Those of us who wish on some occasion to undertake the trip along Route 66 tend to share that hardened ideology through road movies. Various characters around implausible, sinister, fantastic stories, always with the static setting of that vast terrain of the North American west.
And really, what is special about a road that has been officially closed since 1985 and that runs through desert landscapes? This same doubt arises when I travel through Los Monegros or La Bardena, on both sides of my land, Aragon. The difference is not so much in the orographic, but it is in the exotic and in the marketing.
Silent spaces violated by some buzzer, originating from penetrating, challenging looks, roads without a clear horizon and a warmth of justice. Sinister policemen with dark glasses and a certain sense that the law cannot cover everything, not even those unknown places in civilized countries.
But no, this book is not a road movie. What happens is that the cover led me to these vague ideas, its photograph reminded me of this old travel debt that I have pending.
However, as far as the plot is concerned, there is a lot of those defiant looks at the stranger, those sinister cops and those sense of lawless space.
Darren Mathews will see in his flesh how Texas can still be ruled by atavistic fears, by custom of other centuries and by ideas around law and summary justice.
A crime novel, like some sinister and unexpected clouds in that sun-scorched American west. And at the same time a complaint about xenophobia and racism that still rampages from the Texas desert to the Big Apple in New York.
Synopsis: When it comes to law and order, East Texas has its own rules ... a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. With deep contradictions, being of color and raised in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to leave Texas as soon as he could. Until duty calls him home again ...
When loyalty to his roots jeopardizes his job, he heads up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders - a black Chicago lawyer and a local white woman - have stirred up the hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes and save himself at the same time, before the racial bankruptcies that are about to erupt in Lark erupt. "Texas Blues," a country crime novel infused with the unique music, color and nuances of East Texas, is a thrilling and timely play about America's collision of race and justice.
You can now buy the novel Texas blues, the new book of Attica Locke, here: