A review by cde10
The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter

2.0

For me, this was the book that would never end. I wanted to read it, because I haven’t seen the legal thriller through the narration of Black lawyers and upper class Black families. Unfortunately, for me, it took 200 pages (of >600) to become interested it what was going on. Then once I thought it was over, it had another 100 pages of fluff. It also had that early 2000s male narrator, who is “forward thinking”, but somehow still can only think of his female would be assassin as someone who’d want to have sex with him if she wasn’t on a hired job and every time he mentions his lesbian co-worker and friend, reminds us they aren’t together romantically. I felt like every minute that the story spent circling around the main character’s wife and her affairs it become so boring I was hoping the story would just end. It felt overwritten and used many of the same phrases over and over again. If I read “chewing on cotton” one more time… I know I’m in the minority here, but I probably wouldn’t read another book by this author.