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| Palace Council | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen L. Carter
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $17.95 (67%)
New (42) Used (25) from $6.74
Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 35267
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.8
ISBN: 0307266583
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780307266583
ASIN: 0307266583
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 They Planned It All from the Beginning July 8, 2008
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
Although I had heard of Stephen L. Carter long ago, this is the first book of his that I have read. As a Baby Boomer born six years prior to Mr. Carter, I have been living through and following the same historic, modern American events that the author has so explicitly integrated into his complex tale of intrigue. Palace Council displays a clever conceit similar to the one so prevalent throughout the movie, Forrest Gump, in which lead fictional characters intertwine seamlessly with famous figures and events in history. To compound the power of the story, the book is written with the same fascinating depth of family saga that made certain books from an earlier decade such bestsellers. Palace Council, in one way or another, aptly reminded me of Rich Man, Poor Man, Kane & Abel, and All the President's Men. With its plot encircling the interrelationships among Joe Kennedy, his legendary sons, LBJ, MLK, and the grand poohbah himself, J. Edgar Hoover, this book is certainly a second cousin to a lesser-known miniseries that I have always loved entitled Hoover vs. The Kennedys. The punch line is that Palace Council is as good as any of these famous, wonderfully detailed books and movies.
Whether or not you believe in conspiracy theories of one theme or another, I feel that most deeply thinking Americans have at least considered this fact. There have been many cases throughout the country's esteemed and infamous history in which, if a conspiracy was not afoot, then our great nation has been ruled either by insufferably long strings of consequence or notions of deep stupidity. I have long harbored at least a few thoughts toward the former simply because the alternative is far less fathomable. Palace Council is one of those poignant, yet on the surface fictional, books destined to pose as many questions about our history as it does answers.
Some reviews of Stephen L. Carter's previous novel, New England White, mentioned the complexity of the plot and characters of that book as a negative issue. Although I sincerely think the readers who will enjoy Palace Council the most are ones who are old enough to remember many of the events, the complexity of the plot or characters never even once left me scratching my head in confusion. Certainly this is not a book composed for morons, or even for those who think the antics of Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan are news, but is it too obtuse for the citizenry? Never. Palace Council is one whopper of a sophisticated, highly topical, thought-provoking novel. The plotting and editing are impeccable. The storyline is fascinating. Splitting the difference between political nonfiction published by numerous television talking heads and some of the best fictional, epic sagas, Palace Council impressed the hell out of this author and longtime avid reader. This book will reside on my bookshelf with some of my favorite fiction and nonfiction.
 Its Reach Exceeds Its Grasp July 10, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is a big, sprawling novel whose reach exceeds its grasp. The characters are compelling, the settings are consistently interesting, the social milieu is fascinating, but the plot, after beginning with great promise, wobbles and shakes and finally crashes into a sort of incoherence. There's a conspiracy at the center of things, a vast, ambitious conspiracy, but instead of tightening and becoming more ominous as the book goes on, it becomes vaguer and more diffuse. There is an artificial feel to things. Characters seem to appear and events occur strictly because the author wants them to, rather than as a result of any organic storytelling. Mysteries are not adequately explained. Clues are apparently understood by the characters (such as when one of them knows where to look for some papers in a haunted mansion) but never shared with the reader. By the end you will be scratching your head and wondering what all the fuss (and 500 pages) was about. Still, despite all this, it is an enjoyable summer read, especially as a privileged look in on a genteel mid-20th-Century African-American society as it was breaking up and vanishing from the face of the earth.
"Battl[ing] the devils to a draw" July 9, 2008
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
Stephen L. Carter's PALACE COUNCIL story of Edward Trotter Wesley Jr. begins in 1952 and spans more than twenty years. Eddie, the son of a respected black preacher, grew up in a culturally and intellectually thriving upper-class Harlem he later captured, to acclaim but also to skepticism in books of his own: When Eddie's fourth novel, NETHERWHITE, was published, "The white critics praised its sharp satiric eye, not realizing that everything Eddie wrote about Harlem he meant literally. The critics did not believe, even after reading the novel, that a wealthy black society actually existed in the secret uptown shadows of their own." Not coincidentally, the same may be said of how law professor Carter's novels -- this one surely -- are greeted.
Eddie, after his youth in Harlem, graduated from Amherst and launched a splashy career as a writer of mostly fiction, about and appealing to the "dark nation," his persistent term for black America. Following the failure to win the hand of Aurelia Treene, "his unattainably highborn girlfriend." he, like another fictional character who is famous for comparing life to a box of chocolates, trawled through our recent history. During the fifties, sixties, and seventies he witnessed key events and encountered notables such as Langston Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon (whom Aurelia knows as "Dick"). Although plot purposes sometimes distort timelines in PALACE COUNCIL, the civil rights struggle, the national turmoil of the Vietnam war, and Watergate served as backdrops for Eddie's colorful life.
These upheavals also formed the impetus for the formation of domestic urban guerrilla organizations such as the real Weathermen and the Black Panthers. Eddie focused on a radical group named Jewel Agony that he feared his vanished law-school educated sister, Junie, had run away to join.
While Eddie, over the years, grasped at any and all clues as to his sister's whereabouts, he was also very busy on other fronts: "Had Eddie Wesley been a less reliable man, he would never have stumbled over the body,..battled the devils to a draw, and helped topple a President." Basically, Eddie's run-in with a prominent white man's corpse set him on an enigmatic hunt to unlock the secrets of an elite cell of powerful men, both black and white. They shrouded themselves in symbolism and were less averse to violence in the name of their shadowy cause than Jewel Agony. Painstakingly, Eddie, in tandem with his true love, Aurelia, pieced together an outline of their long-term plan to somehow reshape American society from the top down. Who, then, belonged to this elite group? What was their agenda exactly? How would they implement it?
Carter's erudite prose and his ambitious plot at first blush ought to anchor this book among the summer blockbusters. Certainly, Eddie, Aurelia, and a few other characters stimulate interest in their plights. Yet, there is room for criticism. For all the words showered on them, they are not fully-rounded. For instance, Eddie is defined as a "great" writer often and rather pompously, yet his creative process is virtually absent from PALACE COUNCIL. And Aurelia seems to reveal her self to the reader quite transparently until something she did blind sides us. Because we do follow her quite intimately, it feels as if Carter has cheated; we thought we knew her, but we did not.
Even though a few plot twists may genuinely surprise, as just mentioned, not all will likely meet with reader approval. To muddy the waters, PALACE COUNCIL remains intentionally ambiguous about some aspects of the conspiracies, resulting in an unfinished quality. And I wish the lesson that Eddie had to swallow about his sister's fate and how she answered his faithfulness could have been more rewarding. I wish President Nixon had come off less like a Tricky Dick caricature, especially since he is portrayed as more civil rights-minded, whether out of opportunism or not, than biographies and histories document. Finally, I wish the book's structure had been tightened.
Nevertheless, Eddie and Aurelia and their labyrinth of a story will remain with me for some time to come. They seek to do right, even when they must sacrifice in that pursuit. They are fitted into a world view and circumstances that do intrigue. They are characters worth getting to know in the pages of PALACE COUNCIL.
4 1/2 Stars...Haves and Have Nots July 28, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Carter's first novel, "The Emperor of Ocean Street," gained a lot of attention through its John Grisham endorsement and huge advance. Intrigued, I had to read it for myself, and found it to be well-written, intricate, and sometimes ponderous. I picked up a copy of "New England White," and found it to be much the same, but I didn't have the time or patience to finish that one, so I set it aside.
Despite that last hiccup, I dove into "Palace Council" and found myself immersed in conspiracy theories, great characters, witty repartee, and interesting glimpses into our nation's history. Carter takes his time drawing readers into the lives of Eddie and Aurelia, a rising black novelist and the woman he loves but who has married an upper-class politico. Eddie's heart is further tested when something happens to his sister. These events, along with the discovery of a body in a park, lead him on a lengthy chase through the corridors of power and the racial and political issues of his day. We meet Langston Hughes, JFK, Richard Nixon, and others. For those willing to forge through five hundred pages, there are numerous social insights and questions raised.
At the heart of the story, as in Carter's other novels, mystery abounds. If you're looking for a Lee Child thriller, though, this is not it. Some have the patience for this type of cerebral thriller, others have not. For me, it was a rewarding read, made all the better by the investment I had to put in. Now I'll go back and finish "New England White." I'm convinced that Carter will make it worth my while.
A marvelous read. July 17, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
"Palace Council" is Carter's third novel. His first, "Emperor of Ocean Park" was a wonderful novel about the wealthy and influential African-American community. Those who lived on Sugar Hill in Harlem and summered at Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. Doctors, lawyers, university professors, the cream of African-American society. His second book, "New England White" depicted the same crowd - a little less successfully, I thought - and both books were set, more or less, in the present.
In the new book, Carter writes about a different time-frame - the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies - and incorporates real figures - Langston Hughes, Richard Nixon, J Edgar Hoover, among others - with his fictional ones, many revisited from his previous two novels.
The book is ambitious, long, but not at all rambling. Everything fits together, as a good story should. You're interested enough in the characters to care about what happens to them. I thoroughly enjoyed it as much as I did his first book.
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