Breakaway Books

Authored by Attica Locke; Published in 2017; Mystery

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

Bluebird, Bluebird is a Texas novel. No, really, Texas may as well be a main character in this mystery, for all that devotion to the land is invoked. It does not romanticize the state, but it does honor it.

I like this type of mystery, where the answers are not nearly so simple as they appear to be at first. Ranger Darren Matthews, a Black Texas ranger, is on the brink of suspension when he dives into a crime with possible racial motivations. He has to tease apart the crimes that have called him to rural Texas, and the answers are not at all what they appear to be.

Although I had an inkling of the true murderer, I admired the way the author paced the clues throughout the plot. I found myself enjoying the discoveries as they unraveled, the puzzle pieces as they fit together. Too often, I can feel frustrated that the author conjures the perpetrator out of nowhere, but that is not how I felt about this one. It was a satisfying mystery, one that felt within the intellectual reach of the reader.

Texas’s history with racism is at the core of this book. I’ve never lived in Texas, but it had the ring of realism—depressingly, but also encouragingly so. Ranger Matthews is a symbol for everyone who loves the state and wants it to be better, to be what they dream it can be. In some ways, it feels like a love letter to the state.

It’s not a pulse-pounding thriller, but Bluebird, Bluebird is a thought-provoking mystery.