We launch the literary thriller that is gripping America and won a $4,000,000 advance from Random House. Talcott Garland, a black Ivy League law professor and son of the famous right-wing Judge Oliver Garland, is coming to terms with his father's murder. He begins a long and thrilling quest for the truth through a fascinating maze of high political ambition, family secrets and US justice horribly perverted. The Emperor of Ocean Park is, among many other things, an investigation into the soul of America during the darker years of the Nixon and Reagan presidencies. The author talks to The Guardian journalist Gary Younge.