A “heartbreakingly resonant” thriller about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy-winning Fox TV show Empire (USA Today). “In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it.”-Ann Patchett When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules — a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, … that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.
When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders — a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman — have 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. From a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire, Bluebird, Bluebird is a rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas.
more
Bluebird, Bluebird, the first entry in Attica Locke’s Highway 59 mystery series involving Darren Matthews, a black Texas Ranger, was the 2018 winner of the Edgar Award’s Best Novel category. Given the emotional complexity, rich characters, omnipresent atmosphere, and tension that simmers and underscores small town life in Lark, it’s easy to see why.
Matthews, recently suspended following his involvement in an off-duty incident between a family friend and the murder of a Aryan Brotherhood gang member, is drawn to Lark by the murder of a black lawyer from Chicago and, days later, a white woman, both of whom were dragged out of the same bayou where they’d drowned. Matthews can’t help but draw a connection between the two, regardless of how much local white Sheriff Van Horn tries to ignore this common link, and finds himself in the center of Lark’s complex racial tensions and familial history.
Locke does an excellent job portraying the racial divisions that exist in this small Texas town, as well as within the various police units and that cloud inter-agency cooperation. Matthews had almost escaped this aspect of Texan life but left law school after news reports of an black man being dragged to death in Jasper. It was a high-profile murder that acted as Matthews’ own personal 9/11 and compelled him to return home and follow in his uncle’s footsteps as a Texas Ranger. His attempts to open a race crimes unit shortly thereafter, though, were stifled, but he leapt at the chance to join the task force investigating the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a decision that has put a bounty on his head by the ABT.
Bluebird, Bluebird does an excellent job exploring the complexities of racism, but it’s also a pretty compelling mystery in its own right. I will say, though, that while I was not particularly surprised by the outcome of the investigation, Locke does build a tight case that leads to both a logical and emotional resolution that I found pretty satisfying. It’s a deeply layered mystery, built off the relationships, connections, misunderstandings, and distrust that exist between the book’s large cast of secondary characters, and is all the richer for it. There’s a lot of literary panache at play here, and I dug Matthews’ role as an unwanted outsider (for multiple reasons) working to make things right.
On the narrating end of things, J.D. Jackson does a damn good job with the material. A classically trained actor and recipient of AudioFile magazine’s Best Voices of the Year for 2012 and 2013, Jackson reads Locke’s words with honeyed precision, hitting those emotional beats with aplomb and a whole lot of finesse. He’s an awesome narrator, and although this the first I’ve heard of his work, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more. As far as I’m now concerned, he is Darren Matthews and the official voice of Highway 59. I’m more than eager to hear him read more in this series as it continues, and I’ll be seeking out his other narrations in the future.
Darren Matthews is a welcome addition to the literary canon of professional gumshoes, and Locke’s explorations of race, justice, and honor are as timely as they are necessary, particularly now amidst the escalating tensions of post-2016 America. He’s an important character, and her’s an important voice, and this is a series that I’m looking forward to continuing and seeing how it develops and grows from here.
A multi-tattooed thug walks out of a juice house in Lark, Texas, and makes it clear to Darren Mathews that he better move on. He doesn’t move. Mathews, a tall black Texas Ranger, has business to attend to, and top of the list is the murder rate in this small East Texas county. Mathews is flawed, which makes him all the more appealing. He has a wife who loves him, and a young widow, a penchant for Wild Turkey, and a hankering to go deep into the forbidden land of the Aryan Brotherhood. Thank you, Attica Locke, for introducing Ranger Mathews in BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD. He stands tall with Johnson’s Walt Longmire and Burke’s Dave Robicheaux–my favorite characters of all time.
Texas Ranger Darren Matthews is proud to wear the badge, but he is currently on suspension while an investigation into the death of a white supremacist is investigated. Darren’s friend, Mack McMillan, is accused of killing Ronnie Malvo after Malvo tormented Mack’s teen granddaughter. Both Darren and Mack are black, and Darren had been called to the scene.
Darren’s mother, Bell, didn’t raise him because she is an alcoholic. After his father died, Darren was raised by his uncle who encouraged him to attend law school. Although Bell didn’t raise Darren, she holds his fate in her hands.
When Darren gets a call from another friend, he drives to east TX to snoop around where 2 people were pulled from a bayou. First, a black lawyer from Chicago, then a few days later, a white woman from the town. Missy was married to Keith Dale associated with Aryan Brotherhood of TX.
Darren snoops around the town of Lark and learns about the little restaurant owned by black Geneva Sweet. Both her husband and son are dead. White Wally Jefferson III lives across the road, and continues to ask Geneva to sell to him. When the dead lawyer’s wife comes to Lark, she teams up with Darren to find out what happened.
Black/White racial tensions have deep roots in this town.
Terrific. Locke is a super talent.
As usual, when I pick up an Attica Locke book I can’t put it down.
BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD was exquisite. The story follows Texas Ranger Darren Mathews as he investigates a pair of murders—one of a black man, another of a white woman—that he believes were racially motivated, even though the local law enforcement seems ready to sweep any evidence of a hate crime under the rug. In the process, Darren ends up uncovering more of the town’s buried secrets than he’d even bargained for. Darren was such a great character to follow through this story; he’s carrying pain from both his past and present into the investigation, and now he’s deep in dangerous territory, with the hate group Aryan Brotherhood of Texas threatening him as he steps in to look at the crimes. I found his personal journey, as well as the mystery itself, to be compelling, and there are other characters in this book whose backstories and motivations felt just as rich as Darren’s. Attica Locke’s writing is so beautiful and completely transportive, with such tender and powerful insight into humanity. This was my first book by her but it definitely won’t be my last.
