A Mystery Week! Win!

 

    Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke is the recently released sequel to Bluebird, Bluebird. It is excellent. The situation is critical. A child is missing. This child is the son of an inmate from the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT). The ABT leader begs Darren to find his son, Levi. In the last six months, Darren Matthews has worked to get his life under control--marriage counseling, avoiding alcohol, working a desk--and life is going better, but then (surprise!) events take a turn for the worst. Locke knows how to create a flawed character that I root for and groan in pain when Darren mudslides down into a slough of poor choices. He is not only fighting himself, but also others who want to exploit him. Texas history creates a dilemma for a small Texas town where former Confederates and former slaves live side by side and where Levi is missing.

    As a mystery, this book, and series, is dark, complex, and brooding. It reminds me of the gritty, can't-catch-a-break detectives of the 40s, but with more depth. 

    How many books does Locke have planned? I don't know how much more Darren and I can take!

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    I am rereading Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie for Book Club. So shout out to the Bookies! Agatha Christie wrote sixty-six crime novels plus several romance books under a pseudynm, and the longest ever running play, Mousetrap. This book was originally published in 1934, so Christie books have staying power. 

    I've been researching to sound smart at book club. Can you tell?

    Christie is a genius at crime novels and this is probably the best of the best. I have read it several times, but I'm never bored. It has great characters, if a little stereo-typed in their European nationalities. A fast-paced plot that utilizes its train setting excellently.

    Before we were married, my future husband and I watched the 1974 movie. I had already seen it and been blown away by the ending. I wasn't even close to solving it and wanted to test my future spouse's intelligence. My husband-to-be figured it out! Keeper.

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