The Whites: A Novel

In the 1990s, a group of 5 NYPD cops who call themselves “The Wild Geese” win the hearts and minds of the neighbourhood they’re serving by fighting crime effectively, but unconventionally. For one of them, Billy, the high flying abruptly crashes after a righteous shooting leaves a young boy critically injured. Now, Billy is serving out his remaining time on the night shift, while the others have retired and moved on to other things. But each of them has his or her own personal “White” – as in “White Whale” – a bad guy who got away but who they are still obsessed with. And it looks like somebody has started using a harpoon.

Credit the author with an intriguing premise and some sharply drawn, if quirky, characters. Good guys and bad guys come quite starkly to life, full of warts and internal conflicts. But there are so many major characters, with so much baggage, that it’s hard to keep track of things. It’s also hard to connect with any of them, so rather than becoming absorbed in their stories, you just distantly watch them go by like commuters headed to the subway. The story isn’t really complex, it just has too much stuff crammed into it. And despite all the stuff, and many wheels of tedium endlessly grinding on, for the first 250 pages, nothing much really happens.

The author goes to great lengths to paint Billy as a sort of living saint, especially with his inhumanly patient treatment of his off-kilter wife. But he also has this affinity for using drugs on the job, which somewhat taints the whole saint image. All of the Geese, in fact, have their issues, to the extent that you wonder how they ever did any effective police work.

I thought I would like this book, and I wanted to like it, but pushing through to the end became a chore. I finished it feeling like I just walked away from in interstate pile-up, dazed and reeling. It’s not a bad book and some people will love it, particularly those who prefer things to develop meticulously, in a gritty and depressing landscape, featuring flawed characters who are angst-ridden, but it just wasn’t to my taste.

This is one of those novels that really repays -- in great measure -- the time and attention that you're willing to devote to it, or at least that was my experience reading it. It takes shape slowly, as if a painter is building up layers of pigment on canvas and only gradually allowing watchers to understand the kind of image that is being revealed in the process. It's slow, but inexorable; by the time the full plot emerges into daylight for the reader to grasp, odds are he or she already will have been drawn into the book by one or more of the characters, or the situations, or even by the author's ability to paint a picture in words of the city of New York, or capture the daily grind (and sometimes the heartbreaking absurdity) of policing in Manhattan.

The principal character of this book is Billy Graves, the sole member of a group of cops who, 18 or so years ago, were aggressive and hard-charging anti-crime crusaders. Billy was one of the first of them to make detective -- and the first to have a shadow over his name -- when he shoots a drug-crazed maniac on a rampage and accidentally kills a 10-year-old boy standing behind him with the same bullet. Now, Billy is the only member of the group still living in New York and still part of the NYPD -- but he's still part of that group of "Wild Geese". And each of the WGs has his own "White": a despicable killer who somehow escaped justice in a case that haunts the cop or former cop to that day. But one night, Billy's NIght Squad is called to a bizarre and bloody murder scene in Penn Station -- to find that the victim is one of the Whites. And doing some more sleuthing, he discovers that some others have vanished or died recently. What is happening? And meanwhile, why is his own family becoming the victim of a stalker?

Author Harry Brandt, aka novelist Richard Price, plays with themes like revenge and brotherhood; whether a blood brotherhood or the kind of "brotherhood" that New York cops refer to when they talk about having each others' backs. Parts of this novel worked beautifully -- some scenes were so poignant that I almost cried; others so absurdly and quintessentially New York that I couldn't help but laugh even as I rolled my eyes in astonishment -- although a few others were less skillfully handled. The character of Milton Ramos is almost of equal importance to Billy in the narrative, but he emerges as not as well-rounded or convincing a presence as any of the Wild Geese or several other characters, which weakens the novel's impact. Then, too, I figured out the "whodunnit" part of the plot by the time I was halfway through, which left me with only the suspense part of the narrative to keep me reading. That, and the writing, and the characters, were more than enough to make the novel relatively unputdownable, however. So, to borrow "Brandt's" own words, "it was a reasonably happy ending."