Attica Locke has had a successful career as a writer for the hit TV show Empire, but her crime novels are set in her home territory of east Texas. She won an Edgar for this one in 2018.
I liked it for a lot of reasons, not least because it’s a stereotype-defying story about black people, and we can always use more of those. Racism is at center stage in this story, but the characters, black and white, aren’t just place-holders in a polemic or a morality tale; they’re people doing what people do with the hands they’re dealt.
Darren Mathews is a black Texas Ranger, a native of the region traversed by U.S. Highway 59, which runs up the east side of Texas not too far from Louisiana. His family’s roots in the area go way back; one uncle was a Ranger and another is a law professor. As the book opens, Darren has been suspended for his involvement in a shooting; his marriage is on the rocks and he’s drinking too much. A whole lot of back story is laid out before we get rolling, which is a little confusing; we’re thirty pages in before we know which way the story is going to jump.
An FBI pal dispatches Darren semi-officially to investigate a pair of killings in a little town up Highway 59, where a black man and a white woman have been murdered, in that order. As Darren notes, that’s a reversal of the usual order, which makes him curious all by itself. The black victim was from Chicago; his wife is in town, distraught and wanting answers; the white victim’s husband is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. The local fat cat owns all the land except the patch by the highway where the widow of a famous blues musician runs a diner. There are secrets galore, and Darren will unearth them all while trying to stay sober, married and alive.
It’s a decent mystery, with some police procedure, some Faulkneresque family dysfunction, some southern culture and some nasty villains. But the best thing about it is that while it’s about racism, it’s not a sermon or a screed. We are just as interested in the people as in the issue, and that’s good fiction writing.
Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1)
by Attica Locke
The protagonist in this book is an African American Texas Ranger who finds himself in the midst of racial tensions of Lark, in east Texas. Born and raised in Houston, I was familiar with Hwy. 59 and areas discussed. The under lying issues are race and justice, explored through the murders of a black lawyer and a white married woman.
I listened to this on audio and the narrator was great. An atmospheric, emotionally charged read.
Best Novel — Edgar Winner 2018. Well written and will most likely read on in series. Darren set out to be a lawyer but had a turning point when he watched the news — where an African American man suffered such atrocious treatment by a white supremacist group. After this viewing, he felt he could do more to make a difference as a Ranger rather than a lawyer. He goes to the small town of Lark where a visiting African American man was found dead in the river and within a week a young white woman from the area was also found murdered. Darren feels compelled to figure this out and becomes involved with the complex interconnections of this small town.
I don’t generally read mysteries, but I’m so glad that I read this one. At a time when our nation is confronting its history of racial violence, we need more novels like this one that aren’t afraid to look both at the legacy of racism– especially in the South– and the interpersonal relationships that, at times, manage to transcend it.
Excellent read!
So good.
A Texas Ranger close to losing his star, investigates a murder. Excellent sense of place and a caring depiction of characters.
Great read!
A good read and page turner
Not All The Dust Settles in BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD
The mystery/suspense novel Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke takes readers on the dusty back roads of East Texas and drops them off in the midst of a double homicide with racial overtones.
African-American Texas Ranger Darren Mathews leads the investigation. He probes and prods a cast of diverse black and white characters with longstanding grudges and horrible secrets.
Locke paints the landscape in all its rustic beauty and uses various turns of phrases in dialogue and narrative that probably resonate from her Houston upbringing.
She doesn’t use many pages in this southwestern mystery to carry the reader and the story to a shocking double climax the last of which unhinged my jaw.
One of those conclusions raises the personal stakes for Mathews with a ‘how you like me now on a San Andreas Fault Line moment’ that wets the appetite for a sequel. Bring it on. Four out of Five Stars. Rated R for language including racial slurs.
I’m not a mystery reader normally, but this one had all the elements and more to make me a fan.
With Bluebird, Bluebird, Attica Locke takes us on a deep cultural dive into a small town in rural East Texas strung tight with racial tension and dark secrets. This is a tale of identity, family, the right to belong, and a search for purpose. Highly recommend.
What did I know about East Texas? Nothing until I read Attica Locke’s award winning novel. The centerpiece is an African-American Texas Ranger who is investigating two murders he knows by experience and intuition to be race related, despite the local sheriff’s vigorous denial. The ranger unravels a distressing pattern of race hatred, greed, lust and the complexities of identity as he investigates the crimes. Both black and white residents of the tiny town of Lark try hard to bury history, still it floats to the surface. As a police psychologist and author of the Dr Dot Meyerhoff mystery series, I especially appreciate how the author details the damage a career in law enforcement wreaks on the Ranger and his family.
This title was the Gulf Coast Reads selection in Harris County, Texas. It was a good choice to bring people together to discuss issues of race and justice. Attica Locke’s skillful writing weaves a complex plot, as she unlocks the clues to solve not one, but five, murders! The culture and history of east Texas provides a vivid background for this dramatic story.