Thoughts at the halfway point of Black Water Rising

Even at the half way stage there are several things that you can say about this book.

Firstly the writing is tight and clever with a number of plotlines going on in a manner that reminded me of American Tabloid by James Ellroy.

Second, the combination of guns, death and corruption is as good as you will find anywhere from Chandler through to Mosely.

Finally, for a refreshing chance a book emerges that is not set in the 1930s or using the backdrop of the troubled 1960s and reminds the reader that bad things also happened in the 1980s. Apart from bad haircuts, a fair amount of awful music there was also plenty of bad things going on against the civil rights movement.

Locke pulls you in with her main character the slightly off the tracks but trying to do better now Jay Porter who manages to get himself into something dark the minute he pulls a woman out of the murky depths of the Bayeou that crawls through Houston.

From that point you want to know what happens now only to the woman, but to Jay's marriage, his business and to his community. Good stuff.

A review will follow soon...