Palace Council

Hitting the Town (I) Had Eddie Wesley been a less reliable man, he would never have stumbled over the body, chased Junie to Tennessee, battled the devils to a draw, and helped to topple a President. But Eddie was blessed or perhaps cursed with a dependability that led to a lack of prudence in pursuing his devotion. He loved only two women in his life, loved them both with a recklessness that often made him a difficult man to like, and thus was able, when the moment arrived, to save the country he had come to hate.A more prudent man might have failed.As for Aurelia, she arrived with her own priorities, very conventional, very American, and so from the start very different from Eddie s. Once they went their separate ways, there was no earthly reason to suppose the two of them would join forces, even after the events of that fateful Palm Sunday and what happened in Hong Kong but join they did, by necessity more than choice, fighting on alone when everybody else had quit or died.Almost everybody.(II) Edward Trotter Wesley Junior breezed into Harlem in May of 1954, just days after the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, a landmark decision that Eddie was certain must conceal some sort of dirty trick. He possessed a degree from Amherst, a couple of undistinguished years of graduate work at Brown, a handful of social connections through his mother, and a coveted job on the Amsterdam News, although he quit in disgust three months after starting. He had not realized, he explained in a letter to his beloved sister Junie, how very small and unimportant the position was. Junie, in a mischievous mood, forwarded his letter to their awesomely disapproving father, a Boston pastor and essayist. Actually, he was at this time in Montgomery, Alabama, helping to organize a boycott of local businesses that refused to call Negro patrons Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Senior, as he liked to be called, was a distant relation of William Monroe Trotter, the Negro journalist once

Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, where he has taught for almost thirty years. He is the author of three bestselling novels and seven acclaimed works of nonfiction. He and his family live near New Haven, Connecticut.

 

"Pitch-perfect. . . . A mystery that will give a surprising jolt to your conscience." The Washington Post A delicious, page-turning trifecta. . . . A family saga, a political tour of several tumultuous American decades and a murder mystery. . . . Rich and deeply satisfying. The Plain Dealer Page-turning summer reading.... Palace Council gives grim song to the secrets that men keep. Dallas Morning News Masterful.... Provides lots more wisdom than most thrillers attempt. San Diego Union-Tribune Mr. Carter s storytelling is underpinned by a masterly evocation of the world of wealthy and accomplished blacks in twentieth-century America. The Wall Street Journal A well-lit showcase for Carter s considerable strengths. The Seattle Times The twists, turns and double-crosses take place in a number of settings, including Harlem, Washington and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia....Palace Council contains tantalizing hints of conspiracies to come. Los Angeles Times An engrossingly complex political thriller. Daily News Stephen Carter can really write. I loved every page of Palace Council and am eager for more. Robert B. Parker