This is the second instalment in the Highway 59 series; readers would
be advised to read Bluebird, Bluebird
before picking up Heaven, My Home
since there is a great deal of overlap and the latter takes place shortly after
the end of the former.
Darren Mathews is a black Texas Ranger who is sent to Jefferson in east
Texas because a nine-year-old boy has gone missing. Levi King is the son of Bill “Big Kill” King,
a prominent Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) member currently imprisoned for
drug charges. Mathews’ task is not so
much to assist in the search for Levi but to learn anything about the ABT which
could be used in an indictment against the organization. Many people think that Levi was killed, and
Leroy Page, a black man, soon becomes the main suspect. Darren is not convinced and tries to uncover
what really happened to Levi.
The novel is set just after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. There is concern that the incoming
administration will have little interest in pursuing charges against white supremacists
so there is an urgency to getting as much information about the ABT as quickly
as possible. There are repeated
references to the election: Darren “marvelled
with befuddled anger at what a handful of scared white people could do to a
nation . . . white voters had just lit a
match to the very country they claimed to love – simply because they were being
asked to share it.” There is also
repeated reference to a spike in racial violence in the wake of the
election: “There had been more than
fifty incidents of hate-tinged violence across the state in the four weeks
since the election.”
Darren regularly faces racism, even when he is wearing his badge. Some of the incidents are difficult to
read. What is interesting is that Darren
has ingrained prejudices of his own. He
admits to having “blind spots when it came to black folks, the feelings of
deference that shot up through him like roots through fertile soil – the instinct
to protect and serve that came over him around black folks, especially those of
advanced age, men and women whose challenges and fortitude had made Darren’s
life possible.” He tends to equate all
older blacks with his uncles who raised him and “were men of truth, in all
things.” Unfortunately, Darren’s biases
mean that he is not always able to be objective.
Darren is a complicated and flawed protagonist. His personal life is in turmoil; his
relationships with his wife, mother, uncle, and best friend are all in
upheaval. He wants to remain loyal to
his upbringing, profession, and spouse, but struggles. His decision to protect a black man in Bluebird, Bluebird means he has broken
the law and so put his career in jeopardy.
He has also left himself open to blackmail. He finds himself asking “Could there ever be
honour in lying” and feeling “unsure of who he was half the time or what he
believed.”
The book is rather pessimistic.
Darren is hopeful about Levi if he is found alive, not convinced that
his future can “be divined from the leaves of his family tree,” but others
imagine that if he is alive, he will, in short time, become “a homegrown
terrorist” and “a man-child with SS bolts inked on his wrist.” Darren actually admits that his job has left
him pessimistic that “the Brotherhood and what it stood for would ever truly be
eradicated. There were too many of them;
in tattoos or neckties, they were out there.
Everywhere. The country seemed to
grow them in secret, like a nasty fungal disease that spread in the dark places
you don’t ever dare to look.” Also ominous
is Darren’s comment: “’Can’t have all the
hate talk out there and it not end up in violence some kind of way. It’s just human nature. You talk it enough and it carves out a path
of permission in your heart, starts to make crazy shit okay.’” Considering the recent mass shooting in El
Paso, this comment resonates with truth.
There are many unresolved issues at the end of the book, so I can only
assume that there will be another book in the series. I do not always like Darren’s choices, but I
have empathy for him and so want him to be able to extricate himself from his
dilemmas. I will definitely be looking for
the next instalment.
Note: I received a digital
galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.
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