The Force

Too much swearing, bad language, no depth, like watching “Night of the City” the 100th time. Only of interest for whoever is still curious about the corruption of a whole city.

Absolutely great book, we’ll worth a read. Highly recommend it

A thrilling cop and crime saga that manages to up the ante in what seemed in every turn of the page with almost no gun fights involved. Beautifully drawn out flawed characters and a riveting plot makes this a must read.

What a fantastic writer.
Thank you Mr Winslow
I enjoyed well

Extreme machismo. Just enough surprises in the plot to keep me listening but not enough to genuinely excite me. Mean, gritty, corrupt, whack jobs on every second page. OK if you like that sort of thing.

This is not my usual genre but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The characters are 'alive' and the story keeps interest. I particularly enjoyed the inside information about how the streets of NY are run....how close to the truth it is I have no clue but I did make for an entertaining read

Powerful writing. Tension in every image, situation and character.

Too much testosterone, tough guys, tough talk and too many clichés. I knew pretty quickly that this wasn't for me.

ALERT: Vulgar language throughout. The Force is basically a book about corruption in a NYCPD's precinct elite unit targeting drugs, gangs and guns in Harlem. The corruption probe ultimately leads to City Hall itself as well as judges and attorneys. It is awesome. A page turner. The book is reminiscent of the Knapp Commission days (early 1970's) which targeted corruption of cops and judges and attorneys. The author throws out familiar names like Frank Serpico and Bob Leuci. It is in the spirit of that investigation that this book was written and the author has done his research. The flyleaf calls it "a masterpiece of urban realism" and I agree.

Great audiobook. i've listen this audiobook so many times. The author did a very great job. really helpful audiobook.

Slow to start and then the tension ramps inexorably up, twisting and turning, then twisting some more. Great plotting and dialogue, an increasingly gripping denouement, read with impressive pace and power. I can recommend this to anyone who likes gritty crime with hard hitting social themes

Great book although once you hear "said Malone" you can un hear it

The narrative tone left me feeling more distanced from the story than even the NYC setting, which is one of the toughest settings for me to get excited about. Very gritty. An interesting psychological look at how the best intentions often lead one on a road to hell. Up until the 3/4 mark, it looks like a standard bad-cop protagonist. The twist is around the 3/4 mark when more backstory is revealed. Readers are allowed to regain hope for the main character as his history is revealed and actions in the latter portion of the book seem to shift. But don’t get too excited, as the dark tone that starts the novel carries through to the very end.

