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    Black Water Rising: A Novel
    Black Water Rising: A Novel
    Black Water Rising: A Novel
    Ebook480 pages8 hours

    Black Water Rising: A Novel

    By Attica Locke

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Attica Locke—a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire—delivers an engrossing, complex, and cinematic thriller about crime and racial justice

    Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist (Mystery/Thriller)
    Edgar Award Nominee (Best First Novel)
    The Orange Prize for Fiction (Shortlist)

    “A near-perfect balance of trenchant social commentary, rich characterizations, and action-oriented plot.... Attica Locke [is] a writer wise beyond her years.”
— Los Angeles Times

    “Atmospheric… deeply nuanced... akin to George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane....  Subtle and compelling.”
— New York Times

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 9, 2009
    ISBN9780061886263
    Black Water Rising: A Novel
    Author

    Attica Locke

    Attica Locke is the author of Black Water Rising, which was nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was short-listed for the UK’s Orange Prize, and also the national bestseller The Cutting Season, which won an Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. She is a producer and writer on the Fox drama Empire. She is on the board of directors for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, where she lives.

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    Reviews for Black Water Rising

    3.5/5

    282 ratings42 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Terrific first novel. Set in Houston in the 80s Locke is razor sharp on racial politics and fear that comes from the gut. There's also some nifty actual politics which hold the story up long enough to delve into some classic noir tropes. I really enjoyed this.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the best mystery/ thrillers I have read in some time. I liked everything about te book- story plot, characters, writing style, even the ending. My hope is to see more written by this author.
    • 5/5
      Can not put this down!
    • 4/5
      When the book was done, I really liked it. Took a while to get the ball rolling and maybe the book could have used an edit or two. A young black man growing in TX with more than his share of prejudice. He becomes a lawyer despite an serious arrest in his younger days. Danger falls into his lap when he rescues a woman from the bayou and then the trouble begins. He tries to stay out of it -- but becomes engrossed in what really happened.
    • 3/5
      A decent legal thriller with a heavy dose of political corruption and civil rights. It’s set in 1980-81 and struggling lawyer Jay and his wife Bernadine are in the wrong place at the wrong time and witness a crime. On the surface it appears the woman Elise has been attacked and they drive her to the police station. He combs the newspapers for more information, but no story appears on the police blotter about a soaking wet woman being nearly killed. Instead he finds an item about a white man being shot on the same night as the rescue and the fingerprints of a woman being found at the scene. From this tiny tidbit, Jay puts himself into the thick of a corruption scandal involving a large oil company, unions, political big-shots and an old friend. A lot of it goes where you’d expect; Jay is bribed, warned and then his pregnant wife is used as leverage when neither of the first tactics work. A couple of bodies turn up and they’re just the ones you’d expect. The wife is a ninny about guns until a certain scene. At first, I wondered if Jay would remain friendless for the whole book, then an ally turns up and of course he’s not covered in moral rectitude. I just wish he had done the action hero bit instead of Jay constantly trying to be physical; it was just ludicrous and he never learned no matter how many times he banged the hell out of himself and ruined another suit. It kind of got to be funny.Jay’s past is interspersed with the present storyline; how he went from civil rights activist to nearly criminal to lawyer. It’s a fascinating story that is entirely plausible. Real people are inserted into the narrative to boost the verisimilitude. Leaders fighting against racial prejudice and the new Jim Crow laws were often removed and railroaded with illegal tactics by the US government. It’s shameful and disheartening and this part of the story makes it apparent we haven’t come that far. In terms of the corruption angle; I could buy it. I was a little older than the author was at the time the novel is set and I remember (vaguely) the oil crisis of the 1970s and what the government tried to do to thwart it should it happen again. The stockpiling and the oil reserve program. It was a system crying out to be gamed.