The second outing for Ranger Darren Matthews, Heaven My Home blends a twisty, high-paced thriller with a powerful, angry portrait of Trump’s America.
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020
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 Matthews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who's never exactly 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.
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781781257708
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 249 g
Dimensions: 194 x 126 x 22 mm
Edition: Main
A propulsive and compelling novel, worthy of comparisons to Walter Mosley ... Locke's exploration of Matthews's predicament digs deep into the tension between "the impulse to police crimes against black life and to protect black life from police". It is buttressed by passages of gorgeous lyricism, with loving, elegiac evocations of Texas - Guardian
Attica Locke's magnificent new novel, Heaven, My Home, is set on the side of a lake where this small community struggles to survive, encroached on by angry white men who deal in drugs and stolen goods ... shines an unflinching light on an ugly side of contemporary America - Sunday Times
Attica Locke combines a searingly exciting story with an intelligent exploration of racial prejudice in the US, righteously angry, but never simplifying the issues involved - Sunday Express
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
One of America's finest crime novelists ... a beautifully wrought mystery and an incisive portrait of the American South in the age of Trump - Daily Mail
A tightly plotted crime novel centring on the disappearance of a child, and a blistering look at race in Donald Trump's America - iPaper
A superb thriller - The Times
A powerful, angry, important book. Attica Locke is a major talent - Mick Herron, author of SLOW HORSES
Highly charged and fantastically drawn - Abir Mukherjee, author of A RISING MAN
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
Incredible - Reese Witherspoon
Thought provoking read, contents some racism content. Would recommend reading Bluebird, Bluebird first.
At once a tightly-plotted, tense police procedural thriller and an urgent portrait of contemporary America and its race relations, Heaven, My Home is a majestic masterpiece by one of the most exciting writers of... More
Couldn’t get enough of this book, although it’s book 2 in a series it can be read as a stand alone although once you have read it you’ll definitely want to read number 1 and anything else written by this author.... More
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