For me Winslow’s novel is supported in two vectors: NYC and Evil vs. Good.NYC is a world city, Gotham City and Megacity One as well as its own varied, evolving actuality, vibrant and fecund, a motor of modernity. From my Lisbon perspective as a youth back then it was a constant alternative representation of a cosmopolis. On the screen, in books and comics, and in the news, print and multi media. The music scene and arts in general also had that NYC vibe going on. I’d say coming up with my top books about the city that everyone is happy with is an impossible task. However, while naturally my list would be a little different. Among possible choices I’d mention Luc Sante’s “Low Life”, James Baldwin’s “Another Country”, Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”, John O’Hara’s “Butterfield 8” or New York Stories, Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker”, E.B. White’s “Here is New York”, Richard Price’s “Ladies Man”, Bruce Davidson’s “Subway”, Paul Auster “New York Trilogy”, Helen Levitt’s “Crosstown” and of course “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” but honestly you could be here all day choosing books about the city and still feel you’d missed about 30 others. And now “The Force”.One of the reason why I love bad characters is surely because they offer a win-win situation: we get vicarious thrills from their outrageous behaviour and we also feel gratified when they are humiliated and punished. Instead of rooting for a hero and feeling bad when he/she is in peril and feeling good when he/she is rewarded, we feel good all the time. Dostoevsky's most odious character is surely Foma Fomich Opiskin, a loathsome moral and religious hypocrite, a spiteful, manipulative, petty tyrant, an absolute nullity who is also a monster of vanity. There is something very Trump-like about him. Is Malone a character a la Dostoevsky? I decided after having finished “Da Force” that the reason I like reading Don Winslow so much is that he kindly tells me what all his characters are thinking, thus saving me the bother of working it out for myself. I suspect that the cart is being put before the horse here. If you don't have a great deal of inherent interest in fictitious characters' emotions there is often little in much literary fiction to keep your attention so you're not likely to be an avid reader of it. I could equally hypothesise that science fiction makes its readers more scientifically literate; some of that might be because they learn science from SF but much will be because only those interested in science in the first place read it. The same applies to the Best Crime Fiction.I don't read much crime fiction myself (although I have thoroughly enjoyed the odd Ian Rankin novel), but I'm sure crime fiction readers would be pretty insulted to hear that their favourite novels apparently lack any emotional or literary depth, when this is clearly not true. There's basically no such thing as a stereotypical genre reader except in the mind of exceptionalist snobs. It reminds me of all those time Iain Banks would be on a literary TV programme or radio show, and critics who raved about "The Bridge" and "The Wasp Factory" would ignore his Culture novels entirely or view them as an embarrassing aside, not realising the brutal irony with which they spoke.It's not just genre-snobbery: when P.D. James, a crime writer, had a go at something else she produced a clumsy single-issue dystopia 'Children of Men' that was turned into a pompous film and praised as 'visionary'. Walter Mosley, who has SF chops and clearly wasn't just 'having a go' after the second or third time, got a different reception from the usual critics. P.D. James was on 'Quote, Unquote' and 'Bookmark' and had a seat in the House of Lords but wrote whodunnits. The cognitive dissonance this caused led people to start wondering if crime was really a 'genre', as it had when Dorothy L. Sayers did it.I think the distinction is really between books that are written with real depth of characterisation and imagination and formulaic lightweight stuff. Genre is irrelevant. “The Master and Margarita” is fantasy, as well as political satire. “The Force” is Crime Fiction, as well as “a searing portrait of a city on the edge and of a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss.” If one says "morality" is entirely contextual, and is solely based on prevailing environmental circumstances, societal mores and popular trends of thought, as opposed to being derived from any absolute source", some people interpret that as being functionally equivalent to "I suggest that "morality" is just something we humans made up on a whim, and as such, people can and should be able to do whatever the hell they like". In other words, they take the statement to mean that if there were indeed no absolute morality, human beings would necessarily behave in an unregulated and chaotic fashion, and since humans don't do that, there must be some sort of absolute morality - so, either that morality is absolute, or it has no effect. I would argue that this is not the case. As Winslow tries to “demonstrate”, there is demonstrably no such thing as absolute "morality" in human societies. The only way such thing could exist would be if it were imposed by an extra-human agency, and there's no evidence of that. Of course, that would then raise the question as to where the extra-human agency got its judgments from (or, indeed, its authority to impose the "morality"). Another error people seem to make is in thinking that by acknowledging the malleability of "morality" one denies its existence as a concept or as a “force” (pun intended). "Morality" does exist (I believe it’s the point of the Winslow’s novel personified in Malone’s character), and it has validity as a practical means of ensuring our society continues to function in the ways we have got used to. But "morality" emerges from society, and is shaped by its evolution, not the other way around. However, if anyone can come up with a single "moral" precept that has been adhered to in all human societies at all times, I shall buy them a drink. :-) If I can’t buy them a drink, I’ll buy them this book.After reading “The Force” I saw my work colleagues in a whole new light and it really improved my relationships with the few that are left…For all his intellectual toil Thomas Aquinas eventually saw the light, sobered up, pushed his writings away and went for a walk and died while doing so. “All what I have written seem to me like chaff in the wind ”, he said. Probably the wisest thing he ever had to say. There is some precision in his last statement.

Enjoyed this book quite a bit.

This book follows the Manhattan North Special Task Force, headed up by Denny Malone, New York’s number one cop. The books opens with Malone in a federal prison. Is he guilty or is he innocent? This will be revealed through flashbacks that document Denny's story, along with his best friends and workmates, Bill Montague, Phil Russo and Billy O'Neil. I won't say much more about the story line because the author does an excellent job of transporting the reader right into the seedy underbelly of the cops and criminals of New York.

I thought the book was excellently written and Denny a compelling narrator. You will recognize many of the stereotypical characters that populate this style book, as well as the corruption and hypocrisy. If you were a fan of HBO's The Wire, there is much here that is similar. In fact, the whole time I was reading it, I was envisioning it as a new movie or TV series. I haven't read any other books by Don Winslow but would definitely consider trying out another, especially The Cartel, which looks very interesting.

Went back and forth on my feelings on this book as I went. The story is compelling, but the anti-hero POV character is not very likable though there is a bit of redemption in reveals near the end. On the other hand, some of the ending felt a bit contrived. It's a solid 4 stars. The narration by Dion Graham is incredible though.

