- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; First edition (6 Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224062840
- ISBN-13: 978-0224062848
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 5.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,799,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Emperor Of Ocean Park
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger awaits readers in Stephen L Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park.
After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the US Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African-American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion--though paranoid of his wife's fidelity--Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington DC denizens, including lawyers and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while Talcott tries not to hurt his lawyer wife's chance for a judicial nomination--and their fragile marriage--but the closer he comes to unravelling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become.
Clocking in at over 650 pages, the novel could easily have been streamlined; many of Talcott's thoughts are unnecessarily repeated. But Carter's storytelling skills are adept: tension builds, surprises are genuine and clues are not handed out freely. The prose, while somewhat meandering, can be crisp and insightful, as demonstrated in Carter's description of the misguided paths of young lawyers who sacrifice, "all on the altar of career... at last arriving... at their cherished career goals, partnerships, professorships, judgeships, whatever kind of ships they dream of sailing, and then looking around at the angry, empty waters and realizing that they have arrived with nothing, absolutely nothing, and wondering what to do with the rest of their wretched lives". --Michael Ferch
Kirkus
'A melodrama with brains and heart to match its killer plot. . . . Irresistible.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
blackness in America,
This review is from: The Emperor of Ocean Park (Paperback)
This book is both a ridiculously all-through-the-night read and, more importantly, a revealing meditation about being black in contemporary America. The author was asked many times in interview if the law professor hero (who is left a mystery, literally, in his father's will), was based on himself - it is a measure of how well written the book is that by the end you have no doubt of the strength of Stephen Carter's imagination. Despite the brilliant and leisurely detective story, the thing that stays with me the most is the extraordinary depiction of how racially divided life in the US still is, even for the privileged, educated son of a high-ranking judge. A really salutory tale.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Emperor's New Clothes?,
By RG (Glasgow United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Emperor of Ocean Park (Paperback)
A distinctly average novel. Although it does have some well-written passages and the occasional bit of striking imagery, it is ultimately a huge disappointment (especially given the considerable hype and allegedly massive advance it received).It's too long and has too few changes in pace. 600+ pages of "and then I did this", "now I'm doing that" become a bit wearing after a while. Also, it commits the cardinal sin of too often "telling" instead of "showing".
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, intriguing thriller,
By
This review is from: The Emperor Of Ocean Park (Paperback)
This book was a treat! It is not only a well-plotted thriller with complex and interesting characters, but also an insight into the lives of the well-to-do black community in the US. The writing is crisp and intelligent. The main character, Talcott Garland, believes his father died in suspicious circumstances, and decides to investigate, helped (if you can call it that) by a cryptic note left for him by his father. The ground is constantly shifting, and Talcott finds that he cannot trust anyone because he can never be sure who the enemy is. Usually I find that in many thrillers, the end tends to be a bit of an anti-climax. This is not true of this book. I defintely recommend it.
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