Attica Locke - Author
Attica Locke's first novel, Black Water Rising, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Attica is also a screenwriter who has written for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, Dreamworks and Silver Pictures. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab and is a graduate of Northwestern University. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, with her husband and daughter.
Author photo © Jenny Walters
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016. 1996 election night in Pleasantville, a suburb of Houston built in 1949 as a community for “Negro families of means and class”, home now to many who have been involved in marches for greater equality. The former police chief hopes to be the first black mayor but the District Attorney runs against him. Then a teenage girl disappears, the third, each found dead six days later. This one is no exception. A fellow is arrested and we follow his black lawyer, Jay’s involvement plus a host of strong characters. Very atmospheric with a real feel for the area and its people, this is both a political thriller and a murder mystery full of twists and turns set against the mayoral election campaign and compensation that is expected from an oil company for pollution, something that features in Jay’s first appearance in Black Water Rising. Shortlisted for the Goldsboro Gold Dagger Award 2015.
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016. Shortlisted for the Goldsboro Gold Dagger Award 2015. April 2015 Book of the Month. 1996 election night in Pleasantville, a suburb of Houston built in 1949 as a community for “Negro families of means and class”, home now to many who have been involved in marches for greater equality. The former police chief hopes to be the first black mayor but the District Attorney runs against him. Then a teenage girl disappears, the third, each found dead six days later. This one is no exception. A fellow is arrested and we follow his black lawyer, Jay’s involvement plus a host of strong characters. Very atmospheric with a real feel for the area and its people, this is both a political thriller and a murder mystery full of twists and turns set against the mayoral election campaign and compensation that is expected from an oil company for pollution, something that features in Jay’s first appearance in Black Water Rising.
September 2012 eBook of the Month. Gripping, atmospheric and tragic. Top class literary crime fiction from the Orange Prize shortlisted author of Black Water Rising. Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. It is a dead body. Attica Locke once again provides an unblinking commentary on politics, race, the law, family and love.
Gripping, atmospheric and tragic. Top class literary crime fiction from the Orange Prize shortlisted author of Black Water Rising. Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. It is a dead body. Attica Locke once again provides an unblinking commentary on politics, race, the law, family and love.
An atmospheric and stylish thriller from a new author, with comparisons to John Grisham. A tightly woven plot will keep you involved and intrigued until the end. "If you liked Chinatown, you’ll love this. A proper rollicking read. Anyone I’ve given this to just can’t put it down.… It’s just really brilliant and I’d thoroughly recommend it.” Miranda Sawyer (Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 judging panel). Shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.
2018 Edgar Award Winner for best novel. When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules - a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger working the backwoods towns of Highway 59, knows all too well. Deeply conflicted about his home state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him back. So when allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders - a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman - have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes - and save himself in the process - before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. 'In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it. Ranger Darren Mathews is tough, honor-bound, and profoundly alive in corrupt world. I loved everything about this book.' Ann Patchett 'Locke's writing is both sharp-edged and lyrical. This is thoughtful, piercing storytelling with the power to transport.' Diana Evans, Financial Times
When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules, a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders - a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman - have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.
A powerful thriller about the explosive intersection of love, race, and justice from a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV/Channel 4 show Empire 'Dazzlingly good ... a seriously impressive writer' Observer Southern fables usually go the other way around. A white woman is killed or harmed in some way, real or imagined, and then, like the moon follows the sun, a black man ends up dead. But when it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules - a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger working the backwoods towns of Highway 59, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about his home state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. So when allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he is drawn to a case in the small town of Lark, where two dead bodies washed up in the bayou. First a black lawyer from Chicago and then, three days later, a local white woman, and it's stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes - and save himself in the process - before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.
*Coming soon to FX as a TV series* "e;In Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke had both mastered the thriller and exceeded it."e; --Ann Patchett "e;A heartbreakingly resonant new novel about race and justice in America"e; --USA TodayWhen it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. From a writer and producer of the Emmy winning Fox TV show Empire, Bluebird, Bluebird is a rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas.
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016. Shortlisted for the Goldsboro Gold Dagger Award 2015. April 2015 Book of the Month. 1996 election night in Pleasantville, a suburb of Houston built in 1949 as a community for “Negro families of means and class”, home now to many who have been involved in marches for greater equality. The former police chief hopes to be the first black mayor but the District Attorney runs against him. Then a teenage girl disappears, the third, each found dead six days later. This one is no exception. A fellow is arrested and we follow his black lawyer, Jay’s involvement plus a host of strong characters. Very atmospheric with a real feel for the area and its people, this is both a political thriller and a murder mystery full of twists and turns set against the mayoral election campaign and compensation that is expected from an oil company for pollution, something that features in Jay’s first appearance in Black Water Rising.
On a dark night, out on the Houston bayou to celebrate his wife's birthday, Jay Porter hears a scream. Saving a distressed woman from drowning, he opens a Pandora's Box. His impulsive act out on the bayou is heroic, but it puts Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him is practice, his family and even his life.
September 2012 eBook of the Month. Gripping, atmospheric and tragic. Top class literary crime fiction from the Orange Prize shortlisted author of Black Water Rising. Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar cane fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. It is a dead body. Attica Locke once again provides an unblinking commentary on politics, race, the law, family and love.
The Cutting Season is a rare murder mystery with heft, a historical novel that thrills, a page-turner that makes you think. Attica Locke is a dazzling writer with a conscience.Dolen Perkins-Valdez, New York Times bestselling author of WenchAttica Lockes breathtaking debut novel, Black Water Rising, won resounding acclaim from major publications coast-to-coast and from respected crime fiction masters like James Ellroy and George Pelecanos, earning this exciting new author comparisons to Dennis Lehane, Scott Turow, and Walter Mosley. Locke returns with The Cutting Season, a second novel easily as gripping and powerful as her firsta heart-pounding thriller that interweaves two murder mysteries, one on Belle Vie, a historic landmark in the middle of Lousianas Sugar Cane country, and one involving a slave gone missing more than one hundred years earlier. Black Water Rising was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an Edgar Award, and an NAACP Image Award, and was short-listed for the Orange Prize in the U.K. The Cutting Season has been selected by bestselling author Dennis Lehane as the first pick for his new line of books at HarperCollins.
An atmospheric and stylish thriller from a new author, with comparisons to John Grisham. A tightly woven plot will keep you involved and intrigued until the end. "If you liked Chinatown, you’ll love this. A proper rollicking read. Anyone I’ve given this to just can’t put it down.… It’s just really brilliant and I’d thoroughly recommend it.” Miranda Sawyer (Orange Prize for Fiction 2010 judging panel). Shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Attica Lockea writer and producer of FOXs Empiredelivers an engrossing, complex, and cinematic thriller about crime and racial justiceLos Angeles TimesBook 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 TimesAtmospheric deeply nuanced... akin to George Pelecanos or Dennis Lehane.... Subtle and compelling.New York Times