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Mystery & Thrillers |
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Palace Council
written by Stephen L. Carter
Studio : Knopf
by Knopf
Release Date : 2008-07-08
Publisher : Knopf
Released : 2008-07-08
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780307266583
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 13 reviews)
List Price : $26.95
Our Price : $13.99
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Product Description |
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USA Today called Stephen L. Carter’s last novel “the perfect summer read . . . Carter slips in so many original, thought-provoking observations that the reader is sad the killer has been caught.” Now Carter, the best-selling author of New England White, is back with Palace Council, a gripping political thriller set in the era of Watergate and Vietnam.
Philmont Castle is a man who has it all: wealth, respect, and connections. He’s the last person you’d expect
to fall prey to a murderer, but when his body is found on the grounds of a Harlem mansion, the young writer Eddie Wesley, along with the woman he loves, Aurelia Treene, are pulled into a twenty-year search for the truth. The disappearance of Eddie’s sister June makes their investigation even more troubling. As Eddie and Aurelia uncover layer upon layer of intrigue, their odyssey takes them from the wealthy drawing rooms of New York through the shady corners of radical politics all the way to the Oval Office and President Nixon himself.
Suspenseful, provocative, and witty, Palace Council turns our assumptions inside out and reminds us how the struggles of that era set the stage for America today. |
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A Captivating Read |
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Having read Mr. Carter's previous books, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Palace Council in my local book store. From the first page to the last, I was fully captivated by the rich historical setting and fully developed characters that moved mysteriously throughout the novel. Although I consciously attempted to slowly savor every titillating word written by Mr. Carter, the story tenaciously lured me on to each page. I couldn't help but feel as though I was a fly on the wall of Eddie Wesley. The narration was palpable and the plot compelling. Accordingly, I highly recommend the Palace Council as a "must read". Especially if you have already read New England White and The Emperor of Ocean Park. It is evident that Mr. Carter has delicately established all of his characters, as they weave in and out of the three novels. I can only hope that he will release another novel soon, and allow us into the world of the elite "darker nation" yet again...even if we are already a member. |
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amazing |
i never read New England White; the reviews were so-so. I picked Palace Council up because i love mysteries and it was touted as such. It is much much more.
The walk through Harlem society was fascinating. Add JFK, Nixon, the FBI, and the CIA and you'd think it was confusing but the writing was so good it just pulled me in. Behind it all is the mystery of what happened to his sister. I couldn't wait to find out but the mystery took second place to the characters, settings, social games, Harlem's social but caste system, and the politics, I loved it!!!! |
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Palace Council |
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I always have great hope when I open a Stephen Carter novel..and they disappoint every time. I found the era in history of the Palace Council of great interest, but again, it was such a shaggy dog story that I almost didn't finish it. At last, when the secrets were revealed, I didn't really care. I didn't find the characters compelling but the story telling WAS ragged...I kept remembering reading Nancy Drew mysteries - his story reminds me of a slightly more grown-up version of a Nancy Drew story -- much ado about not much in the end. Why do I keep reading them? The write-ups of the stories make me interested and his subject matter is interesting...so I try again, but I find them poorly executed and, in my opinon, not worth the time or money. |
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Move over John Grisham, there's a new king in town |
It's now official: Stephen Carter has replaced John Grisham as my favorite author. After reading the first two of Mr. Carter's books, I could hardly wait for the next one, and I'm not disappointed. On the contrary, he just keeps getting better. This is no light beach read. At 528 pages, you'll correctly expect the plot to be complicated.
As noted in other reviews, it takes place over a 20+ year time frame, 1952-74, and focuses on the political upheaval of the times, not the concurrent sexual and drug revolutions. As opposed to the author simply and explicitly telling us the characters mature over time, the reader can follow that development for himself (or, at least, many of the characters do - but then, we all know people who haven't really matured over time in real life, either). The puzzle takes a long time for the protagonist to piece together, as you would expect, given the obscurity of so many of the clues. Probably most difficult for me, having come of age during the same time frame, I went through many of the same growing pains as our protagonists, starting out seduced by the radical intellectual philosophies of the time, but ultimately dismayed by the violence. Turns out, that part of the revolutionary fervor of those days wasn't all talk, some of those people actually meant it. Frankly, it brought back a lot of memories; not all of them were pleasant, and not all reflect well on me. Character development is Mr. Carter's greatest strength, and his characters certainly feel very real (as another reviewer noted, you miss them when you finish the book).
The plot development isn't *quite* as good, but it's still quite a `hook', it holds together, and it's carefully developed. It's also tighter than his previous two novels. I'm not real big on long-term, "deep" conspiracies, but Mr. Carter makes you think about it. On the one hand, if breaking our known conspiracies relied on catching the references to 17th century literature, we'd probably never know about any of them. I have to admit, I still chuckle about the conspiracy he concocts in New England White: not the plausibility of it, but rather the very thought of the reaction among the Aryan Nation to the possibility of such a conspiracy is quite entertaining.
The other thing I especially like about his writing is the erudition. I love being challenged to use my dictionary, which brings up one of the four reasons I loved reading the book on my Kindle:
1. dictionary look-up is built right in.
The other reasons are
2. if you forget who a character is, which happens when you're reading a novel while handling a kitchen remodel or are prone to senior moments (imagine what it's like with both), it's simple to do a search, and then check the references within the book.
3. I keep several reference books on my Kindle, so I was able to search on the reference in a throw-away line of Mr. Carter's "For all the effect of his decrees, he might as well have been Canute." The dictionary informed me Canute was a Danish king of England, which doesn't really explain the reference in the context of the sentence. It took only another minute to discover in my Nuttall Encyclopædia (selected for its price of 80¢): "Every one [!] is familiar with the story of the rebuke he administered to the courtiers by showing how regardless the waves of the sea were of the authority of a king." I got the meaning from the context of the original sentence at first reading, but it was a pleasure to indulge my curiosity and quickly track down the origins of a reference to an 11th century European king.
4. I was goaded to research Langston Hughes on Wikipedia (which you can do right from your Kindle) because I remembered that he was a black author of some note, but I couldn't remember anything else. My bonus is that I took the opportunity to read a few of his short poems, which I liked. (Sorry `bout the unpaid ad in the middle of the review, but I do love my Kindle.)
I'm frankly puzzled by the 2 reviews that declared the book too long and rambling, because I enjoyed the book so much, and found it to be tightly constructed. But then, if we all looked at things the same way, we'd never grow by listening to each other.
I can't wait for the next novel!
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Good Vacation Read |
I heard Stephen Carter on NPR and was intrigued. I bought this book at the Atlantic Book shop in Cape May, NJ -- I paid the cover price :|
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although the plot strains credulity, it was a really fun read. |
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