PALACE COUNCIL

Carter's third political thriller weaves its way through the ‘50s to the mid-‘70s via the life and love of writer Eddie Wesley and the career of Richard Nixon. Historical and fictional characters interact. Unfortunately, the abridgment eviscerates the plot and deletes subplots and scenes that connect the dots between this and the author's two earlier novels. Narrator Dominic Hoffman does an admirable job with what remains of Carter’s chronicle of the political and social history of a segment of the African-American middle class. The character of Nixon looms in the book like a specter, and, to his credit, Hoffman opts to play him straight, rather than imitating his well-known speech patterns. G.O. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2008]