The Force: A Novel

I’ve been hearing for a while now about the crime novels of Don Winslow, but for whatever reason, I’ve never actually read one until picking up The Force. And you know, it turns out that pretty much everyone who told me how great he was? They were all right. The Force is a knockout - a sweeping neo-noir about crooked cops, shady investigations, and what it takes to cross a moral line that you can’t take back. In broad strokes, The Force feels familiar, telling the story of Denny Malone, who was once one of the most powerful cops in New York City. The de facto head of the Manhattan North Task Force (a squad known colloquially as “Da Force”) of the NYPD, Malone was both a force for justice and deeply crooked - and genuinely never saw the disconnect between those two sides of himself. Instead, Malone and Da Force feel that they’re the line between chaos and order, doing the jobs that everyone knows need to be done but no one wants to okay. Malone is a fascinating figure, one who feels like he could have come from a James Ellroy book - he’s a ruthless, dangerous man, but also one who’s utterly convinced of his own righteousness. But while Ellroy gives us amoral sociopaths, Malone is a stew of contradictions. He’s a man who tosses out ethnic slurs for criminals in a second, but also a man who is willing to commit violence to defend those same populations from what he perceives as threats. He has nothing but scorn for cops who take bribes from some of the drug dealers, and yet remains on the take with mobsters and attorneys. He’s horrified by the acts of violence he sees on the streets, and yet commits worse all the time in the name of “justice.” And Winslow explores those contradictions for much of the length of The Force, using it not only to flesh out Denny, but also to explore the different forces that shape the modern police force, from increased focus on police brutality to community outreach, from racial tensions to media-driven police campaigns. All of this is only part of The Force, whose plot is largely comprised of Malone’s complicated fall from grace, as his corruption is exposed to the light and he finds himself torn between a desire to stay true to his partners and his own self-preservation. How it forces a moral reckoning - or to what degree it even happens - is part of the book’s subject matter, but more than that, The Force is about modern policing and what it truly means to live the life of a police officer. And it’s not just about the corruption and the graft; that would be too simple, too reductive. Instead, Winslow never loses focus of the good that Da Force actually does in the world - the way it defends the defenseless, the way that they build bridges into the community, and the way so many of their illicit actions are funneled back into the community. Simultaneously, Winslow constantly reminds us of the hypocrisy of those actions, showing the distance between intentions and reality all too often. By the end, The Force has become something more than you ever would have expected, using the familiar trope of a corrupt cop and running with it to something bigger - a portrait of modern policing with all of its contradictions and flaws, a portrait of the things that pulls the force in different directions, and a reminder of the countless contradictions that make up so much of the justice system. It shows us both the cruelty of police and the events that made them that way, both the corruption of the police and their anger at how much other corruption is hand waved away, both the violence they commit and what drives them to it. It’s a sprawling, complex saga, both in terms of its plot and its characters, and that complexity is what makes it so riveting - and so unpredictable.

Book Review – Don Winslow’s “The Force” starts, not too slowly, but with a good deal of background and setting of the plotline. About a quarter of the way through, I wondered whether that was going to be the whole book, but Wow! This police crime thriller picked up and took off until it hurtles the reader into the explosive conclusion. The writing is simply terrific, putting readers squarely inside NYPD Detective Denny Malone's head and life. Winslow has created a totally believable and up-to-date NYC tale, with a large and well-drawn cast of characters. The Force opens with the main character, NYPD detective sergeant Denny Malone in federal custody, tagged as a dirty cop, a disgrace to his fellow officers and most of all to himself. All that Detective Malone ever wanted was to be a good cop, but now he must find a way to redeem his sins, to make something good after all the bad he did in his 16 years on the job. He was part of ‘The Force’, the most renowned and celebrated task force in the NYPD. Malone and his team were like brothers, family, they were heroes, they were kings among men, and they were all in big trouble now. The story is thrilling, unpredictable and just when the readers think that it’s over, the story kicks you in the face with a steel towed cop boot! The characters are real, lifelike in their humanity, in their faults and especially in their flaws. This is a dark and grim book, the sad story of a good cop doing bad things, the story of a corrupt New York City administration. There are drugs, addicts, weapons, parties, hilariously funny jokes, deeply dramatic side stories, call girls, crimes, executions, car chases, gun fights, bribes, wire taps, indictments, local cops, feds, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, gang bangers, mobsters, and riots that were brought on by agony and hope! Undoubtedly one of the ‘best’ police, crime thrillers that I’ve ever read! An intense tale of the ‘rise-and-fall’ of civic corruption which reads like a mirror image of the gangster movie, “Goodfellas.” It was a slippery slope of rule bending by cops becoming rule breaking and trying to rule ‘Gotham City’. Hard hitting and fascinating read! Simply WoW!

Ein hervorragendes Buch, spannend von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite

Un brutal retour à la réalité, après les séries TV aseptisées, pleines de héros

Once you’re in it, you can’t put it down until you finish it

Un thriller policiaco clásico, maravillosamente escrito. No hay buenos ni malos, solo gente que cree que a su modo hace lo correcto. Harry. El protagonista, es genial.

Nothing more to say but great read, I recommend this to anyone who loves a good cop story. I will read more from this author.