Set in 1960s Harlem, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys spins a sizzling tale of shakedowns, audacious heists and kickbacks.

“Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...”

To his customers on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture. Not many people know he descends from a line of uptown crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it.

When his cousin Freddie falls in with a crew who pull off one of Harlem’s most outrageous heists, Ray finds himself in way above his head. Can he succeed in living a good life in a very bad world?

Today: with riots and protests, things are hotting up in Harlem. And that's before Freddie turns up with a locked briefcase...

Read by Rhashan Stone
Writer: Colson Whitehead is the acclaimed US author the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys.
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett Show less