By the same token, it may be that I found the story immensely compelling for the reason that I was a young teenager at that time, and the events, people, issues and context of the time are alive and well in my sub-conscious, though I paid little enough attention to them at the time.

Either way I suppose that this means that the author failed in making the period seem real for that reviewer in her fiction. It may be that the reviewer was not alive during the time the story took place, so could not relate to the historical context and issues, or was so familiar with them that they needed no explanation.

I enjoyed this book so much that I checked back to see if there were any other books available by Attica Locke, and happened to read the review from August 9. With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, Black Water Rising marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning - and opens a Pandora's box. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him.

His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget.

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke