Harlem Shuffle Isn’t a Crime Novel

POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

Sure, there are heists and gangsters and a spectacular, public revenge. But in crime novels, mysteries are always solved. Not necessarily by a detective who gets the bad guy, but by the reader understanding what happened and why. None of the mysteries in Harlem Shuffle gets solved. One mystery is a lapse. Three mysteries in a row? That’s on purpose.

In the first act, we see Miami Joe betray the crew. Why has he betrayed the crew? We don’t know. We don’t get a “villain explanation” from him—he doesn’t get to that. Presumably, because that’s what crooks do, they grab money when they can. In the second act, Wilfred Duke takes a bribe (”an envelope”) from Carney but then blocks his membership in the Dumas Club. Why? Again, presumably because he can, and that’s what crooks do. In the third act, we have the briefcase. The Van Wycks want the briefcase back, and it’s not because of the necklace (they already have that). Why do they want it? We don’t know. Maybe the blueprints, maybe the power of attorney, maybe the bank numbers. Maybe just because it’s their property, and that’s what landowners do.

But why are the mysteries unresolved? Why break this specific rule of crime fiction? The answer lies in the parallels between the “straight” and “crooked” worlds Carney inhabits. From the beginning of the novel, the line between the “straight” and the “crooked” world is blurry. Moreover, the deeper into the novel—and the “crooked” world—we plunge, the more it becomes clear that the two worlds aren’t really separated. There’s the front, respectable furniture shop and the back office with a side door where Freddie’s friends and various thieves bring Carney their illegitimate items. There are envelopes you give to the gangster, and envelopes you give to the cop.

The most striking example of this is the Van Wyck family. Here is a “respectable”, White, land-owning family who operates with the same logic as the gangsters. For whatever reason, they want the briefcase back, and they deploy violence to get what they want. The ease with which Pepper handles the Van Wycks’ people is another clue. As a veteran criminal, Pepper understands that the two worlds operate with the same logic: you get what you can when you can get it.

Solving a mystery means restoring a certain order for the reader, at least. It confirms that we are safe in the straight world, protected by its rules. Whitehead deliberately doesn’t restore the order because the order was never real. If the only logic is power, “just because they can” is a valid motivation. That’s how power works. As he puts it, the order belongs to “pissed-off rich people who were as bent as gangsters but didn’t have to hide. They did it out in the open, notarized their misdeeds or engraved them into bronze plates for building facades.” (p. 287).