Don Winslow is best known for his crime thrillers, (“Cartel”) set on the West coast. His latest novel, “The Force” is set in New York City, and it is a propulsive, action-packed crime novel that will leave you breathless.Denny Malone is the leader of the Manhattan North Special Task Force, known as “Da Force”. They are the alpha cops, the ones you see on the news, making big drug, gun and gang busts, putting the bad guys behind bars and making Northern Manhattan safer. “If there was a secret Da Force didn’t know about, it was because it hadn’t been whispered about or even thought about yet.” “Da Force” are supposed to be the good guys, but when the temptation of all that drug money and their desire to provide a good lives for their families collide, trouble follows. The novel opens with hero cop Malone behind bars himself in federal lockup with a big decision to make- protect his family or his partners.The novel then tells how Malone got there, and it whips along at a breakneck pace. Winslow so submerges the reader into the grittier parts of Upper Manhattan, you actually feel like you’re right there along with him. And if you think only the cops are dirty, let’s just say that no one gets out of this unscathed.Stephen King calls “The Force” “The Godfather, only with cops”, and that may be the best blurb I have ever read. It utterly describes the vibe you get from reading this heart-pounding book. Winslow dedicates this novel to the law enforcement personnel who lost their lives during the time he wrote the book, and names them all- the list is two and half pages and is a sobering beginning to this outstanding book, which I highly recommend.

To cut to the chase, this may well be the best book I've read this year. And that's even independent of the fact that the book just before it was the worst I read in several years (that latest Grisham). I read the audio version of The Force and found myself backing up giant sections to listen again simply because the language was so delicious or the character descriptions were so vivid. This will clearly be a movie but I cannot imagine why I would need or want to see it. I got every single detail carved into my brain already. Nothing could make it better. In addition to everything else, it is a stick with you story - the bad guy is the good guy and the good guy is the bad guy and all for very valid and understandable reasons. I hope Winslow took five minutes to wallow in the excellence he created. But only five cause I need him to do it again, please.

This is one of those books I had on my "to read" list that I somehow never got around to reading until now. I am so glad I did. This was a great tale about cops in New York City, specifically Detective Dennis Malone, the head of the prestigious unit in the department. While Malone had great intentions about being a great cop and cleaning up his city, things did not go as planned. We see how he spiraled into being a dirty cop, the ramifications of his choices and gain some insights into how the "real world" works. It is one of the best written books I have read in a long time.

one of the best Police thrillers I've ever read. a fearless dive into New York City corruption from the top down.

Excellent. Page turner. Atmosphère New York

The Force is a gritty, no holds bard story of how a good cop in New York became a bad cop and how it affected not only him and the men in is task force, but those he loved as well.

Compelling, but too gritty for me. The characters and their choices just make me so sad.

It seems everybody is a bad guy, but at least the street criminals are honestly criminals, not crooked while pretending to be good guys like the cops. This is a violent and somewhat depressing piece of fiction, but in reality, there are crooked cops and there are cops who shoot people when they shouldn't., especially poor black young men. But in this story, just about everyone is a bad guy, or less frequently, bad woman. Interesting, entertaining, depressing, but easily forgetable.

The Force by Don Winslow is a 2017 William Morrow publication. Denny Malone- a cop- NYPD, the member of an elite group. He’s seen it all in his eighteen years of service. But his badge is tarnished, and his dirty deeds are coming home to roost. Stealing drugs and skimming copious amounts of cash from a major drug bust, Denny is now under the watchful eye of the Feds, while the racial atmosphere in his city is threatening to boil over at any moment. To complicate matters further, Denny is separated from his wife and kids, and is involved in an interracial relationship with a nurse who happens to have a problem with heroin. While the feds may have him against the wall, Denny knows things no one would want the public to hear about. Initially, he thinks this might be his ace in the hole. Denny swears to keep his fellow ‘brothers’ safe, that he’s not just covering his own butt. But, as the tensions on the street escalate, the noose is pulled tighter around Denny’s neck and the reader will get a brutal, shocking, up close and personal look at ‘da force’ and life on the streets of New York City. This is my first book by Don Winslow. I’ve heard awesome things about his books, but never got around to reading one of them. When this book was published in 2017, I grabbed a copy without hesitation, but due to the bulk of the book and the impression that this was a story I wanted to take slow, one that might require my undivided attention and a sharper focus, I kept passing it over, and before long it had slipped so far down the TBR pile it fell off my radar. But, one day a few months back, someone on Twitter ‘liked’ one the author’s tweets, which reminded me of this book, so I made a mental note to look it up again. Strange way to be reminded of a book, I guess, but I am thankful for the prompt, all the same. This book is mind boggling. It is one of the best crime novels of its kind I’ve read in years. It is packed with layers of grit, drama, tension and suspense, and is utterly engrossing. However, it is not an easy read in many ways. It is intensely somber and bleak. The prose is tight and poetic even, in its way, but, the language, authentic, though it may be, is rough, very rough. The story is also very testosterone laden, but again, I think it is more realistic and accurate than the average person wants to believe. In fact, everything in this book is that way, to the point where it became a bit depressing. If only half of this story is based on real life scenarios, and sadly, I think the portrayal of the system was probably spot on, then one might even come away with a feeling of hopelessness. But this is not exactly new territory, although it is a fresher and more original spin on the classic cop drama. This book did put me in mind of some older books, television programs, and movies from days past that portrayed the realities of big city crime and justice, and the inner workings of the police departments, where corruption, payoffs and greed were standard operating procedure.Denny’s deep character analysis is also a study of the city and the force and captures the taut atmosphere at on the streets. Do you hate to love Denny, or do you love to hate him? In some ways Denny reminded me of a member of the mob, with his fingers in every pie, wheeling and dealing working the system, compromising, living large and on the edge, instead of a member of law enforcement. The lines were that blurred. But, at the end of the day, Denny’s frame of mind, his thought process, is at the very center of the entire book, as is the mindset of the city, where the fight isn’t just on the streets, it’s in the twisted system, and is more about politics than keeping citizens safe. Overall, this novel is a very convincing crime drama, a story one can sink their teeth into, with a lot to chew on. 4.5