This isn't a book that will endear itself to anyone looking for a straightforward whodunnit; it's not a police procedural. Then, too, although it's dealing with gritty details of the mean streets of New York and the ordinary cops, current and retired, who work there (the erstwhile cops now work security, toil as apartment house supers, run an undertaker's, etc.), this novel is more "literary", in that it relies on character development rather than action to propel the plot forward. So if non-stop drama is your thing, this probably won't be your cup of tea, either. All of which means that it did fall into my sweet spot: Price/Brandt is a skilled wordsmith, with an observant eye and a flair for bringing (most of) his characters vividly to life.

I didn't find a lot to enjoy in this book, but near the end I found myself captivated by the dilemma posed by Richard Price. The members of a former anti-crime unit all had what they called, "whites." These were the worst felons in cases they worked that somehow were able to beat the system and go free. They were all destroyers of lives—their own victims and the lives of the victims' loved ones.

Price seems to knows the cop culture of NYPD, and this small unit, once known as the Wild Geese (WGs) from back in the 90s, reflects part of that culture. The dialog is just right. The WGs are now scattered across the precincts and divisions of NYPD, and the former WGs are in less exciting and glamorous jobs on the job or outside of the NYPD altogether.

Suddenly the "whites" start turning up dead. Billy (former WG), who has found refuge as a detective in the graveyard shift is biding his time until he can retire, and in the meantime, he begins investigations that are handed over the day shifts of the different precinct detectives. So while not living the life of Riley, he's doing OK. However, as more "whites" turn up dead, he begins to suspect the member of his old crew, the Wild Geese.

At this point the story's focus splinters like a kaleidoscope as subplots and a host of too many characters come on the scene in a disorganized flash mob. Most of the books is a briar patch of well-written stuff—just stuff to fill the pages until the end where it is sewed together. Here the reader is presented with the issue of "street justice" (ladled out by the cops) or inefficiency in the DAs office and just about every other non-cop institution. This issue is nothing new, but I like the way the Price handles it. The crisp beginning and end is swamped in the middle by complications in the cops' lives that are—quite frankly—boring. It's not that they're not real; they are. They just seem like filler between the middle and end.

WARNING -- contains details which may be considered SPOILERS. (Others may consider them helpful.)

Don't get a copy of The Whites and expect to be entertained by anything resembling a typical detective story, whodunit or police procedural. The book begins with a series of character studies of a group of Noe Yawk detectives, each of whom has an old case he or she is obsessed with -- their own White Whale (reference to Moby Dick and Captain Ahab -- get it?). Instead of a plot, the first half of the book consists of each detective's history (now known by the ghastly neologism *backstory*).

Unfortunately, there are just too many characters to store in memory. I see that other reviews have complained about having to keep track of the myriad of people who pop in and out of the narrative, and after a day of not reading the novel, I found that I had forgotten and mixed-up the various names so much that I was forced to the beginning again. This time I kept a list, so as a public service, I have provided here my catalog of the main characters and their White Whales, as well as other ancillary characters. I would like to have done this in the form of a family tree or flow chart, but limited by Amazon format restrictions, I'll do the best I can.

There are six detectives who, back in the day, called themselves The Wild Geese. They're the stereotypical maverick cops of the movies who kick butt and break the rules and who get justice their own way. They are:

1. William "Billy" Graves [Jr.] -- veteran detective; his White Whale is the murderer
a. Curtis Taft, who murdered his ex-girlfriend
b. Tonya Howard and
c. Memori Williams, her fourteen-year-old niece and
d. Dreena Bailey, 4, Tonya's daughter
e. Shakira Williams, surviving twin sister of Memori, who herself is the murderer of
f. Martha Timberwolf -- young victim
g. Edna Worthy -- Martha Timberwolf's grandmother
h. Patricia Taft -- respectable wife of Curtis Taft (a.)

Others in the story of Billy Graves are
i. Billy Graves Sr. -- his father, and ex-cop who suffers from dementia
j. Diane Graves -- his African-American first wife, an art therapist
k. Carmen Graves -- his Puerto Rican second wife
l. Damian Robles -- Carmen's junkie first husband
m. Victor Acosta -- Carmen's brother
n. Richard Kubin -- Victor's husband
o. Dolores -- Victor and Carmen's mother
p. Carmen's unnamed clueless therapist, an ex-nun
q. Declan Graves -- son of Billy and Carmen
r. Carlos Graves -- son of Billy and Carmen
s. Millie Singh -- housekeeper to the Graves
t. Brenda Sousa -- Billy's sister
u. Charlie Sousa -- Brenda's husband, a private detective
v. Stephan Gunliffe -- a friendly barkeep
w. Gerry Reagan - Billy's nephew
x. Stacey Taylor -- a former reporter who lost her job after accusing Billy of using drugs; now a private-I.
(Note: These cops are not subject to mandatory random drug testing?)
y. Phil Lasker -- alcoholic boyfriend of Stacey (x.)
z. Albert Lazar -- witness and teacher at school of Carlos Graves (r.)
aa. Evan Lefkowitz -- Yonkers PD Lieutenant, insulted by Billy
bb. Jerry Hart -- school friend of Billy
cc. Stanley Treester -- former partner of Billy, now working in DNA squad

2. Yasmeen Assaf-Doyle [Note: "assaf" means "I'm sorry" in Arabic.]
-- now retired, has become an alcoholic since making a slight-but-crucial error in the case against
a. Eric Cortez -- 28, murderer at large
b. Raymond del Pinto -- ninth grader murdered by Eric Cortez
c. Dennis Doyle -- patient husband of Yasmeen; also a detective in the squad
d. Simone -- one of Yasmeen's two daughters

3. Redman Brown -- now a mortician; retired after being crippled by bullet;
had once saved Billy's life by grabbing Billy's wrist during a fall from a fifth-floor fire escape.
a. Redman Brown Sr. -- his father
b. Nola Brown - his wife
c. Rafer Brown -- their handicapped toddler son
d. Cornell "Sweetpea" Harris -- Redman's White Whale; deceased, had murdered
e. Salaam Pridgen -- victim, young basketball star (not to be confused with victim Yusif Khan, 5.a)
f. Donna Barkley -- lover of Sweetpea
g. Hi-Life -- deceased hoodlum
h. Antoine Davis-Bey -- lawyer to both Sweetpea Harris and Hi-Life

4. John Pavlicek -- retired, obsessed with the murder of young
a. Thomas Rivera
and connected to the murder are
b. Jeffrey Bannion -- who may be the perp, but was recently found murdered in a train station
c. Eugene Bannion -- Jeff's mentally-challenged brother who is arrested for the murder but meets with a tragic end
d. Roy Rivera -- father of victim Tom Rivera
e. Nora Rivera -- mother of victim Tom Rivera
f. Elvis Perez -- detective assigned to the murder of Jeffery Bannion (4.b.)
g. Michael Reidy -- witness to the murder of Jeffery Bannion (4.b.)

5. Jimmy Wehlan, 46, who's obsessed by the murder of
a. Yusif Kahn -- immigrant murdered by
b. Brian Tomassi -- ringleader of street gang, killed by bus

6. Charlie Torrano -- deceased Wild Goose, does not appear in story

7. Detective MILTON RAMOS (who has his own chapters which begin with his name in large caps) is not a member of the Wild Geese,
but he harbors a grudge against Carmen Graves (1.k.) for her role (no matter how slight) in the deaths of
a. Rudy "Little Man" Ramos -- brother of MILTON and Edgar
b. Edgar Ramos -- brother of MILTON and Little Man (murdered after Little Man)
dead in separate incidents are
c. Rose Ramos -- mother of above, died soon after the murder of her sons
d. Sylvia Ramos -- wife of MILTON, mother of Sofia, killed by hit-and-run driver
e. Aaron Artest -- murdered witness to the killing of Sylvia Ramos
Still alive are
f. Pauline Ramos -- MILTON's elderly aunt
g. Norbert -- son of Pauline (f.)
h. Stan -- son of Pauline (f.)
i. Anita -- second cousin to MILTON
j. Raymond -- husband of Anita (i.)
j. Sofia Ramos -- MILTON's young daughter
k. Marilys Irrizary -- housekeeper to MILTON RAMOS, nanny to Sophia (j.)
l. Anna Goury, A/K/A Josepha Sanchez -- sister of Marilys (k.)
m. Ottavio -- related to Marilys (k.)

