The Emperor of Ocean Park
Format: Glassbook Format
An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is set in two privileged worlds: the upper crust African American society of the eastern seaboard -- old families who summer on Martha's Vineyard -- and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school. It tells the story of a complex family with a single, seductive link to the shadowlands of crime.<P>The Emperor of the title, Judge Oliver Garland, has just died, suddenly. A brilliant legal mind, conservative and famously controversial, Judge Garland made more enemies than friends. Many years before, he'd earned a judge's highest prize: a Supreme Court nomination. But in a scene of bitter humiliation, televised across the country, his nomination collapsed in scandal. The humbling defeat became a private agony, one from which he never recovered.<P>But now the Judge's death raises even more questions -- and it seems to be leading to a second, even more terrible scandal. Could Oliver Garland have been murdered? He has left a strange message for his son Talcott, a professor of law at a great university, entrusting him with "the arrangements" -- a mysterious puzzle that only Tal can unlock, and only by unearthing the ambiguities of his father's past. When another man is found dead, and then another, Talcott -- wry, straight-arrow, almost too self-aware to be a man of action -- must risk his career, his marriage, and even his life, following the clues his father left him.<P>Intricate, superbly written, often scathingly funny, <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is a triumphant work of fiction, packed with character and incident -- a brilliantly crafted tapestry of ambition, family secrets, murder, integrity tested, and justice gone terribly wrong.<P><HR>"Among the most remarkable fiction debuts in recent years... [The Emperor of Ocean Park] is full of musing about God, family, chess, the politics of Supreme Court appointments, loyalty, unhappy marriage, the media, depression, race, and academic infighting... [Carter] is a scholar and a lawyerly commentator who has penned a rip-roaring entertainment."<BR> <I>BOSTON GLOBE</I><P>"The year's hottest summer read and a surefire bestseller... Carter does for members of the contemporary black upper-class what Henry James did for Washington Square society, taking us into their drawing rooms and laying their motives bare... However <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is categorized, beach reading doesn't get any better than this."<BR> <I>TIME OUT NEW YORK</I><P>"<I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is a delightful, sprawling, gracefully written, imaginative work, with sharply delineated characters who dwell in a fully realized narrative world... Carter deserves comparison with such successful practitioners of the crime novel as Scott Turow."<BR> <I>THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS</I><P><I>"The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is an intricately plotted work... a novel that is both thriller and commentary on American racial relations."<BR> DAN CRYER, <I>NEWSDAY</I><P>"[A] complex literary thriller. Carter deftly weaves together several strands, from the relationships of father and sons and husbands and wives to the politics of the Nixon and Reagan eras."<BR> <I>BOOKPAGE</I><P>"<I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is no ordinary fiction debut...Carter has produced a thoroughly original mystery-thriller... that also explores the brave terrains of race, family, power, paranoia, and the law... If I may join the hype, <
$14.95 (USD)
The Emperor of Ocean Park
Format: Microsoft Desktop Reader
An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is set in two privileged worlds: the upper crust African American society of the eastern seaboard -- old families who summer on Martha's Vineyard -- and the inner circle of an Ivy League law school. It tells the story of a complex family with a single, seductive link to the shadowlands of crime.<P>The Emperor of the title, Judge Oliver Garland, has just died, suddenly. A brilliant legal mind, conservative and famously controversial, Judge Garland made more enemies than friends. Many years before, he'd earned a judge's highest prize: a Supreme Court nomination. But in a scene of bitter humiliation, televised across the country, his nomination collapsed in scandal. The humbling defeat became a private agony, one from which he never recovered.<P>But now the Judge's death raises even more questions -- and it seems to be leading to a second, even more terrible scandal. Could Oliver Garland have been murdered? He has left a strange message for his son Talcott, a professor of law at a great university, entrusting him with "the arrangements" -- a mysterious puzzle that only Tal can unlock, and only by unearthing the ambiguities of his father's past. When another man is found dead, and then another, Talcott -- wry, straight-arrow, almost too self-aware to be a man of action -- must risk his career, his marriage, and even his life, following the clues his father left him.<P>Intricate, superbly written, often scathingly funny, <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is a triumphant work of fiction, packed with character and incident -- a brilliantly crafted tapestry of ambition, family secrets, murder, integrity tested, and justice gone terribly wrong.<P><HR>"Among the most remarkable fiction debuts in recent years... [The Emperor of Ocean Park] is full of musing about God, family, chess, the politics of Supreme Court appointments, loyalty, unhappy marriage, the media, depression, race, and academic infighting... [Carter] is a scholar and a lawyerly commentator who has penned a rip-roaring entertainment."<BR> <I>BOSTON GLOBE</I><P>"The year's hottest summer read and a surefire bestseller... Carter does for members of the contemporary black upper-class what Henry James did for Washington Square society, taking us into their drawing rooms and laying their motives bare... However <I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is categorized, beach reading doesn't get any better than this."<BR> <I>TIME OUT NEW YORK</I><P>"<I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is a delightful, sprawling, gracefully written, imaginative work, with sharply delineated characters who dwell in a fully realized narrative world... Carter deserves comparison with such successful practitioners of the crime novel as Scott Turow."<BR> <I>THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS</I><P><I>"The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is an intricately plotted work... a novel that is both thriller and commentary on American racial relations."<BR> DAN CRYER, <I>NEWSDAY</I><P>"[A] complex literary thriller. Carter deftly weaves together several strands, from the relationships of father and sons and husbands and wives to the politics of the Nixon and Reagan eras."<BR> <I>BOOKPAGE</I><P>"<I>The Emperor of Ocean Park</I> is no ordinary fiction debut...Carter has produced a thoroughly original mystery-thriller... that also explores the brave terrains of race, family, power, paranoia, and the law... If I may join the hype, <
$14.95 (USD)