Colson Whitehead’s Long Con

A professional slight kicks off Colson Whitehead’s third crime caper. Harlem merchant Ray Carney has just wrapped up an interview with a furniture magazine he adores when he’s called downtown to meet with an, ahem, associate. Carney, who moonlights as a fence, assumes the rendezvous will engender some new criminal opportunity, but it’s a trap. His colleague is a hostage, and the armed captors don’t initially recognize Carney as a fellow crook. “Don’t want to beat up the janitor,” one says after…