Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

REVIEW BY IAN JAMES BRYDON

Like her previous book, Bluebird, Bluebird¸ this novel is set in East Texas and features Texas Ranger, Darren Matthews. Until I read the previous book, I hadn’t been aware that the Texas Rangers still existed, and had assumed that they had passed into legend during the period of the wild West in the nineteenth century. For Matthews, the Texas Rangers remain a serious group, and one of the principal state-wide arms of law enforcement. Matthews himself has been working alongside the FBI to investigate hate crimes, and in particular the nefarious activities of the odious yet flourishing Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, an organisation with links to various aspects of organised crime, but principally involved with neo-Nazi activities against African Americans.

Matthews, himself African American and from East Texas, is asked to help the local Sheriff’s Department investigate the disappearance of a young boy who has gone missing from his community on the shores of Lake Caddo. The investigation becomes more complicated when it transpires that his father, currently in prison for a racially motivated murder, had been a key member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and the missing boy had himself already shown a tendency towards antisocial, and indeed downright racist behaviour.

Tensions abound, between the boy’s family and neighbours and the small African American and Native American communities living nearby, but also between the various law enforcement agencies that become involved. The Sheriff’s Department resents having a Texas Ranger (and particularly a black one) foisted on them, while Matthews himself bridles at the subsequent involvement of the FBI. There are more wide-reaching tensions at play too, as the novel is set in December 2016, between the election and inauguration of president Trump.

Attica Locke writes wonderfully. Her prose if spare and direct, but she also throws in glorious similes and metaphors. She also avoids falling into the trap of rendering her protagonist as a pillar of unassailable rectitude. Matthews is a troubled man, over whom alcoholism constantly threatens to cast its shadow. He is currently back living with his wife, Lisa, following a trial separation, but is tormented by memories of a woman whom he encountered in a previous case, and with whom he came close to an imprudent liaison. Oh, yes, and his previously estranged mother has been blackmailing him over a misjudgement he made in a previous case which could render him liable to a Grand Jury arraignment, not to mention probably dismissal from the job he loves. But apart from all that, it is just another day on the beat …

Attica Locke knows how to weave an intricate plot, and to keep the reader utterly absorbed. All in all, this was another very intriguing novel.

This review originally appeared on Goodreads.