Stephen L. Carter New England White

New England White

Stephen L. Carter

Knopf, Jul 2007, $26.95

ISBN: 0375413626

In Elm Harbor, New England, Lemaster Carlyle is president of a highly regarded New England university; his wife Julia is dean of the college's divinity school. This is a normal Friday night in which they host alumni, the cat vanishes, their youngest child of four kids eight years old Jeannie has a high grade fever and the president of the US calls to shoot the breeze with his former college roommate. However this nasty snowy night turns different when on their drive they see the murdered body of Economics Professor Kellen Zant, Julia's former lover.

While the police consider several suspects including the Carlyles, Julia and Lemaster are at each other's throat with accusations. Their troubled daughter Vanessa does not handle the war between her parents very well, but neither Lemaster nor Julia can call a halt as anger and fear have control of both of them. The police rule the death caused by a random robbery that turned ugly, but Julia thinks otherwise and keeps digging for the truth, which outrages Lemaster even more as repercussions from anything this power couple do impacts as high as the presidential contest.

Using the same location as the highly regarded The Emperor of Ocean Park and starring tertiary players from that novel, Stephen L. Carter paints a deep NEW ENGLAND WHITE landscape that digs into the racial past of New Hampshire through Julia's inquiry. The story line is driven by the power couple who seem so real especially by how they react to the Zant death as minor things that previously would not blip on their personal radar screens set off alarms. Julia's investigation is a cleverly designed amateur sleuth story that is so much more as the audience understands the tenuous strength of African Americans in the previous generation and present power structure. Mr. Carter provides a terrific look the past, present, and future through Julia's widening investigation.

Harriet Klausner