A review by jayneyh314
Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

challenging dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s 2016 and Trump has has just been elected President of the United States. Racial tensions are running high and Texas Ranger Darren Matthews is given the dual tasks of finding a missing 9 year old whilst also looking for evidence against his white supremacist family. As well as his duties as a Ranger, Matthews is also struggling with a complicated family life and trying to help out an old family friend. Will he do the right thing and is there more going on around the missing child case than initially meets the eye?

Trigger Warning - as the synopsis suggests, the plot involves racial abuse and whilst the language is obviously realistic for the subject it could also be very triggering. 

I haven’t previously read any of Attica Locke’s work and this is actually the second book about Darren Matthews so there were some past events that were referenced that I obviously didn’t fully follow but it didn’t massively hamper my enjoyment of the book as the main plot is very much contained to this book. I have actually added the previous book “Bluebird Bluebird” to my to buy list because I did enjoy this one. 

Locke’s writing is outstanding. The descriptive passages in particular I found to be exquisite, especially in the first section when we’re reading about Levi, the boy who goes missing, in his boat on the lake. Absolutely beautiful writing that really sets the scene. 

I found the undercurrent of uncertainty and rising racial tension surrounding the election of Donald Trump to be particularly interesting reading it now, on the other side of his presidency. At the time this book is set people are worried and nobody is really sure what he is going to do but his election has already emboldened people to be more open in their abuse of people of colour. I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how bad things would get by the end of his term. Darren, as a Black Texas Ranger, is sent pretty much into the belly of the beast and his job is made that much harder by the abuse he receives from the people he is actually trying to help. 

I really enjoyed the story that Locke wove here. She packed a lot in to what is actually quite a short book and with the action kept pretty high it definitely held my interest and kept me wanting to read more. 

There is a secondary plot with Darren trying to help an old family friend who has been accused of murdering another member of the Aryan Brotherhood. It leads Darren to make some choices that are definitely a case of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. There is also the hint of an affair between Darren’s wife and his FBI agent friend. It’s honestly quite a mix of events with the personal plots running alongside the main criminal plot but it didn’t feel like there was too much going on. Locke’s writing was skilful enough to give enough time to all aspects without them taking away from each other. 

My one complaint would be that I feel the trope of the detective with a drink problem who skates along the edge of what is legal and what is right is a little overdone. It features in a lot of these types of books and I don’t feel that his drink problem in particular really added anything to the story so it seemed as though it was purely there to meet that trope. 

Overall the writing and the story were excellent and I would definitely read more from Locke. 
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