Richard Price

In Price's novel, a Harlem apartment building collapses, upending the lives of its residents, including a photographer, a funeral director and a 42-year-old man who feels he has little to live for.

Price says that in every precinct there's one cop who just can't let go of a case. "They all reminded me of Ahab ... looking for their whales," he says. Price's latest is called The Whites.

Novelist and screenwriter Richard Price discusses his new novel, Lush Life, about the repercussions of a shooting on the Lower East side. Price has written extensively about the realities of inner city life; he is a writer for HBO's The Wire which ends a five-year run on Sunday.

The eight-part drama series centers on a college student who is suspected of murder after an adventurous night out. Critic David Bianculli says "everything about The Night Of is quite impressive."