Really well done. Denny Malone is a compelling character.

This is my 3rd Don Winslow novel and it is the best the of three. Crime fiction is something that I read 10% of the time. I like the plots, the characters, and in the hands of authors like Richard Price, Kate Atkinson, Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow it really is literary fiction. This novel is a 500 page turner. Winslow writes great dialogue. Although the characters are a little stereotypical it works because that is what you see in crime fiction. The back drop of the story is that it takes place in Harlem during the present. An elite task force fights crime while also getting into the corruption that is pervasive up and down the chain of participants(Cops, snitches, junkies, lawyers, judges, politicians). All are involved and portrayed in a not too flattering light. Winslow does a good job of giving a non-fiction context to the story. If the book is any way accurate, then it is scary. If you like crime fiction than you will like this book.

did not really like it. relies way too much on clichés and unrealistic plot lines. really disappointing

In THE FORCE, Don Winslow gives us a cynical look at cops who are both willing participants in and contaminated by a corrupt system. The narrative is intended to be shocking, but this seems largely to be diminished by today’s headlines. We now know that cops profile people based on race and often kill innocent citizens. We now know that many politicians are self-serving and corrupt. We now know that drugs have infiltrated the straight world and are killing at extraordinary rates. By comparison, the unrelenting grimness Winslow brings to bear in his novel seems a little quaint.Certainly, there is little in his story that hasn’t already been explored extensively in the contemporary crime genre. Yet Winslow asks a few larger questions that give his novel some literary heft. Are there aspects of the job that can lead to corruption? “This job kills you, physically or psychologically, or both.” Cops “develop a shell, a ‘we hate everybody’ attitude force field around themselves that everyone can feel from 10 feet away.” What makes good cops go bad? They do it gradually: “step by step.” “You need the money, the cash flow…” “You love the game… the idea that you might get caught." Must the police break the law to keep the peace? To his credit, Winslow does not provide pat answers.Detective Sergeant Denny Malone narrates the story. He has much in common with the protagonists in Shakespeare’s tragedies. He spends a lot of time talking to himself; he refers to himself as "the king of Manhattan North"; he wields enormous power; he is intensely loyal to his men, sharing the spoils of his work with them and their families; he comes from an impeccable lineage of public servants; and he sees himself as a heroic figure, despite being a brutal sociopath.The minor characters in the book are largely ethnic stereotypes. Russo is the Italian cop, Denny’s boyhood friend from Staten Island. Montague is a big Black cop who dresses and behaves like a professor. O’Neill is the idealistic naïve young cop. Corrupt lawyers, judges and politicians populate the rest of the novel. The setting is also a stereotype. Staten Island is filled with middle class civil servants, pool parties and families, while Manhattan North is depicted as a place where “a strong wind finds its way through every crack, into the project stairwells, the tenement heroin mills, the social club back rooms, the new-money condos, the old-money penthouses.” The place reeks of “smothered jerk chicken or jerk pork or pasta marinara or gourmet meals at five-star restaurants in a city made from sin and for profit."The plot smacks of both the classical crime stereotype and current events. The cops bust a big heroin deal but skim some of the drugs to use for their “retirements.” Federal investigators record Malone delivering money to a DA and turn him into an informer. This escalates into a full-blown scandal leading to Malone’s imprisonment.The narrative is filled with action sequences and conspiracy told in short sentences characterized by stereotypical cop tough talk, racist epithets, profanity, and whining about police privilege. “The people, they don’t know what it takes sometimes to keep them safe and it’s better that they don’t.” In general, the novel presents an unflattering picture of the police and leaves one wondering just how well it represents reality.