8. Other police officers and detectives:
a. Emmett Butter -- incompetent detective on night squad
b. Eddie Byrnes -- Queens Task Force, got shot
c. Bobby Cardozo -- detective
d. Gene Freeley -- lazy detective, drinks on job; handling murder of Tomika Washington (9.k.)
f. Edddie Lopez -- night unit Field Intelligence Officer
g. Hal Gurwitz -- "defrocked" cop, served sentence for brutalizing suspect, now free
h. John MacCormack -- undercover narcotics detective
i. Sgt. Maldonado -- cynical desk sergeant
j. Roger Mayo -- squad detective
k. Theodore Moretti -- detective
l. Nick Perlmutter -- cop who went to Amsterdam and got stoned
m. Alice Stupak -- veteran night squad detective; angry with good-ol'-boy detectives, particularly Freeley (d.)
n. Rollie "The Wheel" Towers -- dispatcher

9. Other victims and suspects
a. Marcus Alvarez -- suspect
b. Thomas Alvarez -- suspect
c. Eric Cienfuegos -- robber and murderer of
d. April -- murdered drug user
e. Patricia Jenkins -- friend of April, witness
f. Bekim Ismaeli -- murder victim
g. Aaron Jeter -- basketball star, suspected of injuring his daughter Nuance
h. Wallace Oliver -- elderly perp.
i. Horace Woody -- former Olympic athlete, now a drunk
j. Carla Garrett -- Woody's woman
k. Tomika Washington -- victim, perhaps murdered by
l. Doobie Carver -- nutcase
m. Esteban Appleyard -- lottery winner

That's more names than in Genesis, more murders than in Hamlet. Granted, it's not important to remember names which only appear once (e.g., Eddie Byrnes, 8.b., or Jerry Hart, 1.bb.) in the boring personal histories, but you'll need to remember who murdered whom in many cases: such as that of Sweetpea (3.d.) or Little Man (7.a.), so I hope that the above can help you through this novel.

Despite the glut of names, and despite the unevenness of the dialogue (What? Just sayin'), despite the use of outdated slang that nobody in the ghetto uses ("crib" or "pad" for residence -- last I heard it was "loc" for location-- or "I got to book," although middle-aged white cops might still say that), and despite the lapses in grammar ("acoustical" pg. 327), and despite that it would be a better book had it been a hundred pages shorter, Price (a master) has written another fine novel. I see that many of the one-star reviewers simply gave up on it, but take my word that it's worth the extra effort to get through, and it becomes easier reading as you progress, especially now that you can print a handy list of names.

This book is terrible. Reads like a lousy B- police procedural. I've read Price's books before and been amazed by an original, powerful narrative that is alive from the opening and keeps its vibrancy alive until the last page.

This book has one stale, hackneyed scene after another. I gave up after 50 pages and kept going that long only because I couldn't believe that it wouldn't get better. It didn't. Reads like it was written by one of its soused characters. I want my money back!

I was so excited to get this book. But the writing was so erratic, I could not follow the story line, and even lost track of who was who. Moreover, I had no idea what was going on and put the book down one third through.

While I have never read anything by Richard Price, AKA Harry Brandt for this book, his reputation certainly precedes him and this latest novel, The Whites, has definitely made me a fan wanting to read more of his work. Although this police procedural could be a quick read for the story alone, I took my time enjoying his writing style, the essence of his characters, and his way of building a plot brick by captivating brick. It is one of the best books of this genre I have read in a long time.

In the 90's, Billy Graves and a tight crew of young cops new to the Anti-Crime unit, self-christened themselves the Wild Geese. They were neighborhood regulars who tolerated the non-violents but gave hard chase, even over rooftops, to their "prey". Each earned their Gold Shield but over the years all the WG have since retired, except Billy. Some moved on to jobs vastly different from their rough riding days: one now the owner of a funeral home, another a superintendent for rundown apartment buildings, one even became a multimillionaire through hard work and good investments. Billy, however, due to the fallout of a tragic shooting, has remained on the dead end night shift.

Through the years, each of the WG has born the burden of what they called a White: a heinous murderer that walked free. Each of the WG has kept in contact with the remaining loved ones, swearing that one day their White would be convicted. Then, one night Billy recognizes a murder victim as one the Whites. Not shedding tears, he notifies the WG. Then, another White shows up dead. While this should be cause for celebration, Billy starts to recognize a pattern. As well as telling Billy's story, there is also a second ongoing narrative concerning another detective who accidently bumps into what he would regard as his own personal White.

While this story has many characters, both minor and major players, this story is Billy's. His wife has major mood swings, his young boys are busy, and amusing, little hellions, and his father with advanced dementia that waxes and wanes live with them. A dedicated cop and family man, he also considers all the members of the WG to be family as well.

