big Apple anthropologist. The author lived through the crackdown on graffiti and discriminatory stop-question-frisk policies, but he's not bitter and would rather apply NYC's racial imperfections into a novel of pure fun loaded with mob etiquette and lovable sociopaths. Objects of desire have their own stories to tell and include Jesse Owen’s gold medal from the 1936 Olympics and a priceless African Ngil mask that changes those who place it on their face. After risks grow too large, above all, Carney wants safety for his family.

This is gritty and real, it never turns into Ocean’s Eleven, and is as much historical fiction as crime. Readers must beware that every chapter ends with an ingenious cliffhanger or major twist, so putting the book down is often an impossibility. Cool Machine works splendidly as a standalone and will satisfy those that have been on the full Whitehead Harlem Trilogy train all along. It possesses an ending worthy of a life long journey.

Before this, two books encapsulated New York City in the 1980s moat authenticity; Bonfire of the Vanities and American Psycho. Cool Machine must be added, as it brings unique perspective to that indelible decade that defines America.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the review copy.

[MicheleReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the final installment of Colson Whitehead's Harlem Trilogy series, which began in 1959, the story moves to the 1980s. Ray Carney, owner of Carney Furniture and an occasional fence of stolen goods, is now in his 50s. He no longer has ties to crime and is thrilled to have been named Sterling Furniture's Dealer of the Month, the first Black business owner to achieve this recognition. His children are grown and his wife Elizabeth runs her own travel agency. However, when she is denied a loan, Ray decides to partner with thief Uncle Rich for a one-time return to ill-gotten gains. Two years later, another local criminal named Pepper becomes involved in a stolen artifact scheme in downtown Manhattan. By 1986, Ray finds himself entangled in a political scandal and faces off against the mafia while trying to save his nephew Robert, son of his long-deceased cousin Freddie, whom he was unable to save.

Fans of this riveting series, the wonderful Whitehead, and tales of New York City, will delight in Cool Machine. Divided into three parts, this book provides non-stop thrills. It vividly captures the essence of the city during this period. The locations span the streets of Harlem, the subterranean world beneath the Waldorf Astoria hotel, and the gritty and dangerous East Village. It's a well-fitting farewell to an exceptional cast of characters.

Many thanks to Doubleday Books for providing me with a gifted, advance copy. While not essential, it's worth reading Harlem Shuffle (#1) and Crook Manifesto (#2) first.

4.5 stars.

Review to be posted on MicheleReader.com.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first novel in the Harlem trilogy, the second not so much, and this one even less. I just felt that the concept had grown old, and I gained nothing in reading about yet more of Ray Carney’s shenanigans. Set in 1981 New York, Cool Machine follows Ray, a furniture dealer in Harlem who is also reluctantly and intermittently a fence for stolen goods. The city is changing fast, fuelled by Reagan-era capitalism, real estate speculation, and widening inequalities and Carney is trying to stay respectable while the world around him grows more ruthless. At the start of the novel, Carney appears to have achieved a measure of stability: his business is thriving, and he is committed to going straight. But when his wife, Elizabeth, is denied a bank loan to start her own travel agency, Carney is pulled back into the criminal underworld for what he hopes will be one final job. This decision draws him into increasingly dangerous territory, involving high-stakes heists, powerful criminal figures, and the shifting economies of 1980s New York, where crime, business, and politics are often intertwined. Along the way, familiar characters return, including his associate Pepper, whose role deepens as the story unfolds. The novel moves through a series of interconnected episodes showing Carney repeatedly trying and failing to separate his legitimate life from his criminal entanglements. By the end, the novel becomes not just a crime story but a portrait of Harlem and New York at a particular time and place, and that aspect I found interesting, but essentially by then I had become bored with Ray and his escapades.

[Indra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool Machine (The Harlem Trilogy #3)
by Colson Whitehead
Thank you to Doubleday for the ARC 💛
⭐ 4 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was such a sharp, gritty, and satisfying close to the Harlem Trilogy. Colson Whitehead once again makes New York feel alive on the page, not just as a setting, but as a living, scheming, changing force.

