Literary Life | Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Black Water Rising is billed as a crime thriller, featuring Jay Porter, a lawyer from Houston who finds himself entangled in a messy affair after helping a seemingly troubled girl during a night out with his pregnant wife. From there, Jay's can't figure out if he's paranoid or whether he's right to be worried when he suspects he's being followed. But when his past begins merging with his present, Jay's quick to realise he's in over his head.

The book was pretty good; the premise for the plot was clever and well fleshed out. It had scope and I liked the way the characters were weaved into each others pasts. It wasn't a book I raced through, however, as I felt some chapters were just quite wordy and not that easy to read quickly. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and to be honest, I've been racing through a few books these last two weeks so it could also be reading fatigue! 

I do think that Attica was always on the back foot for me though, since I read an awful lot of Jo Nesbo's crime thrillers and for me, Black Water Rising just didn't quite hold up to Nesbo or Tom Rob Smith, another crime fiction author I really enjoy. I'd definitely read more of Locke's work and with the events unfolding concerning Walter Scott and the police, the racial aspects of Black Water Rising felt quite topical. Jay is an influential activist in his youth, staging protests similar to those we've unfortunately been seeing in places like Ferguson recently.

On the issue of race, whilst I know it was contextually sound to include certain words and terms within the novel, it doesn't mean I'm not going hate reading them. I do really think that this issue had a major impact on my overall opinion on the book. I'm not about to tell people what words to use or how to write because, let's face it, I'm far from qualified! But I am entitled to my own opinion and I personally hate the n- word, so reading a book where it's referenced a few times is never going to strike high on my list.

The book does feel authentic though and I gather it's garnered a lot of praise for Locke as her debut novel. I couldn't choose a particular quote that spoke to me so I'm bypassing my usual quotes collection. I've enjoyed picking books my unfamiliar authors though, feels good to widen my interests every once in a while!