"The Force" traces the downward spiral of veteran New York cop Denny Malone, who has become the legendary "King of Manhattan North" through an understanding that a certain amount of corruption, brutality and betrayal — not to mention drug dealing — is justified in the fight against crime. After all, the system itself is wickedly corrupt. He swears he would never rat out a brother cop, but when his misdeeds catch up with him and prosecutors threaten the welfare of his separated wife and kids, who knows what he will do? Winslow takes his time setting the scene. Malone "just loved the (expletive) city ... the domino games on the sidewalks, the reggaeton music blaring out of car stereos, the street merchants hacking coconuts open with machetes." But once the author, a former investigator, starts tightening the screws of this by stunning drama, it has you unrelentingly in its grip.