Ray Carney is trying to stay respectable, or at least respectable enough, but of course one last job has a way of becoming something much bigger. Then there’s Pepper, who might honestly steal the whole book. He is brutal, strange, aging, dangerous, and somehow endlessly compelling. Together, their stories capture a city shifting under their feet, full of money, violence, ambition, and ghosts.

I loved how the book moves through the 1980s in sections. It gives the story shape while showing New York changing decade by decade, from Harlem to the East Village to the shiny towers rising above everyone left behind. 🏙️

What I Loved
• Whitehead’s portrait of 1980s New York
• Pepper, who remains fascinating and terrifying
• The crime capers felt tense, smart, and layered
• A strong sense of closure for Ray and the trilogy

What Didn’t Fully Work for Me
• Some exposition felt a little heavy
• A few emotional moments could have hit harder

Overall, Cool Machine is stylish, entertaining, and full of bite. A fitting final ride through Whitehead’s Harlem, where everyone is hustling, history is always watching, and the city never stops moving. 📚✨

[Peter Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Carney has just been awarded Sterling’s furniture dealer of the month and life is good in his part of Harlem.
The year is 1981 and he is looking to expand his business with his wife Elizabeth, who wants to own a travel agency, but the banks don’t want to lend them money. So Ray finds himself going back to his old life and doing one final heist with a legendary criminal.
Two years later Carney asks his friend Pepper, a renowned sociopath, to do a job for him on behalf of his wife.
The job is a gig as a bodyguard in the East Village. It’s a bit out of his comfort zone, but violence isn’t, and when it comes down to it. He’s happy anywhere in New York City if he has to be the aggressor.
Three years go by, and Carney is still plagued by the loss of his cousin Freddie.
So when he has a chance to extricate Freddie’s boy from the violent situation, he knows it is time to step up.
With the help from the notorious Pepper, Ray Carney will have risk it all if is to get out of this, and survive with everything he holds dear.
The Harlem Trilogy is one of those bodies of work that comes along once in a generation.
Colson Whitehead has a writing style that’s pure gold. His use of language and the characters he writes about are truly remarkable.
This particular book in the trilogy is a showcase of 80’s New York, and the author captures the atmosphere and essence perfectly, you almost feel like you have gone back in time.
This is one of the best books I’ve read this year and highly recommend it.

[Maxine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool Machine is Colson Whitehead's third novel in his so-called Harlem trilogy. The first novel, Harlem Shuffle, was like a lightning bolt out of the blue--both a departure for the author and a wildly compelling plot with great writing. Crook Manifesto, the second in the series, was almost as good. But is there a problem with going to the well too often? His new book, Cool Machine, shows Carney (the protagonist in all three novels) as an established pillar of his Harlem community--a trusted,. dependable furniture store owner. But increasingly, Carney wants to go deeper into his side-vocation--that of a fence, handling loot stolen in New York during various heists. Unlike in the earlier novels, he actively pursues criminal activities, often at risk to himself and possibly his family.

But the execution of Cool Machine feels lacking somehow. The prose doesn't sparkle quite as often, Carney remains oddly impervious to the emotional trauma of being held up at gunpoint (and witnessing the deaths of others), and some of the writing feels slapdash. Also, there's a lot of exposition, both relating to the earlier novels, and in the voices of different characters, many of whom provide information in a blunt manner, i.e., not really how people would speak. It's jarring to read at times, and diminishes the novel's authenticity.

Colson Whitehead remains a wizard with language, but Cool Machine inevitably lacks the freshness of the great novel, Harlem Shuffle.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colson Whitehead has such confidence in presenting the voices of his characters. I can see how a lot of people might think how Carney goes on about contemporary furniture is boring. But the character is deeply interested, and I just go along with him because Carney as a character is so alive on the page. So I guess that now I am a person interested in contemporary furniture? Thanks, Mr. Whitehead!

He’s endlessly inventive, spinning a story that’s full of complexity, taking you along with it to wholly unexpected places. His storytelling reminds me a bit of Louise Erdrich’s, a little of Dickens’, and this is high praise.

I enjoyed this third in the trilogy because it was so well written and I liked spending time with Carney and Pepper again. It’s not really as good as the first two in the trilogy- it sags in the middle- but it’s still pretty good.

