Palace Council

Stephen L. Carter (THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, 2002; NEW ENGLAND WHITE, 2007) offers a fascinating new political thriller spanning the years 1954-1974. From the opening words, narrator Mirron Willis makes listeners sit up and take notice. His insistent tone gives seemingly ordinary events an air of importance. Eddie Wesley, an African-American writer, uncovers a secret multiracial organization, a "Star Chamber," with plans to manipulate political destinies. Willis's performance is strong, credible, and engaging as Eddie observes Harlem high society, visits with period notables, and travels to Vietnam, and exposes political misdeeds. Willis elects to imitate the voices of famous figures--Langston Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, John and Robert Kennedy--a risky choice that doesn't work well. Even so, Willis's performance of Carter's novel is top-notch. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 19, 2008
Spanning the years from 1954 to 1974, bestseller Carter's third novel, a subtle and intelligent page-turner, centers on the murder of a prominent white Wall Street attorney, Philmont Castle. After literally stumbling on Castle's garroted corpse in a Harlem park, Eddie Wesley, a young and ambitious African-American writer, is afraid to identify himself to the police. An inverted cross bearing a cryptic inscription clutched in the victim's hand intrigues Wesley enough for him to pursue a trail that leads to a shadowy group of conspirators known as the Palace Council. Aided by his on-again, off-again love interest, Aurelia Treene, Wesley also searches for his beloved sister, Junie, whose disappearance may be connected to Castle's death. Though aspects of the plot require more suspension of disbelief than in Carter's previous novels (New England White
; The Emperor of Ocean Park
), the rich characterization and elegant writing more than compensate. 6-city author tour.