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Black Water Rising (Jay Porter #1)

Attica Locke

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May 22, 2019 Jenny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As a reader of mysteries, I’ve always been a fan of the more hardboiled variety and especially those with a strong sense of place—George Pelecanos writing about Washington D.C., Dennis Lehane writing about Boston, James Lee Burke writing about Louisiana, and most recently, Craig Johnson writing about Absaroka County (not a real county) in Wyoming. Well, now I can add Attica Locke to this list. Her focus is East Texas and her novels are rich and complex, featuring flawed protagonists, who find th As a reader of mysteries, I’ve always been a fan of the more hardboiled variety and especially those with a strong sense of place—George Pelecanos writing about Washington D.C., Dennis Lehane writing about Boston, James Lee Burke writing about Louisiana, and most recently, Craig Johnson writing about Absaroka County (not a real county) in Wyoming. Well, now I can add Attica Locke to this list. Her focus is East Texas and her novels are rich and complex, featuring flawed protagonists, who find themselves in tricky situations at the intersection of race, class, and power.

Bluebird, Bluebird is my book club’s choice for July (we meet next week!) but I got Attica Locke’s 2009 debut novel, Black Water Rising, for Christmas and ended up reading that first. In Black Water Rising, Locke tells the story of Jay Porter, a newly licensed African-American lawyer in Houston, whose practice is in a strip mall and whose clients leave a bit to be desired. It’s 1981 and Porter is struggling to leave his past behind. As a college student in the late 1960’s, he got involved in radical politics; a demonstration gone wrong (along with a connection to Stokely Carmichael) almost landed him a lengthy prison sentence. Saved by the graces of one juror (the only black person on the panel), Porter turned his life around and now is trying to build a good life for himself and his pregnant wife, Bernie.

Porter’s goals soon meet a harsh reality. He and Bernie are celebrating her birthday on Buffalo Bayou in a shabby boat that Porter secured for free from a client and is piloted by the client’s cousin, an elderly man. Not only is the situation not the “moonlight cruise” Porter had envisioned when he arranged it but the couple ends up witness to a crime. They hear screams, then gunshots, and then they see a woman in the water. Porter jumps in and saves her but she is not forthcoming about what happened. The couple takes her to the police station and assume that their involvement is done but as you might guess, that is just the beginning. Soon people are dying, coverups are happening, and Porter’s past comes back with a vengeance.
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