Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Attica Locke'.
Found 2 results
-
Attica Locke Black Water Rising
Grammath posted a topic in Crime, Thrillers & Mystery: Authors and Books
In this, Attica Locke's debut novel, black refers to both race and crude oil, the lifeblood of Houston, the city in which the novel is set. It is 1981, and down at heel black lawyer is treating his pregnant wife Bernardine to a birthday dinner on a hired boat on a bayou in the town. Their celebrations are interrupted by cries for help. Jay saves the white woman he finds in the water, and he and Bernie take her to the police station then leave. Jay has no reason to trust the police, having done jail time as a former black radical (Stokely Carmichael makes a cameo appearance later in the -
This is the best thing I have read in ages. It almost feels wrong putting it in crime, as it is better than genre fiction. (Locke's first novel, Black Water Rising, was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize - I will be looking it out.) The central character, Caren Gray, is the general manager of Belle Vie, a former sugar plantation in Louisana, now run as a heritage and events centre. Her descendants* were also slaves on the plantation, which she keeps from the casual staff, who see her very much as "management"; her own ambivalence about the preservation of Belle Vie is one of the strongest