Am I going to have to read The Nickel Boys now? I just couldn’t when it came out. My son Henry was just the age of those boys in the reform school-hell and we’d just gone through DOTUS’s family separation policy. I was reading an ARC of Underground Railroad right when the shitbag was elected in 2016, and it was great, but it destroyed me. I was too raw and afraid when Nickel Boys came out. But, Colson Whitehead is an incredible writer, and Henry’s older now, and my friends on the BookRiot podcast (who don’t know they’re my friends) say it’s his best book.

[Matt Glaviano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to this book for a while. Thanks to Net Gally for an ARC.

If you've read the first to books of the Harlem Trilogy, little will surprise you here. It's a new decade - the glamourous, neon-1980s - and whether they want to be or not, Carney, Pepper, et al. are still in the churn.

I loved the first two books in this series and reread them so I was ready for this read. The same things I love in the first two - the Mosley-esque crime, watching the characters change over time, and meticulously detailed time period recreation, the humor - are all present here.

Through 81 chapters spread out over three novels, Whitehead has accomplished a fully realized picture of people growing and changing (or staying the same) over time in a city that relentlessly changes. I think he lands the conclusion. Altogether these books are, for this reader, a huge accomplishment.

Seven bazillion bonus stars for referencing Richard Edsen - RICHARD GODDAMN EDSEN - in this book. That reference - to the first drummer of the band Sonic Youth (and parking lot attendant in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) - is beyond obscure, but made this reader laugh out loud with joy and recognition. I think there's an earlier novel in which Whitehead references SY in the acknowledgements; in a recreated world so rich with historical detail, this bit reminded me of the specificity of Whitehead's NYC. So real you can touch it - if you dare.

Eds. Note: Future Matt, this was not your best reading experience. It took you a while. The detail in these books add up over time, and reading them all in a row (this last one minus wonderful audio) was hard, a chore even. You were reading TJ Klune for an author visit. You started the Parable of the Sower WHILE reading this. It's May and - new dishwasher aside - you are tired of the constant churn in your world, too. Carney's getting older - you aren't doing a damn thing different. Reread the whole trilogy - better spaced out, less ARC pressure - in a year or two.

[Janet Meenehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

DRAFT. As part of a reading group for a book festival, I had the privilege of reading the ARC. Typically. I avoid reading anything that might have spoilers, including even dust jackets and publisher’s notes. After reading several chapters, I glanced at the cover and realized (duh) that this was the third in the Harlem trilogy. I looked online to see if I should read the first two before finishing this book. A few notes said to capture the full arc of the main character it was best to read all three. With that in mind, I put Cool Machine aside and read the first two books.

Whitehead‘s writing is absolutely extraordinary. The story begins in the 1960s in a very gritty youthful and rough around the edges New York City. As the main character, Ray Carney develops and grows reflecting on his life and lessons. Cool Machine picks up on the story in the 1980s. As the main character has aged and mellowed, so does the tale with a bit less violence and grit than in the first two books. Reading this saga reminds me of listening to bands that I have liked very much that astounded me with their very first album, but grew and matured into a more robust and refined experience. What an incredible writer and what a gift to establish cadence, language, and vignettes that matches and polishes the arc of the characters.

[J P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final book of this excellent trilogy sees Ray Carney, furniture store owner and more than occasional fence growing into comfortable middle age as NY changes - yuppifying - around him and force of nature Pepper gradually succumbs to human frailties.

The novel has an elegiac tone, calling back previous heists in the series, with Carney beginning and ending the novel, while Pepper has his own story in the middle section of the three cons that make up the book. In the first, Carney needlessly gets involved with a legendary heist man and realises his criminal instincts and competence are part of his make-up. The second focuses on Pepper, being a shaggy dog about an old mask and a 'melancholy hit man'. In the third Carney and Pepper have settled into lawful existence but try to save a kid accidentally mixed up in a mob murder. They help him avoid the criminal life that fate had in store for Carney and Pepper, and we realise that maybe, just maybe, despite the gripes about change, things have got a little better.

It's a misdirection of a crime novel, sucking the reader in with elaborate heists and towering characters, while sneaking in thoughts about getting older, knowing yourself and the vibrant, constant reinvention of the big apple.

