Review of E.N.J. Carter's 'Charles Bay'

Adamo Washington is a high-flying, independent African-American lawyer from New York, with a reputation of winning cases against the big law firms. Out of respect, a big rival firm hires Adamo, for a special one-off assignment. He must travel to a racial hotbed within deep-South Carolina, to decide which one of five families, all ex-plantation owners, is most deserving of a huge grant from a mystery benefactor.

Before long, Adamo realises that each of the five families have rather murky pasts, and still harbour racist notions, going back to the days of slavery. With so much money at stake, it isn't long before the families resort to unusual tactics, in an attempt to secure the nod. At first, the tactics are simply underhanded, but then they become improper, personal, dangerous, and ultimately deadly....

As is the case with his previous books, Earl Carter once again shows remarkable understanding of locations and their cultures, and there's a great touch to detail in this particular book.

4 1/2 stars for this book. 4 stars wouldn't do it justice, so we had better make it 5.


By the way, 'Look Inside' won't work here, but do check the book out on Amazon!

My Review of 'On The Run With Buddha' by E.N.J. Carter

Dante Carpenter - armchair Buddhist and family-inspired wannabe Hells Angel, turned relief worker - is on the run for a crime he did not commit, after a situation at a brutal post-Vietnam refugee camp goes wrong.

From Manila, around the Pacific Rim to the sordid and often dangerous streets of Bangkok, Dante lurches from crisis to crisis, surviving when perhaps he probably shouldn't. Back in America, a group of super-rich, power-mad businessmen are hatching a plot to wreak a terrible revenge on Japan for old war crimes, and the competitive cost of the emergence of the Japanese economy. As world events overtake him, Dante slowly realises that he is being implicated in that plot. As half the world's police forces, intelligence agencies and ruthless bounty hunters join the chase for his blood, only his student understanding of Buddhism keeps him going.

But then remembering his past, Dante begins to fight back. In the end, his friends and enemies converge, in a vast concurrence of causes and conditions, as everything threatens to change and pass away.........



Carter's character development is as outstanding as his fantastically detailed knowledge of the locations involved, and the politics of the region. I was left wondering if it is any coincidence that 'Carpenter' is a product of the words 'Carter' and 'pen'..........