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Title details for The Whites by Richard Price - Available

The Whites

A Novel

by Richard Price
Ari Fliakos
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available

The Whites is the electrifying debut of a new master of American crime fiction, Harry Brandt—the pen name of novelist Richard Price
Back in the run-and-gun days of the mid-90s, when Billy Graves worked in the South Bronx as part of an anti-crime unit known as the Wild Geese, he made headlines by accidentally shooting a 10-year-old boy while stopping an angel-dusted berserker in the street. Branded as a cowboy by his higher-ups, for the next eighteen years Billy endured one dead-end posting after another. Now in his early forties, he has somehow survived and become a sergeant in Manhattan Night Watch, a small team of detectives charged with responding to all night-time felonies from Wall Street to Harlem.
Night Watch usually acts a set-up crew for the day shift, but when Billy is called to a 4:00 a.m. fatal slashing of a man in Penn Station, his investigation of the crime moves beyond the usual handoff. And when he discovers that the victim was once a suspect in the unsolved murder of a 12-year-old boy—a brutal case with connections to the former members of the Wild Geese—the bad old days are back in Billy's life with a vengeance, tearing apart enduring friendships forged in the urban trenches and even threatening the safety of his family.
Richard Price, one of America's most gifted novelists, has always written brilliantly about cops, criminals, and New York City. Now, writing as Harry Brandt, he is poised to win a huge following among all those who hunger for first-rate crime fiction.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    February 17, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427213150
      • File size: 299624 KB
      • Duration: 10:24:12

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 22, 2014
      Price (Lush Life) is one whale of a storyteller by any name, as evinced by the debut of his new brand--okay, Brandt's gripping, gritty, Greek tragedy of cops, killers, and the sometimes-blurry line between them. The sprawling tale centers on stoic police sergeant Billy Graves, banished to the purgatory of the NYPD's night watch since his role in a racially charged, politically explosive double shooting a decade earlier. Despite the adrenaline-pumping emergencies that routinely erupt during his 1 a.m. tour, he has time to obsess over his troubled wife, Carmen; his increasingly demented father, Billy Sr., a retired former chief of patrol; and, most of all, his "White" (that's what Billy, with a harpoon salute to Melville's tormented mariner, calls the one who got away): triple-murderer Curtis Taft. He's the elusive monster Billy is fated to hunt, probably even after retirement--to judge from the way Billy's former colleagues in the Bronx, a group calling themselves the Wild Geese, continue to hunt their own Whites. Suddenly, one of Billy's friends' Whites turns up murdered amid a St. Patrick's Day scrum at Penn Station. Soon a second disappears. And then it starts to look as if someone is stalking Billy's family. The author skillfully manipulates these multiple story lines for peak suspense, as his arresting characters careen toward a devastating final reckoning. Author tour. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 27, 2015
      Still carrying the baggage of a fatal mistake made two decades ago, NYPD Sgt. Billy Graves finds the night shift’s tension suddenly amplified by two revelations. One involves the murders of several “whites” (criminals who remain as elusive as Melville’s infamous white whale). The other concerns a mystery man who is stalking members of Billy’s family. Price, an expert at creating humane characters in situations that challenge their humanity, shifts the focus to a mystery man, the depressed Milton Ramos, also a city cop, who seems to be courting suicide from the moment he’s introduced. With effortlessness, reader Fliakos creates an assortment of New Yahk and New Yawk accents and attitudes for the book’s cops and robbers. But his skill shines brightest at mirroring the increasing desperation in Billy’s voice and the flat, affectless sound of Ramos’s speech. A Henry Holt hardcover.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This combination of author and narrator results in a remarkable listening experience. Price's audiobook, with its titular allusion to MOBY-DICK, uses a crime story as a framework for exploring themes of family, love, and forgiveness. The superbly written text enables Ari Fliakos to bring to life a plethora of voices with an accompanying range of emotions. Whether it's the gut-wrenching funeral, the attempts of the protagonist's wife to maintain a semblance of normalcy when the family is under attack, or the main character's anguish over his father's dementia, Fliakos meticulously delivers each voice with full, rich characterizations. It's no surprise that he continues to win awards for his narrations. M.L.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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