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was a very good book. Jay Porter, a struggling lawyer, takes his wife on a poor man’s version of a boat cruise along the Houston canal one night. They hear a shot, then a body falling into the water. He jumps in and rescues a woman. He assumes she is a victim and drops her outside a police station, considering his job done. But, of course, it all turns out to be much more complicated, and the plot twists and turns. He has other cases, too, and it was fun trying to figure out if, when and how they might tie together.The story is good, the descriptions are good, and there are quite a few interesting and sympathetic secondary characters. What makes this book more than usually interesting, though, is the character of Jay himself. In his student days in the ‘60’s (the story is set in the ‘80’s), he was a radical Black Power activist, fighting for civil rights and eventually getting involved with national figures such as Stokely Carmichael. He was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to insight violence, but one juror refused to convict him and he was set free, after which he decided to become a lawyer and continue the struggle by other means. Although he has meanwhile settled for less ambitious goals, this background has made him suspicious of the police and of powerful institutions in general, which has a strong bearing on some of his decisions as he tries to understand what is going on and decide what he should do. He’s not perfect, and I sometimes wanted to shake him, but mostly I wanted him to succeed, and to make a difference for people.I had a look at other reviews on LT, and they are very mixed. Some found their lack of sympathy with Jay and/or his politics ruined the book for them, some disliked various of the other characters, some found the story too disjointed, but the general consensus was that Attica Locke is a good writer, and if you don’t find this story to your taste, it is probably worth waiting to see what she writes next.
    • 3/5
      Similar to the works of Dennis Lehane, Black Water Rising is about a man's struggle with his past and the future he's trying to create. Jay's legal practice is struggling, the bills are piling up and he has a baby on the way. When he gets involved in a murder that's none of his business, he gets in way over his head, but his past prevents him from doing the obvious - going to the police - until it's too late and he has to find his own way out of a very dangerous situation. A crafty plot with an interesting, well-rounded main character set in a serious, despairing atmosphere.
    • 3/5
      I guess Harper Lee has made it hard for me to appreciate debut novelists who don't emerge perfectly formed. Attica Locke's first effort offers an intriguing premise and competent writing, but fails to deliver as a thriller. I found the subplot about union infighting on the Houston docks really tedious - it slowed the pace down and detracted from the more interesting chapters about Jay's past entanglements with the civil rights movement and with the city's ruthlessly ambitious mayor. I didn't love this, but I think Attica Locke will write better books in the future.
    • 4/5
      The first word that came to mind when I finished the last line of Black Water Rising was WOW! This book, which takes place in the 1980's, gave me an education on union politics, race relations, and the more militant civil rights movement of the late 1960's and 1970's. Attica Locke, not nearly old enough to have experienced these events first hand, nevertheless presented what felt like an insiders view into a dark and complicated world where oil was king in Texas. Even more amazing was that she did so through the eyes of a black MAN as her main character. Jay Porter is a new lawyer working out of strip mall making very little profit and representing the desperate. He is an angry, bitter man who knows he should have more and be more. His background, his race, and his anger hold him back. I lived out his experiences via Attica Locke and walked in another man's shoes. This is why I read. To experience life through the eyes and heart of another person. Only a strong writer like Locke could help a white woman who was a teenager in the 1980's understand and empathize with the life of a strong-minded black lawyer in the Texas of that same decade. The book grabbed me from the start with a murder in the middle of the night, dragged a bit in the politics here and there, but captured me in full at the climax, holding my undivided attention all the way to its beautiful conclusion. A conclusion that actually made me pause and reflect with the word "wow" the only thought I could conjure in that moment.

      My favorite words:

      Dashiki-a loose, often colorfully patterned, pullover garment originating in Africa and worn chiefly by men.

      Pecuniary-consisting of or given or exacted in money or monetary payments.

      Dulcet-pleasant to the ear; melodious.

      Dais-a raised platform, as at the front of a room, for a lectern, throne, seats of honor, etc.

      Stevedore-a firm or individual engaged in the loading or unloading of a vessel.

      Quote from which comes the title (p.367): "The strike, therefore, made it impossible for the company to hide its crime, which was, by then, starting to come up in plain sight, like black water rising in the streets."

      Favorite quote (p.404): "And standing now in a urine-stained corner of this jail cell, where he paid a toll of six cigarettes to be left in peace, he strikes a new bargain with himself. There is a way out of here, he knows, out of this prison in his mind. It requires only the courage to speak."

      Before I was even finished with Black Water Rising, I was online ordering Locke's second and highly acclaimed book, The Cutting Season. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a Dennis Lehane, James Ellroy, or Greg Iles fan. I was also reminded of John Grisham at times. Just note that many of the characters use salty language, and the plot contains some violence and sexual situations.
    • 3/5
      Jay Porter is struggling. He lives in a cramped little apartment with his pregnant wife, a woman he has known since she was thirteen years old, and he wonders if they can ever afford a better home. Porter, a player during the Black Power movement of the 1960s, is now a lawyer with a cheap, strip mall office and an incompetent secretary he can just afford. His clients are walk-ins and referrals who can barely afford to pay him at all, much less an amount that would offer Porter a decent profit for his work. So, when one of those clients arranges a free boat ride down Houston’s Buffalo Bayou in lieu of a cash payment, Porter accepts the deal and decides to celebrate his wife’s birthday on the little boat.As the boat makes its way through the heart of downtown Houston in near total darkness, the Porters and the boat’s captain are startled by a woman’s desperate screams for help. It is impossible to see the woman or her attacker from the boat but, as they are paused to listen, the three soon hear the sounds of someone rolling down the bayou’s steep bank and splashing into the water. Porter manages to get the barely breathing woman into the boat but, because he fears getting involved in the problems of this white woman, he brings her to the police station’s front door and slips away before anyone can see him or get his name.It is only when he sees the story in the newspaper that Porter learns that the woman he rescued may not have been a victim at all - she might, instead, be a murderer. Still reluctant to get involved, Porter only learns how much trouble he is in when a stranger offers to pay him for his silence about what he saw and heard the night of the murder. The man leaves Porter with two choices: take the money and remain silent or be shut up for good.Attica Locke has here the makings of an intriguing story about a former Black Power radical trying to make his way through the still tense racial attitudes of 1981 Houston, Texas. She does, in fact, do a remarkable job of capturing the mood and atmosphere of 1980s Houston, a period during which the city was facing almost uncontrollable growth in both population and serious crime. It was a time when whole neighborhoods were off limits after dark to whites and blacks alike, high crime black neighborhoods whites did not dare enter and high income white neighborhoods where blacks drew the immediate attention of Houston cops.Locke, though, makes the mistake of creating two additional subplots that do little more than complicate her story. First, she gets Jay Porter involved with a young man who has been beaten by union thugs who want to head off an economically crippling strike by dockworkers at the Houston port facilities. Next, she exposes Porter to a plot by Big Oil to manipulate the price of gasoline at the pump, a plan about which only one old white man and Porter seem to care. These subplots overwhelm the more interesting, and plausible, mystery of the woman in the bayou and eventually begin to seem almost cartoonish - especially in the way that Big Oil is represented in the most stereotypical way possible. Few of the associated characters seem real and, as a result, even Porter and his wife become less sympathetic characters.And that is a shame because the first chapter of "Black Water Rising" is one of the best lead chapters I have read in a while. This could, and should, have been a very different book.Rated at: 2.5
    • 2/5
      I couldn't finish this. For some reason, it just would not hold my attention.
    • 5/5
