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Chessville
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The Emperor of Ocean Park Reviewed by Keith Hayward
Publishing Quality: I was surprised by the rough edges of the pages. The paper texture was rough too. The publisher does not indicate, but it seems recycled paper was used. Fortunately, the printed text was easy to read, but one wonders why the cover price is high with the paper quality. Subject Coverage: An integral part of the story is digging into the judge’s history. Carter paints a vivid picture of historical events and how the judge’s life fits into them. The first half of the book develops the setting, history, and characters. All along the reader is teased with bits of information on the arrangement. I do not want to give away too much of the story, but as the story progresses the reader gets enthralled. I did not want to put the book down. Author’s Knowledge: The book jacket identifies Stephen L. Carter as a William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University. The main characters of the book: Talcott is a law professor, his wife, Kimmer, is a lawyer, and his dad, Oliver, was a judge. So certainly Carter is writing about what he knows best. On the chess level, Carter uses a few chess references in the first half of the book. I was kind of wondering why I was asked to review this book. But as the mystery comes together chess does play an important part in solving the arrangements. I might add that the story is done in the first-person; we see things through Talcott’s eyes and mind. As a chess player I found myself relating to Talcott’s observations, approach, and skills in solving the mysteries presented to him. Informative: A key element to solving what the arrangements is all about is the chess term excelsior. I have played chess for 30 years, I have heard and read of the word excelsior, I know the term relates to chess problems, but I could not give any more details beyond that. Talcott’s dad, the Judge, was into creating chess problems for his hobby, so using this excelsior term makes perfect sense. I afraid I cannot delve into this more without giving away some of the story line. However, I would like to share this definition of what excelsior means. The Oxford Companion To Chess defines excelsior as: A composition task: the advance of a pawn from its second to its eighth rank, preferably in consecutive moves. Having achieved this task in 1858, Loyd, named it after either Longfellow’s poem or the New York State motto.
A study by the English composer Hugh Francis Blandford (1917-81), first prize, Springaren, 1949. 1.Bd4+ Ka8 2.c4 Nd2 3.c5 Nb3 4.c6 Na5 5.c7 Nc6 6.c8=R (6.c8=Q+? Nb8+) 6…Nb8+ 7.Kd6. Now that you know what excelsior means, maybe this will intrigue you as to how it can relate to a mystery and the arrangements. New Ideas: The reader is introduced to some chess terms, as well as the judicial system and legal terms, all presented on a level that does not distract from the story. Accuracy: I could find no misuse of chess terminology. It is interesting that in the Author’s Note at the end of the book Carter is quite candid with where he did take liberties within the story, both with chess and law. Overall Appraisal: I enjoyed this book. I must say that the ending was good, it made sense. In my opinion Carter achieves an author’s ultimate goal in terms of a mystery novel: I did not foresee the ending! Certainly this is a mystery first, with chess playing a secondary role. There are several descriptions of violence that parents may not want younger readers to read. Not too heavy in detail, but I would call this a PG-13 rated story. Otherwise, I recommend this book to all mystery lovers.
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