[Jo Dervan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool Machine
This story, the third and last in a series about Ray Carney, a Harlem business owner and part time fence. Harlem and New York City had changed in the last decade. The city had experienced financial problems and there was destruction in many parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. There were references to the former days when Harlem was a hot spot for entertainment in NYC. As the story progressed there are signs of rebirth in the city.

The first story took place in 1981. Carney’s wife Elizabeth wanted to expand her travel agency but was unable to get a loan from local banks. So he got involved in a big heist with some of his cronies to earn the money.

The second story took place in 1983. Elizabeth had asked Pepper, one of their criminal friends, to act as a bodyguard to someone hoping to buy a stolen African mask.

The final story takes place in 1986 when Carney’s cousin’s son witnessed his boss being gunned down. The boy realized that it was a mob hit and asks for Carney’s help hiding from the gangsters.

I enjoyed the series and the characters. I lived and worked in NYC in the period covered by the story. The book brought back memories.

I received this ARC from the publisher and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Paul Gormley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our 3rd meeting with Carney, furniture shop owner and fence, in New York in the 80s. Carney’s business (and his wife’s) is a success, his children have left the nest and his life is at a crossroads.

Mirroring the previous books in the trilogy, the book is divided into 3 parts, one focusing on his associate Pepper, and 3 different years across the decade. New York is changing and demands change of its inhabitants, including the crooks and lowlifes.

As always, the writing is good and Whitehead surely knows how to tell a story. The first section, where Carney teams up with a legendary thief, is the weakest, lacking narrative drive. Pepper’s section is the opposite and one warms to Pepper, getting too old for the game but clear in his principles and his sense of self.

The third returns the focus to Carney (with a brief cameo from Pepper) as he takes on the mob in defence of a family member, bringing back painful memories.

A strong finish to a trilogy which traces the social and political history of New York City over 3 decades.

(I was given an advance copy in exchange for an honest review)

[Elainedav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book having read the previous two episodes of the Harlem trilogy. In this episode we catch up with the same characters across three separate timelines in the 1980s - 1981,1983 and 1986. In 1981 Ray involves himself in a final heist which expands his past role as fence into something much more risky. In 1983 Pepper acts as a bodyguard for a client of Elizabeth's travel agency. He is not a well man and whilst in the men's room his client is robbed and he is determined to make things right. In 1986 Ray is called upon to save his nephew from a very difficult situation.

The three timelines read as three separate storylines. They are somewhat tied up in 1986 mainly because there is an update on all the main characters and what they are doing now. The furniture shop doesn't play such a central role in this book, but it still pops up throughout. I love this, it feels like a very unique setting in a book series.

I also particularly like that the story is told from the point of view of the criminal. The police and the law are there in the background but this is not their story.

The writing is superb and I enjoyed being taken back to a non digital era. I guess these crimes would play out somewhat differently now! It feels right to retire these characters now, although I'm a bit sad there won't be a fourth episode. It would make a great TV series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This read was nostalgia a trip for me...I spent time during my late teen and early teen years visiting in NYC, and Colson Whitehead has created a novel that has so many references that feel familiar to me. The first two books in this trilogy felt like "historical fiction" in a sense, but this one was suddenly, for me, contemporary. Mr. Whitehead's writing is clean and sharp...he never pulls a punch, as the saying goes. This book is no different. I enjoyed seeing where Carney was in his life, and learning more about his wife, Pepper in this book, and I liked how the city seemed like a character that sprawled all over the storyline. While I don't think a reader needs to have read both of the previous books, at least reading the first, Harlem Shuffle, probably helps the reader feel more invested in the characters and knowing what is happening to them. Plus, Harlem Shuffle is a good read. I'm a little perplexed about telling more about the book without adding spoilers, so I will just say that like a rollercoaster, it took me on a ride.

My thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are solely my own.

[Brithney Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A special thanks to DoubleDay for sending over a galley! What a privilege!

3.5 stars! Cool Machine is part three of Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy. I’ll admit, I didn’t read part two (Crook Manifesto), but you don’t need to in order to understand this book. Like the other installments, we follow Carney and familiar faces as they navigate the highs and lows of a crime-ridden Harlem/New York City—thieves, fences, crooked politicians and cops, and the pressure of making a name for yourself, for better or worse.

