by Attica Locke
In a story threaded with irony and anomaly, Darren Mathews is the perfect protagonist. He’s a Princeton-educated, black Texas Ranger raised by twin uncles, William and Clayton Mathews.
William, a Ranger himself, believes the law will protect black people by prosecuting crimes against them as passionately as it prosecutes crimes against white people. Clayton, a defense attorney, believes the law is something that black people need to be protected from.
Darren dropped out of law school at the University of Chicago in 1998 when James Byrd, Jr., was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, TX. At the opening of this story, Darren has been called to testify before a grand jury charged with deciding whether a long-time Mathews family friend and employee should go on trial for the murder of a white supremacist.
The friend had called Darren for help when the murdered man started following his granddaughter and then showed up late one night on his property. Darren drove out from Houston and temporarily defused the situation. Darren duly filed an incident report. A few days later the white supremacist turns up murdered.
Attica Locke has done a masterful job of putting complex, conflicted characters in a pressure cooker that keeps the suspense high. She has an exquisite sense of place and culture. This is a compelling story about a man passionate about protecting the innocent by enforcing the law, who finds that justice is no more blind to issues of race and friendship than those who enforce and uphold it.
In 2019, Crimereads.com listed Bluebird, Bluebird among the 10 best crime novels of the last decade, calling it “a modern masterpiece, particularly excels at representing the frought, frictional relationships between race and justices and freedom and oppressive social institutions in America.”
Bluebird, Bluebird was given a 2018 Anthony Award for Best Novel by Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention honoring Anthony Boucher, a distinguished mystery fiction critic, editor and author.This is one of the best books I’ve read all year.
The Author: Attica Locke (1974 – )
Attica Locke is a novelist, scriptwriter and television producer whose work is nominated for award after award. Bluebird, Bluebird was the winner of the 2018 Edgar Award for Best novel.
Her first novel, Black Water Rising, was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was shortlisted for the prestigious Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize.)