Like Bluebird, Bluebird, the first in the Highway 59 trilogy, Heaven, My Home is the story of a Black Texas Ranger named Darren Matthews, but it is so much more than that. It’s a thought-provoking novel—set in East Texas in the months post-election but before Donald Trump first takes office when White supremacy and hate crimes begin to surge—that takes on racial issues, justice, and personal ethics.Matthews is ordered to the little town of Jefferson, which is caught in an outmoded—and in theory, gentile—pre-antebellum mindset. He is to surreptitiously investigate the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas under the guise of searching for a missing nine-year-old boy. The town’s wealthy matriarch/businesswoman (and grandmother of the boy) has never had a Black in her home—except for servants—until Matthews interviews her. No one seems particularly concerned about the missing boy except his lowlife parents (the father, a member of the ABT, is serving a twenty-year sentence).
The story pits whites against blacks and local Caddo Native Americans, and Matthews must tiptoe through the racial overtones and layers of deceit and greed stemming from presumed slights dating from before the Civil War. He is a flawed but decent character who is juggling a career that he has been rebuilding after nearly having his badge taken away, a marriage that is returning from the brink of failure, and an alcoholic mother who is blackmailing him for money and for filial attention.
Heaven, My Home reeks with East Texas atmosphere and breathtaking descriptions of the cypress tress and Lake Caddo. Though the second in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. As in Bluebird, Bluebird, the prose is spare but strong, often lyrical, and the thread of music that runs throughout (old Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jessie Mae Hemphill blues numbers) reinforces the themes of the novel.
********************
Heaven, My Home (Mulholland Books, August 25, 2020) is available through:
********************
You can read my review of Bluebird, Bluebird here.
********************
This post may contain Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a small amount from qualifying purchases at no cost to you.
