Description

A Waterstones Thriller of the Month
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

‘Political crime fiction of the highest order’ – SUNDAY TIMES
‘A propulsive and compelling novel’ – GUARDIAN

Nine-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; instead he found himself all alone, adrift on the vastness of Caddo Lake. A sudden noise – and all goes dark.

Ranger Darren Mathews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who’s never had his best interests at heart. Now she holds the key to his freedom, and she’s not above a little blackmail to press her advantage.

An unlikely possibility of rescue arrives in the form of a case down Highway 59, in a small lakeside town. With Texas already suffering a new wave of racial violence in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, a black man is a suspect in the possible murder of a missing white boy: the son of an Aryan Brotherhood captain. In deep country where the rule of law only goes so far, Darren has to battle centuries-old prejudices as he races to save not only Levi King, but himself.

‘One of America’s finest novelists’ – DAILY MAIL
‘A searingly exciting story’ – SUNDAY EXPRESS

Publisher Review

Propulsive and compelling ... digs deep into the tension between "the impulse to police crimes against black life and to protect black life from police" ... loving, elegiac evocations of Texas set alongside extended meditations on displacement, reconciliation and forgiveness, and on what "home" means in a place where it's an idea you can't "exactly touch" -- Sara Collins * Guardian * A powerful, angry, important book. Attica Locke is a major talent. -- Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses One of America's finest crime novelists ... a beautifully wrought mystery and an incisive portrait of the American South in the age of Trump. -- John Williams * Daily Mail * A superb thriller * The Times * A tightly plotted crime novel centring on the disappearance of a child, and a blistering look at race in Donald Trump's America. -- Sarah Hughes * iPaper * Locke deftly shows how crime novels are the perfect place in which to explore the tensions between different people and communities. Her insightful exploration of a post-Trump world offers something genuinely new. -- The Judges of the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Magnificent ... shines an unflinching light on an ugly side of contemporary America -- Joan Smith * Sunday Times * The most celebrated African-American writer of crime fiction. Although her books are about the black experience in the US, they are universal in scope ... a consummate storyteller. * Financial Times * Praise for Bluebird, Bluebird: 'America's most interesting crime writer' * Daily Telegraph * This is the best kind of thriller: as literate and thoughtful as it is fast-moving. Attica Locke has bags of style, and sings the blues on every page ... the curtain-raiser for what promises to be a compelling series -- Mick Herron, author of Slow Horses Mesmerising ... In this age of enduring and renewed racial tensions, we need her voice more than ever -- Esi Edugyan Locke's writing is both sharp-edged and lyrical. This is thoughtful, piercing storytelling with the power to transport * Financial Times * Attica Locke has both mastered the thriller and exceeded it. Ranger Darren Mathews is tough, honour-bound and profoundly alive in a corrupt world -- Ann Patchett Locke brings freshness and vitality to a beloved form ... A powerful and dramatic look at contemporary black life in rural America -- Daniel Woodrell A superb thriller -- The Times Uncompromising, intelligent crime fiction that refuses to sugar-coat the answers. -- Sarah Hughes * iNews *