Mulholland Books, 320 pages, $26 (c2017)
A large part of Locke’s story deals with racism in Texas. Her main character, Texas Ranger Darren Mathews, is black. He was headed towards becoming a lawyer at one point, just like one of the uncles who took care of him when his father died and his mother decided nurturing wasn’t her forte. Then he decided to become a Ranger instead, just like the other uncle who raised him. And also because of “Jasper.”
I had to look up “Jasper” because it is central to Locke’s character’s motivation. It is a true story and it is really appalling. In 1998, three white men dragged a black man, James Byrd, Jr., behind a pickup truck until his arm and head were severed. One of the men was executed, one is on death row, and one is serving a life sentence.
Darren reveals that he returned from Chicago to the area where he was raised in Texas and became a Ranger because white people like those killers – who minimize, brutalize, and pass sentence on black people – would not and should not send people like him running away. That path is too easy. He decided to return home and fight with the power of the law, such as it is, behind him. After all, this part of Texas, rich with his family's history, is his story, too.
At the beginning of the story, however, Darren has been suspended for possible compromised testimony in a case involving a long-time friend. A white racist harassed and threatened the granddaughter of that family friend. Later the racist was found dead and the grandfather was charged. As a Ranger did Darren look the other way? Did he not see what there was to be seen? That storyline plays throughout the book, and through it we meet his family, including his remaining uncle, his sad sack mother, and the wife who has thrown him out of their home. Now Darren is an alcoholic, who has been suspended from a job he loves, instead of being a strong, proud Ranger. He has fallen pretty far.
Possible redemption comes through an FBI agent’s suggestion that Darren look into two deaths in the little town of Lark, which brings him smack up against what appears to be a black and white divide. Our nation is split by colors at the moment. Red versus blue is the most recent conflagration, but black and white is as old as our country.
One of the dead is a black man who ostensibly was just passing through Lark. He had been raised in Texas but had married and moved away. What was he doing so far from either his new or old homes? The next day a young white woman was murdered. Isn’t this story the wrong way around? Shouldn’t the young white woman be the first victim with the black man as the revenge killing? Everything seems off to Darren as he begins his investigation.
Two establishments in Lark hold the key. One is a small, shabby black-owned diner settled in a shack right across the road from the pretentious mansion owned by the richest white man in the county. The other is a bar down the road owned by that rich white man. That bar is full of good ol’ boy, white nationalist types.
Yes, this is a murder mystery but it’s also a reminder of how in real life race still matters in our country. And not just race but the perception of race. This PBS article delves into what happens when white supremacists discover they are not “pure bloods” through DNA testing.
“Bluebird, Bluebird” is also about family. Darren’s family situation is especially complex. His mother lives in a trailer, needs alcohol more than air, and has a conniving, hucksterish personality. His remaining uncle and his estranged wife are pressuring Darren into returning to law school and leading a less fraught life.
All of these ingredients have produced a layered and meaningful novel.
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