      Y'all, this is a delicious book! If you like mystery/suspense/crimefiction, this is a novel for you. I am listening to Black Water Rising, by Attica Locke on audiobook and it is interrupting my sleep. Last night, I was lying in bed thinking, maybe I could get up and listen for one more hour. Granted, it is pretty risky, me endorsing a book a I haven't even finished yet, but it's so engaging, that for now, it is all I can think about. And I will confess, that the narrator of the audio book, Dion Graham, has a lovely voice. (And you know with that name- Dion - he is a true son of the south.) It feels like a southern gentleman is hiding in my iPod telling me a bedtime story. I should bake him a red velvet cake.(Voice off screen interrupts: Don't nobody care about the silky-smooth chocolate-dipped narrator, Tayari. Can you at least tell us what the doggone book is about?)Sorry.It's set in Houston. (Did y'all know I used to live there?) It's the story of Jay, a lawyer whose practice has devolved into ambulance chasing. He used to do loftier things, like represent people whose civil rights had been violated, but doing the right thing don't pay the bills. Also, his wife is pregnant. Well, they sorta semi-witness a crime. The black union workers are going on strike-- could shut the whole city down! Somebody is following him and he don't know why. And what about the white lady that fished out the bayou, more dead than alive? And don't forget Jay's activist past, and the fact that when she was in college, the mayor was a radical.. shhh.. And her and Jay used have a little somethin going on!I can't tell you any more, because this is as far as I have gotten. But oooh, it's good! And go read this dynamite essay where the Attica Locke tells you where she got the idea for this novel. P.S. I get my audio books from audible.com. (I have a basic membership) But I believe this title is widely available at public libraries
    • 4/5
      A mystery involving race, power, politics, oil, money and death in early 1980s Houston that grabbed me on several different levels. I picked up this book to meet challenge 21 in Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge: a mystery by a person of color or LGBTQ+ author.
    • 3/5
      Jay Porter takes his wife on a cruise down the Buffalo Bayou, and en route they hear a woman screaming, and gunshots. His decision to stop the boat and help sends him on a path that threatens both their lives, reveals the truth about the American oil industry, and calls back to the civil rights movement and Jay's involvement in University. Many, many threads are woven through this book and they aren't all fixed up by the end. The writing is clear and enjoyable but now and then staggers under the weight of the politics and history. Flashbacks slow things down even further. This is a great book but not an easy one. It's fascinating to me that it was inspired by the author's own life, except in her case they didn't stop the boat.
    • 3/5
      Black Water Rising, nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, is well-written, more assured than most first novels. The prose is smooth and the dialogue solid, perhaps an indication of Attica Locke’s experience as a screenwriter. But this experience did not save Locke from a somewhat surprising problem: Black Water Rising has pacing problems that make it drag badly. Locke seems to have been so interested in telling a story about the civil rights movement in Houston in the early 1980s – one to which her family apparently has connections – that she overplotted the book, trying to fit in too many details, too many subplots, too many digressions. The subject matter is inherently interesting, especially in the hands of a black woman writing a generation later; each subplot is unusual and interesting in and of itself. But the tangle created by all these threads is not sufficiently untangled by the end of the book, and worse, the reader doesn’t much care by that point because character has been is sacrificed to elucidation. We’re supposed to root for the protagonist, Jay Porter, to come out on top, but he’s a hard fellow to give a damn about. Thus, while the novel starts out promisingly, the novel as a whole is seriously flawed.Jay Porter is an African-American in Houston in 1981. He practices law without a great deal of success, representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases that have little value. Jay lives with his wife, Bernie, who is heavily pregnant with their first child. On a hot, humid night, Jay takes Bernie out for her birthday, though the celebration is far from lavish; a client has offered his decrepit barge for a cruise on the bayou. Bernie’s sister has helped prepare the barge, decorating and providing within Jay’s means: “Inside the cabin there are balloons instead of flowers, hot links and brisket instead of filet, and a cooler of beer and grape Shasta instead of wine.” But Bernie is happy, because this represents quite a bit of fuss, and that’s what she really wants. So the couple is headed for a decent night out.But events conspire against them. As they’re floating along, they hear a woman call out for help, followed by gunshots and a splash. Jay, reluctant to get involved, is persuaded by Bernie – shamed might be a better word – to jump to the rescue. He fishes a woman out of the water, but she refuses to tell them anything about what happened, insisting instead that they simply drop her at the police station.Although Jay hopes that he has seen the end of it with this tidy rescue, it quickly becomes apparent that things will not resolve themselves this easily. Jay learns that a man’s body has been discovered in a car very close to the spot where Jay rescued the woman from the water. And before too long, Jay is pressured to keep his mouth shut about what he knows. He’d have been content to do that in the first place, but once the threats and the bribes start, he no longer feels safe in ignoring the situation. As time goes on, the rescue starts to have all sorts of consequences for a dockworkers’ strike, an oil company’s future, Houston’s economy and the political viability of Houston’s mayor, who just happens to be an old – and white – girlfriend of Jay’s, who may or may not have ratted him out to federal agents in his not-nearly-distant-enough past.So much gets piled on this single event that the plots and subplots start to teeter. At the same time, we’re dealing with Bernie’s pregnancy, Jay’s lost gun, a personal injury case involving a lawyer who might be crooked, Houston politics, civil