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Feb 20, 2008

Roy rated it:

The fact that this book explores university politics featuring east coast black upper-middle class characters made it stand out from the pack, but once you get over this facet (which I did pretty quickly), what you're left with is a well written and fairly intriguing mystery, more memorable than some I've read, less so than others. I suppose a book like this one is an antidote to the urban/hip hop/gangsta/etc. genre of "literature", not so much because it features black characters who More...

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Apr 02, 2008

Gigi rated it:

A father dies and his son must figure out what secrets he has left behind. Others also want to know what the "arrangements" are and so begins the book. I tend to not read a lot of suspense books but I enjoyed this one. There are times where the side stories take a little too much ink but I feel that many of the side stories added to the depth of the story so you never knew which people or bits of information were important to the main plot and which supported the subplots. I also liked More...

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Apr 30, 2008

David rated it:

This was one of the moodiest books I have ever read. A well-to-do African American family come together for the funeral of the family patriarch, a judge who once was in the running for a Supreme Court seat, but because of his connection with "Uncle Jack," a shadowy underworld figure, removed himself from consideration in disgrace.

This author is one of the best "mood-setters" I have ever read. He is able to describe alternately the joy of raising a child and th More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Shayla rated it:

OK, so I finally finished the book and I really liked it! In addition to the use of the terms "darker nation" and "paler nation", which I thought was a simple but wonderful way to distinguish the races (I tire of having to say black and white), the writing was really quite good. This was not a short novel, so Carter had enough pages to develop the characters and I'm glad that he did. I came to understand, though not always like, the whole Garland clan and their actions, eve More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Plsullivan023 rated it:

Carter has an extraordinary command of the English language. One of the most compelling books I've read, primarily for the vocabulary gymnastics. I was sent to my dictionary more than once. However, the plot line of this mystery is secondary to the breadth of Carter's knowledge of human nature. I also take exception to so many evidentiary holes in the mystery that are explained later -- getting the answer before we even know the reason for the question.
Author Carter's sometimes unr More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2008

Ann rated it:

For almost a week Bob and I didn't talk to each other much. That's because he had his nose in this 800+ page book for the first part of the week, and I had mine in it for the second part. Unlike legal thrillers penned by other legally trained writers (e.g. Grisham, Turow, and Baldacci), this book is not one dimensional. It is complex, and the language is rich. It is a window into the world of affluent/well-educated members of the "darker nation" and the book unfolds like layers bei More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Chris rated it:

What's funny is that the very reason I loved this book so much at first is the reason I sort of was bored at the end -- the mystery is almost secondary to the the characters and relationships in the book. A number of the reviews have said the book was slow, but for the first 3/4 of the book, that didn't bother me at all. I actually liked how, instead of a real "who done it" mystery, Carter just really set up a great cast of characters, and only slowly set out even hints that there wa More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2009

Dennis D. rated it:

"Emperor" is Stephen L. Carter’s first novel. Carter is a Yale law professor who has written non-fiction books in the past, and who also writes editorial columns that occasionally pop up on the Cincinnati Enquirer's opinion pages.

The protagonist of the story is Talcott Garland, a law professor whose father has just passed away. His father, "The Judge," as he was known, was a federal judge and a failed Supreme Court nominee, and their recent relationship was stra More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

Lori rated it:

Even though it took me FOREVER to finish, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Had it been 100-200 pages shorter and the editing a bit tighter, I would have given it a five star rating.

The characters are what drew me into the book and kept me there. While I've certainly seen and known educated and upper middle class African Americans like Talcott aka Misha (a law professor)and his wife Kimmer (a lawyer) in real life, I've rarely encountered in the world of fiction and n More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

Todd rated it:

I don't know what it is about lawyers writing complicated thrillers but, evidently, they're pretty good at it. I think Grisham is the one everyone knows but after reading "The Emporer of Ocean Park" I say there's a new gun in town and his name is Stephen L. Carter.

I heard about this book on NPR during its media blitz and his interview was sufficiently interesting enough to get me to try it out. A lot of books I get from NPR aren't always the most riveting or nearly as inte More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2007

Johnsergeant rated it:

Downloaded from Audible.com

Narrator: Peter Francis James
Publisher: Random House Audio, 2002
Length: 6 hours and 6 min. (abridged)

Publisher's Summary
An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. The Emperor of Ocean Park is set in two privileged worlds: the upper crust African American society of the eastern seaboard - old families who summer on Martha's Vineyard - a More...

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Nov 15, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

I really enjoyed this book! It got alot of hype because it is a legal thriller/mystery in the style of John Grisham, but the author and main characters are African American. The book is pretty long - 800+, pages but they all help unravel the complex plot. One of the most interesting characters is the pastor who councels the main character. I don't know if it was done on purpose, but that character seemed to be offering representing absolute truth to the main character who was sifting through a p More...

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Jan 30, 2009

Bryan added it

This is one of the best books I ever read. It is part thriller, part peak into black Martha's Vineyard, part academia. So many interesting twists and characters.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Deirdre rated it:

This was entertaining. Talcott defintely became a character for whom one can sympathize, from his failing marriage with Kimmer, to his heart rending tenderness toward his son, to his anguish over the mysterious and dangerous legacy his father has haunted him. I found the chess descriptions and the circle of law a bit dry. I do have a rudimentary knowledge of chess - but the description of "double excelsior" left me scratching my head. And being a former litigation attorney and UGH! More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 01, 2008

Naomi rated it:

Carter is a good writer in the sense that he puts words and sentences together in a way that is mostly enjoyable to read (although he tends to over-use certain pat phrases -- his use of "darker nation" and "paler nation" was ok once or twice but tiresome after a while.) But at the end of the day, the plot, although complex and fairly engaging while you are reading it, has MAJOR holes in it. The most glaring hole is that if you actually ponder the motive of the person who tu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2011

Alfredo rated it:

Avevo acquistato anni fa su consiglio di un collega in un periodo in cui stavo leggendo dei legal-thriller, poi ho scoperto che il genere non mi piaceva e l'avevo abbandonato su uno scaffale fino al recente trasloco.</p>

Ora l'ho ripreso in mano e l'ho divorato, nonostante la mole, in pochi giorni.

