The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002), an African American thriller by Stephen L. Carter, follows a single family connected to an underworld crime syndicate and the death that sparks a series of controversial discoveries. Critics praise its complex characterization, atmosphere, and pacing. An acclaimed, bestselling nonfiction writer, The Emperor of Ocean Park is Carter’s fiction debut. Writing across genres from religion to politics, he received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature-Fiction. His pen name is A.L. Shields. The Emperor of Ocean Park centers on the Garland family, a rich African American family who moves in elite social circles across the US eastern seaboard. Privileged and wealthy, they always get what they want, bending the law to suit their needs. The protagonist, Talcott ‘Tal’ Garland, is a tenured law professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Oliver, was a distinguished federal judge, and his wife, Kimberley, works as an attorney for a niche local law firm. Everyone expects Tal to follow in Oliver’s footsteps, raising the family’s influence higher than ever before. As the novel opens, Oliver dies suddenly. The family lawyer reads the will, declaring Tal is the executor. His instructions are very vague. Oliver didn’t leave legacies to will beneficiaries. Instead, he left instructions for Tal to take care of the final arrangements. Confused by the mysterious will, and devastated by Oliver’s death, Tal doesn’t know where to begin until he finds a handwritten note. From Oliver, the note tells Tal to find Angela’s boyfriend. Tal has no idea who Angela is, but he knows that Oliver wouldn’t leave him a note like this unless it meant something. The note also warns Tal that something is just getting started, but again, Tal has no clue what this means. With Kimberley’s help, Tal goes over what he knows so far. Oliver retired from the bench shortly before he died. Oliver died from a heart attack, or at least that is what the report says. Tal assumes this is the correct cause of death because Oliver drank excessively, and he didn’t look after his health. Tal remembers that, once, President Ronald Reagan invited Oliver to join the Supreme Court. Oliver declined the invitation and Tal couldn’t understand why. Oliver said that he had enemies who could leak highly embarrassing information about his past and that the promotion was not worth the risk. Knowing that his father’s mysterious instructions are probably linked to these secrets, Tal sets about uncovering the truth. Kimberley wonders if anyone hated Oliver enough to harm him. Tal knows that some radical right-wing political groups used him as their mascot, so he often received bad press. This bad press still doesn’t explain who Angela is, and despite his best efforts, Tal makes no progress with Oliver’s instructions. A mysterious man, a private detective whom Oliver had hired a while back, contacts Tal. Tal’s sister, Abby, died in a car crash a few years ago; Oliver claimed that someone murdered her. The PI tells Tal that the son of a prominent US Senator ran Abby off the road. He later died in another suspicious car accident. Tal knows now that there is far more to Oliver’s death than he ever imagined, and he enlists the PI’s help in cracking the case. The trail leads them to Jack Ziegler, Oliver’s old college roommate. Ziegler, who once worked for the CIA, reveals that Oliver influenced legislation for him in exchange for secret CIA information. If this information ever got out, it would ruin Oliver’s reputation forever. Still, it doesn’t explain what Tal should do about Oliver’s estate. In the meantime, Tal finds out that Kimberley is unfaithful. He isn’t surprised because she left her law professor husband to be with him. He refuses to let the relationship drama cloud his judgment, deciding to deal with it once he lays his father to rest. Kimberley doesn’t want to let it go, though, because Oliver’s sketchy past affects her shot at a seat with the Federal Courts of Appeal. Some time passes and Tal soon realizes that Ziegler is hiding something. It turns out that Ziegler orchestrated the car crashes that killed both Abby and the US Senator’s son. If Tal doesn’t find out why he could be next. Tal decides to go through Oliver’s old cases and past clients to see if there is an explanation for the murders. Tal finally discovers that Oliver is not the man he thought he was. For years, Oliver fixed case decisions in exchange for privileges, favors, and money. Angela’s boyfriend is Oliver’s uncle, Derek. He loves political activist Angela, and Oliver’s case decisions negatively impacted her Communist agenda. Derek directs Tal to a floppy disk containing evidence of Oliver’s crooked ways. Derek hands over the disk because he wants the family to move on. The disk is the mysterious “arrangement” that Tal must take care of. He burns it and contemplates scrapping his career in law and starting over.

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Stephen L. Carter

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