rights, racial violence, union politics, oil stored in old salt mines, high gas prices – it’s just too much to keep track of, or for Locke to ultimately resolve well. Some subplots peter out to almost nothing, others are never satisfactorily played out, and it becomes impossible to tie everything together into one lovely knot.Locke has enough plot in this one novel to fuel at least two others as well. It is not exactly unknown for a first time novelist to be a bit too ambitious, but it’s rather a shame that an editor didn’t point out to this writer that the novel becomes too knotted, or that none of her characters is particularly likable or even fully fleshed out. I won’t say that the nomination of this novel as one of the best first novels of the year is a mystery; it is too competent in its use of language to be undeserving, and the subject matter is too historically important to be ignored. Still, I hope Locke puts her obvious writing skills to the service of a tighter plot next time around.
    • 3/5
      I picked up this book after seeing its Orange Prize nomination. I love mysteries, so was excited and ready. However, it's proving to be a very slow read. Central figure is elusive, and only moderately engaging.
    • 4/5
      Nice crime fiction mystery story that includes narratives about the African-American experience vis-a-sis the criminal justice system in the USA. I enjoyed the story line and learned about the perspective of victims and lawyers. I'd recommend this book; and I'll try an locate other books by this author.
    • 3/5
      The book reminded me of A Time to Kill by John Grisham. I could visually see Denzel Washington as Jay Porter. The story followed the same pattern as all the rest of the lawyer mysteries, with the family of the lawyer threatened by the "bad" man. The language and setting flowed as well as the muddy river waters. So many points or stories were left unresolved. I actually finished the book as the momentum picked up speed as the book progressed.
    • 4/5
      The character of Jay Porter is fully realized and deeply felt. The setting, Houston 1981, is so clear that it seems Locke must have been there, but she was only 7 years old and couldn't have known the story her book tells of the Civil Rights Movement in Houston at that time. Carefully researched and extremely well told.
    • 4/5
      I was initially drawn to this novel as a debut suspense novel, yet it truly is so much more than that. Set in the Texas bayou outside Houston, a fluke of circumstance leads to a tale of corruption, murder, attempted murder and all of the machinations one would expect. However, this is also a well told story of a man on the verge of fatherhood who must find a way to resolve the crime, his past, and his future. it is a tale of integrity...doing the right thing when no one is looking. Well done!
    • 4/5
      Interesting and relaxing read without the intensity of my other Orange reads. I liked it.
    • 3/5
      A good thriller mystery --- edgy and suspenseful. Set in Houston in 1981 with flashbacks to the early 70s, it' has a Social Justice theme, appealing characters, and a complicated-enough plot. Recommended for followers of Dennis Lehane, etc.
    • 3/5
      A somewhat straightforward mystery novel with a keen slant on being black in America during the 80's
    • 4/5
      From my blog...In her thrilling debut novel Black Water Rising author Attica Locke takes the reader on a fast paced literary thrill-ride deep in Houston. Jay Porter is down, but not out, when he opens up a law practice in Houston, Texas and with few clinetns. He is working a case with a prostitute who claims she was injured in a car accident as well as promising his father-in-law Reverend Boykins that he would help the longshoremen working in the Ship Channel by speaking with the mayor about fair wages and safety if they strike. Uncertain how to achieve these two goals is difficult enough and then Jay reads the paper about a shooting and the events of the night of a fateful boat ride catch up with him. Locke delivers an exceptional suspense thriller novel that will keep the reader engaged and guessing until the very end. Locke's detailed and at times twisty plot, dedication to capturing the essence of the decades, Jay's past and the present, along with the sentiments regarding race, oil, and government prove to play out exceedingly well in Locke's debut novel Black Water Rising. Rich in tone, voice, and excellent character development Locke expertly weaves all the parts together to create a suspense filled novel that will keep the reader engaged and turning pages long into the night. I highly recommend Black Water Rising to anyone who enjoys a good mystery/ suspense novel.
    • 5/5
      Ms. Locke has created a masterpiece, merging a mystery/crime novel with an era of social history at a level rarely obtained. Neither aspect comes across as subservient to the other. Highly recommended. I was so impressed that I have already begun Attica Locke's second novel, "The Cutting Season"
    • 4/5
