Bluebird, Bluebird: a novel (Highway 59 by Attica Locke) - Hardcover

Locke, Attica

3.84

23,819 ratings by Goodreads

9781781257678: Bluebird, Bluebird: a novel (Highway 59 by Attica Locke)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781257671 ISBN 13: 9781781257678

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2017

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Winner of the 2018 CWA Steel Dagger and the 2018 Edgar Award

A powerful thriller about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV/Channel 4 show Empire

'Dazzlingly good ... a seriously impressive writer' Observer

Southern fables usually go the other way around. A white woman is killed or harmed in some way, real or imagined, and then, like the moon follows the sun, a black man ends up dead.

But when it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules - a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger working the backwoods towns of Highway 59, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about his home state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.

So when allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he is drawn to a case in the small town of Lark, where two dead bodies washed up in the bayou. First a black lawyer from Chicago and then, three days later, a local white woman, and it's stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes - and save himself in the process - before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.

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Review:

Mesmerising ... original ... exhilarating ... Locke is building a compelling body of work. In this age of enduring and renewed racial tensions, we need her voice more than ever (Esi Edugyan Guardian)

Wonderful ... a superb thriller ... Locke's message of injustice is the more convincing for being conveyed with restraint (Marcel Berlins Times)

Tight, bright prose ... powerful ... she seems more and more like America's most interesting crime writer (Jake Kerridge Daily Telegraph)

Locke evokes place brilliantly, writes tangy, fluent prose ... an expertly plotted triple whodunit. (John Dugdale Sunday Times)

Bluebird, Bluebird is absorbing and Locke's writing is beautiful ... The best crime novel of the year so far. (Paul Connolly Metro)

What is most satisfying about this crime novel is its use of the crime as a device with which to explore something much larger and universal ... Locke's writing is both sharp-edged and lyrical. This is thoughtful, piercing storytelling with the power to transport. (Diana Evans FT)

Elegant ... gripping. (Claire Kohda Hazelton Observer 2017-09-03)

Cracking ... The prose is beautifully rhythmic ... Locke uses her insider knowledge of the area to really get under the skin of her characters, in the process revealing the real beating heart of rural Texan life. It's uncomfortable stuff at times, but it's brilliantly executed. (Big Issue 2017-09-21)

Memorable characters, engaging prose and a soundtrack of down-home blues make for a winning literary crime thriller. (Jeffrey Burke Mail on Sunday)

Page-turning. (Elle 2017-09-21)

Book Description:

The first novel in a thrilling, timely new series about the cost of justice in the American South

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