New England White is a well-written, intricate mystery and a meditation on race and the nature of power in America. At 556 pages, Stephen L. Carter's latest work of fiction is also long. Stick with it, however, and you will be entertained for many an hour and be given plenty of food for thought.

Julia Carlyle, wife of university president Lemaster Carlyle and deputy dean of the divinity school, is an upper crust member of "the darker nation." She lives in a mansion in Tyler's Landing, the wealthy, mostly white suburb of Elm's Harbor, location of the prestigious New England university where both she and her husband work.

A mother of four, Julia seems to have it all, but her daughter Vanessa, 17, is troubled. Vanessa had a nervous breakdown and torched her father's car after writing a term paper on a local murder that took place 30 years ago. The official story of the crime was that a white teen-aged girl was killed by a young black man, but many thought he had been framed. There were riots after the police killed the young man while apprehending him for stealing a car.

As if the circumstances weren't difficult enough for Julia, driving home from a university function one snowy night, she and Lemaster skid off a back road into a ditch and discover the body of Kellan Zant, noted economics professor, shot to death. Kellan had been Julia's lover twenty years ago, before she married Lemaster. Although faithful to her husband, she still saw Kellan occasionally, as a friend. Kellan, on the other hand, felt that Julia was the "one that got away" and remained obsessed with her.

Against her better judgment, Julia starts to look into the circumstances of Kellan's death. He had contacted her just days before he died, nervously saying he couldn't hold his "inventory" and needed to "spread the risk." As Julia investigates, so does Bruce Vallely, head of campus safety and a retired police detective, and Mary Mallard, a journalist and writer of exposé books.