I really enjoyed catching up with these characters, now in their 50s and 60s, as they reckon with being pulled back into the criminal world, sometimes unknowingly. Themes of “one last job,” health scares, and reconsidering past choices added depth and realism. I especially loved reading about NYC as someone who lives there. While the pacing was occasionally slow as Whitehead filled in backstory, the writing was strong throughout, making this an overall solid and worthwhile read—as expected from Whitehead.

[Rayna (Poindextrix) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid end to the Harlem Shuffle trilogy, Cool Machine follows Ray Carney through the ups and downs of the 80s as he flirts with more dangerous jobs in his sideline, goes straight, and gets pulled into the underworld again. Readers reunite with some familiar characters and are introduced to some new ones as well. And, of course, the book is all about atmosphere with 1980s New York (and Harlem, specifically) playing a huge role.

One thing to note with Cool Machine is that there is not one central plot point driving the narrative forward. Something will resolve and there will still be more book left. This initially had me off kilter, but as the narrative progresses you see how everything fits into the arc of Carney’s story. Still, this can be emotionally exhausting as a reader. Also, the abrupt changes in perspective that happen throughout the book can feel jarring. Even with these factored in, it was an engaging and enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for this advance review copy.

[Gordon Smart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn’t read the previous two books in this series set in New York but I don’t think it really mattered as the book works as a standalone. However it was so good it made me want to read the first two. The main character is Ray Carey, owner of a furniture showroom and occasional fence for thieves. His friend Pepper is a thief and the other main protagonist in the story which is set in the early 1980s.
Both Carney and Pepper are drawn into schemes through acquaintances which put them in extreme danger and they need all their skills to succeed. Both are ageing black men and would prefer a quiet life but they have a strong sense of justice and an urge to help others. Carney tries to help a friend recover Jesse Owen’s Olympic gold medal while Pepper tries to find a stolen African mask in order to return it to Africa in restitution.
I was gripped by the plot and the characters right to the end.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Penguin Random House for an advance copy in return for an honest and fair review.

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool Machine, by the double Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead, returns to New York in the 1980s, following two previous works exploring that city - Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto - to complete his Harlem trilogy.

Ray Carney and his friend Pepper again take central stage in a series of stories - three here - which complete a picture of a New York City that is only a living memory now - a place no longer recognisably contemporary New York. Carney and Pepper are great characters, having taken us in previous novels through the 1960s and 1970s, and are now living in the age of big business and money and Wall Street - but neither of whom occupy that space but feel its weight on them. Their escapades again provide entertainment and insight.

As usual Whitehead's prose is electric - he was a real way with words, almost a free jazz at times - and he knows how to pull the reader straight in and keep their attention. I loved spending time with these characters again, and in this world, and a new Whitehead is always a delight.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[Shelley Corman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colson Whitehead is definitely one of the preeminent American writers of our time, if not of all time. He does know how to capture your attention from the very start and introduce you to people and places that you never knew you were missing in your life. This is the third book in his trilogy about Harlem in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. And I so want to say that I enjoyed this one as much as the first two. But, I just can't. Don't get me wrong, this was an excellent book. But, the first two were exceptional! Mr. Whitehead has such a way with the English language that captures the place and time he is writing about. His storytelling in, "Cool Machine", was terrific. It's just that the stories in this book weren't as compelling as those of the prior novels. Am I sorry that I got involved with this book? By no means. Some of my favorite characters featured in the earlier books put in a third and final appearance. And it felt good to spend some more time with them in the Harlem of a time gone by.

[Viv Maclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of Cool machine by Colson Whitehead. Thanks to Little Brown UK for ARC.
The third and final instalment in a trilogy featuring Ray Carney as a congenital low level criminal, striving for legitimacy, but drawn back always to the seductive shadow world of thieves, fences and jobs.
A new partner in crime is Uncle Rich, once believed murdered, who returns to practice crime as an art form. Carney is joined again in his machinations by Pepper, now a friend.
In a world where the police can betray you as easily as your oldest friend, Carney has long convinced himself of his wish to go straight, but is pulled in again to what he really loves and has a flair for- criminality, deftly executed.
Hypnotic writing draws the reader into the world, with snappy dialogue and sharply executed plots.
I will truly be sad not to visit these characters and their New York again.