      This novel, set in 1981, introduces Jay Porter, an African-American defence attorney based in Houston, who will reappear in as protagonist of Pleasantville, set some quarter of a century later in Dallas. As the book opens, Porter and his heavily pregnant wife Bernie are about to board a rather dilapidated boat to sail down the bayou while having a romantic dinner to celebrate her birthday. Money is tight, and Porter has arranged the trip on the cheap through a recent client, although he hadn’t been prepared for the boat to be quite so run down.Still, the trip goes well and Bernie seems to be enjoying herself until, as they are nearly back at the dock, they hear a woman scream, and then two shots ring out in the night, followed by the sound of running and then someone plunging into the water. Jay and the boat owner are reluctant to become involved, but Bernie persuades them to turn around to investigate. Having done so they find a white woman in an elaborate ball gown swimming in the bayou. They pick her up, and, after they have disembarked, jay drives her to the nearest police station where he lets her out, but does not offer to accompany her inside. Indeed, he drives away before even checking that she has gone in herself.We learn that Jay is nervous of any contact with the police because he had previously been a prominent figure, at least locally, in the Civil Rights movement, during the 1960s, and had encountered the rougher side of law enforcement all too closely. Through some extended flashbacks we learn that he had faced trial The novel is set in 1981, although it offers frequent flashbacks to periods in Porter’s past during which he had been on the periphery of the Black panthers, and had arranged for Stokely Carmichael to speak to groups at his university. During that time, he had become friendly with a white woman who was herself prominent in several politically active groups. She is now the Democrat mayor of Houston, now a thriving city riding high on oil wealth, and is struggling to maintain peace and order as the city’s docks are faced with the threat of concerted trade union agitation, although there is fierce rivalry and bitterness between the separate unions representing low paid (and predominantly black) longshoremen and the mainly white stevedores and middle management. Against this backdrop, Porter finds himself representing an African-American woman ‘with a looser understanding of social responsibilities’ (a rather gentle euphemism for prostitute) who is seeking damages from a leading white businessman. As that case proceeds by fits and starts, Jay finds himself being followed by a threatening-looking man perpetually wearing dark glasses.Like Pleasantville, this book is a fascinating blend of political intrigue, courtroom confrontation and whodunit, with a fair sprinkling of the history of the civil rights movement thrown in. Locke crosses genres with ease, and manages the story with great dexterity. Jay Porter is a good man, and an empathetic character, grappling with self-doubt, money worries and the pressures of supporting his family.
    • 3/5
      Attica Locke succeeds in creating a noirish atmosphere in Black Water Rising. The book is highly readable and her plot is no more over the top than most thrillers. I did find that the lawyer protagonist was difficult to care much about. We know that he is not going to be a fumbling milquetoast forever and that at some point he will be galvanized, "man up", and make some good decisions, but it takes almost unbearably long for this to happen. Next time Ms. Locke should give her readers a protagonist that they can hold on to, believing in Jay Porter was just a hard way to go (apologies to John P).
    • 4/5
      This wasn't a perfect thriller, but it was a really good one. Set in Houston, TX in the '80's, Locke tells the story of Jay Porter, a lawyer who witnesses something bad out on the bayou, but is disinclined to trust the cops.Jay Porter is a wonderful character - a former civil rights activist, burned by a snitch in his group and put on trial, but acquitted. He has come through this experience with a law degree, a wife, a baby on the way, and a not-so-thriving law practice in a strip mall. His life hasn't exactly turned out the way he planned. Riding along with Jay as he sorts through the events he is tangled up in accidentally you can't help but root for him, despite all his damage, despite all his paranoia, despite his imperfections.Locke does a great job of bringing the reader into the Houston of the '80's where it's all about oil, corruption, and growth - growth so fast that the city can't keep up with basic services and toney gated communities must hire their own garbagemen to avoid drowning in their refuse. Locke grew up in Houston and obviously knows the city well. I loved her ability to move through all the various niches - from ghetto to honky tonk to City Hall.Locke is a screenwriter and it shows. The pacing in the book is very cinematic and she really knows how to grab you and keep you reading. Another reviewer compared her to Dennis Lehane and I guess she's working in similar territory if Dennis Lehane was African American and from Houston. The final third of the book gets a little clunky and a little too convoluted as if she threw too many balls in the air at once and doesn't quite know how to make it all work, but this was fresh and entertaining and I hope she writes another one.
    • 4/5
      Endearing underdog Jay Porter always endeavors to do what's right, but he makes some gargantuan detours on the way. Readers learn tantalizing bits and pieces of information, just as he does, and must tolerate unanswered questions along with him. Locke structures the tale as a mixture of present-day and past anecdotes, and gradually ties events and people together. The book was very hard to put down, and I was sorry to see it end. It left me with a few unanswered questions, and thus the haunting uncertainties of Porter's life and future will stick with me.My only complaint is that this author's work deserves better editing. One particularly perplexing sentence, for example, says "Jay grabs the shotgun from his wife, slides a bullet into the chamber, and points the barrel of the rifle at the intruder."
    • 4/5
      Good plot but ended with no conclusion

    Book preview

    Black Water Rising - Attica Locke

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