What an exciting combination of genres! Attica Locke’s first-in-a-series of mysteries features Texas Range Darren Matthews, an African American East Texas native committed to his home region in spite of its racism. In this book a colleague points him in the direction of two murders in Lark, Texas: a white woman and a Black man both turned up in the bayou there. Matthews rejects the obvious solution and instead untangles the complex racial and familial ties that characterize East Texas on his way to solving the murders, with the help of one victim’s wife. Locke’s willingness to depict the racial climate of the town add a depth and a richness to the story, while helping the reader understand the very specific local context of a place Locke clearly knows and loves.