by Stacy Horn
First published 2025
Stacy Horn examines the destruction of East New York, Brooklyn, through the lens of America's first subprime mortgage scandal. The author traces how the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act, designed to help low-income families of color achieve homeownership, became a tool for exploitation by banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt FHA officials. Horn connects the financial crimes of the 1970s to the neighborhood's violent collapse by the early 1990s, when East New York recorded the highest murder rates in NYPD history. Following parallel narratives, she documents both the criminal network behind the mortgage fraud and the community's devastating decline into abandoned buildings and empty lots. The investigation culminated in the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history. Horn demonstrates how white-collar crimes committed in offices proved as destructive as street violence, revealing the deep connections between different forms of criminal activity and their lasting impact on American neighborhoods.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, social-issues, true-crime, investigative-journalism, american-history
Vibes: dark, gritty, investigative, systemic-critique, thought-provoking
Tropes: community-destruction, institutional-corruption, parallel-narratives
Setting: East New York, Brooklyn, New York
Period: 1968, 1970s, 1990s, 20th century
352 pages · Paperback · Gillian Flynn Books
Content warnings: murder, racism, violence