I livelli di lettura possibili sono molti.
Il più ovvio è considerarlo un altro legal-thriller, ma secondo me questo libro non è un legal-thriller, o lo è in maniera molto superficiale, infatti il

More...

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Jan 15, 2009

Michael David Cobb rated it:

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter. is a quite compelling if not evenly flowing or artistic read. It's an ambitious book that works on many different levels. As a first time novelist, Carter should have stuck to one or two, but in the end you are glad that he didn't.[return][return]As a thriller, it bites you slo-o-o-wly. I get the feeling that if Carter weren't so interested in putting us in his protagonist's stubborn and provincial shoes, we might figure out exactly what is going t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

I was pretty disappointed with this book. The story begins with the unexpected death of a father/judge. The family hasn't been particularly close in years but the daughter and son, Talcott begin to believe through a series of bizarre incidents that their father was murdered. Their father left Talcott with a series of clues to find out what the "arrangements" were. And good and bad people are coming after Talcott to find out what the arrangements are as well.

The plot sou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter (pp. 672)

A multi-layered conspiracy set among the black, judicial elite on the eastern seaboard. Talcott
Garland is a legal professor sucked into a strange pattern of events set in place by his late, disgraced judge/father who is looking for satisfaction related to the unsolved hit-and-run death of his daughter. Talcott must follow a trail of bizarre clues that supposedly only he could decipher while varied fronts attempt to fin More...

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Jan 03, 2011

Cori rated it:

This book was too long. 672 pages for a legal thriller? Come on. It could have been cut and parsed down to a good 400 pages and been a much better book. Instead, it felt like a slog. I picked up the book while visiting my friend Noelle during the 4th of July weekend. I finished it at the end of November. That ain’t right. I never sucked me in like a good book should.

I liked the mystery in and of itself. I thought it was intriguing and I really wanted Garland to figure out what “the a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2009

Jasmine rated it:

When I first picked up The Emperor of Ocean Park I was in high school and I saw it on an episode of Girlfriends. Talking about the influence television has on a person. I so wanted to be Joan, reading super sophisticated books and such. So I made up in my mind that I would seek this book out.

One day at work, I've been in the library system for 10 years, I found a copy on our sale shelf. I was ecstatic! I paid the $0.10 for it, took it home and committed myself to the first page. And More...

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Dec 11, 2009

MentorPublicLibrary added it

The Emperor of Ocean Park is told from the viewpoint of Talcott Garland. He is an Ivy League law professor; his wife is working towards Partner in her prestigious law firm; his father was nominated to be a Supreme Court judge, but then something happened...but what? This is at the heart of the mystery in this book.

At opening, the reader is introduced to the characters at Judge Garland's funeral. Was it murder or accidental suicide? You won't find out until the end of the 650 page More...

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Mar 13, 2010

Nancy rated it:

This is the best mystery I have read in a long, long time and wonder where I was when it first came out.
Stephen Carter writes extremely well and creates fleshy characters with class and depth. His plot is rich with revelations and twists and the pace is good. It is also a thoughtful, sensitive novel which allows its major players to interact in intelligent ways.
Talcott Garland is a law professor at an unnamed Ivy League law school and is married to Kimberly, a lawyer in the run More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Sarah rated it:

Not great literature, but a compelling murder mystery set at the unusual crossroads of personal morality, organized crime, and the inner sanctum of the U.S. Supreme Court.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 02, 2010

Julie rated it:

3 1/2 stars. A mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and danger. After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the U.S. 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. Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington, D. More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Mimi rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 29, 2008

Matt rated it:

A fun read, especially as a law student and doubly especially since it was written by my contracts professor. I read the last 350 pages in one day, so it definitely kept my attention, and I found the mix of mystery and law interesting. I don't think real-life Yale law students are nearly as bad as the (thinly-disguised) ones in the book, though. Or at least I hope not...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 26, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

Only my deep respect for and friendship with Adam, who recommended the book got me through the first 120 pages. I didn't like any of the characters, including the protagonist, who made Hamlet seem like a man of action.

A sense that we were finally going to get started and it might be worth wading through a heck of a lot of interior monologue exposition got me to page 200. Still thought the author had a lot of nerve: even Umberto Eco only made his readers wade through 100 pages of " More...

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Jan 24, 2012

April the Cheshire Meow rated it:

This was a very fancy murder mystery that doesn't quite fulfil its emotional direction. All the bones are there for more of a literary novel, but it stops short. There should have been more tension and more angst, but except for Misha's love for his wife and son, there is no sense of much emotion except curiosity. There are some desultory passages of antagonism and confrontation, but not enough fire or engagement. Passion is too vaguely expressed, and there is too indistinct expression of why a More...

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Mar 17, 2009

Diane rated it:

The Emperor of Ocean Park, by Stephen Carter was a pretty enjoyable audio book. The reader is excellent, and the story managed to hold my interest. If I had a criticism it would be that the story seemed to take a while to get moving, but once it did it was a great story to listen to.

Judge Oliver Garland is a brilliant conservative judge from Ocean Park, a black community on Martha’s Vineyard. His nomination to the Supreme Court was denied because of his business connections to an uns More...

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