Other than the colorful dialogue and writing, the appeal of this story is that no character is written as black and white. Their merits as well as their flaws are laid bare. Billy's love for his wife, his pride in his father's accomplishments before his brain started to deteriorate, even his adoration for his boisterous kids are apparent, as well as his fierce loyalty to his WG. But what really impressed me was how the other detective was written; while angry and vengeful, that detective is also shown as a family man. The WG are wonderfully more than two-dimensional. The reader cares for the characters.

It's a well-written police procedural with compelling characters and a brilliant narrative. Some readers state that the beginning is slow and they are correct. The writer is building his story on the backs of a cast of many. The criminals are even referred to as "actors" and "players" by the detectives.

Highly highly recommended.

For whatever reason, the acclaimed novelist Richard Price, author of Clockers and Lush Life, among other books, decided to write this novel as "Harry Brandt." He must have changed his mind in mid-stream, however, because the fiction of the pen name didn't even last until the pub date and, in consequence, both names appear on the cover.

Whatever the case, The Whites is among the absolute best crime novels of the year. The main protagonist is a middle-aged New York City detective named Billy Graves. In his younger days, Billy was a member of a celebrated anti-crime unit that became known as the Wild Geese, and the members of the group were not above bending the law from time to time to administer a rough justice to the scumbags that they encountered.

Most of the other members of the group have now retired and moved on to other jobs. Billy remains on the force as a sergeant in the Manhattan Night Watch, a group of detectives that catches cases overnight and then passes them on to detectives on the day shift. It's not a particularly exciting or fulfilling job, but at this point in his career, it's just what Billy needs.

Billy remains in touch with the other former members of the Wild Geese, and they occasionally get together for a reunion dinner or some such thing. But all of them, Billy included, are troubled individuals, unhappy both in their careers and in their personal lives. Each of them has a case from the past that continues to haunt him or her, usually because a perp who committed a horrible crime got away with it. In each case, the detectives know who did it, but they just never had enough proof to make the case. These cases are know as the "Whites," the name taken from a great white whale that once famously bedeviled a nineteenth-century sea captain.

Billy Graves is absolutely in love with his wife, Carmen, who is a nurse. But Carmen has deep secrets of her own from long ago, and she is as troubled in her own way as Billy is in his. This is one reason why he prefers the night shift, because it minimizes the time they have to spend together. Then in the middle of the night, Billy catches a case in which a man has been stabbed to death in Penn Station. But this is no ordinary slaying because the victim is one of the Whites that has for so many years dogged one of the other members of the Wild Geese. The slaying changes Billy's life and resurrects a lot of trouble that would have been better left buried deep in the past. And from that point on, Billy's life descends into the proverbial hell on earth.

Richard Price is truly a gifted writer who has a great way with language and who uses this story as an opportunity to probe into the hidden corners of the souls of the characters he has created here. They're all vividly drawn and the story sucks you in practically from the opening page. The Whites is a story that works at many different levels and if it's not the best book I read in 20015, then it's very close.

I've enjoyed Richard Price's stories before, and looked forward to this one. It had his usual style, especially with dialogues, and his obvious knowledge of New York's streets was good. Why the one star? It was just too damn hard to read! There were too many characters, the story didn't proceed in an understandable way. It was almost as though a dozen or so short stories had been shredded, then put together again indiscriminately. So I confess that about page 120 I gave up entirely. Too much work to keep them all in order. A lazy reader, maybe, but I do read for pleasure, and this wasn't providing it.

I sure hate to give Richard Price only three stars. He is one of my all time favorite authors. However, The Whites is not his best. Maybe writing under the name Harry Brandt allowed him leeway in his story line but I was quite disappointed in any case. All of his former novels have had the power of keeping the tension mounting throughout the story. The Whites did not have that tension. Except for the chapters re Milton Ramos I got a bit bored with the repetitive cases that Night Watch went out on. The insertion of how the former group of cops got their revenge was a bit implausible to me. It's clear that Price has his street cred and knows cops pretty good but the overall story just seemed to meander without much tension building and a somewhat predictable ending. Having recently read Lush Life for a second time and comparing it to The Whites I would think it had been written by a different author altogether. And in a sense I guess it was, i.e. Harry Brandt. Come on back Mr. Price, we don't need Brandt.