The Force

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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. 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 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. 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. Il vero Frank Serpico, oggi 81enne. Il protagonista del romanzo di Winslow, Denny Malone è proprio uno di quei poliziotti che Serpico ha combattuto.The Force (2017) is a crime thriller by Don Winslow. Nominated for the 2018 Barry Award and the 2018 Anthony Award, The Force explores police force corruption through the eyes of a crooked NYPD detective sergeant who fights gangs, drugs, and murderers. What most people don’t know is that although he’s good at his job, he steals money from each drug bust. It’s only a matter of time before he’s caught. Critics praise the book for its realism and a well-paced plot. Winslow is a bestselling American author. Before writing, he worked as a private investigator. Many of his novels are now major motion pictures. This book has already been optioned as a film, and if done well it should prove to be an impactful one.

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. 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. 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." 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.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."

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.

Beyond the Book

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. 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. Esta vez nos sumerge en un cuerpo de policía y nos adentra en sus vísceras, en su humanidad, en su imperfección. 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.