"While I thought Bluebird, Bluebird was a decent story, I enjoyed it much less than I expected to, after great hype. The premise was intriguing - Darren Matthews, an African-American Texas Ranger, becomes involved in a case in the small town of Lark, in East Texas, where two bodies were recently found - a white woman and a black man. Darren attempts to solve the mystery of these two murders.

The story took forever to actually build my interest though. I wasn’t into it until about the 60% completed mark, which is pretty far along. The book however was short and fortunately, picked up a bit around this point.

Though fictional, Bluebird, Bluebird incorporates many realistic elements - dealing with the racial tensions that often permeate small, southern towns (though not exclusively), the old school mentality of small towns (even though the story is set in present time), and the frequent mistrust between police and community. These are frustrating yet timely topics, but I felt like other stories have addressed these issues better.

I didn’t feel connected to the characters (which there were a lot of), including Darren. While I acknowledge he was trying to do the right thing, I didn’t like how he acted for the majority of the book - using the badge to his advantage when convenient but voluntarily compromising some personal relationships with poor decisions.

The slow pace and lack of connection with characters left me wanting more. While I finally became somewhat invested in the mystery, it had taken so long, I was just relieved to be getting somewhere. The ending was also left open-ended, and I think it’s likely to become a series, which I’m unlikely to continue reading.

There are many positive reviews for this book and Locke’s talent as a writer is evident. While it just didn’t compel me in the same way, I can see why others enjoyed Bluebird, Bluebird."

"
In Bluebird, Bluebird, current day East Texas has never moved on from the 1950s. Segregation and prejudice are the norm. The Aryan Brotherhood is alive and well. I couldn’t count the times a white man called a black man ‘boy�.

Told from the perspective of Darren Matthews, a black Texas Ranger, as he investigates two murders in a small town - a black man’s, whose murder is barely being investigated before he arrives, and a white woman’s. The book’s blurb rightly describes it as a collision of race and justice in America.

This one is raw and dark. It grabs you and makes you twinge. How can this still be? Locke gets it exactly right with the atmosphere, especially the fear the black community lives with on a daily basis.

It doesn’t move particularly fast. We watch as Darren tries to find the killer. As the white sheriff arrests first one person and then another, Darren knows there are still questions being left unanswered; things being purposely swept under the rug. It’s an uphill battle, a man against the establishment. Darren is fully fleshed out. You get his back story and what makes him tick.

I listened to this and the narrator, JD Jackson, did a good job and his voice takes you right to east Texas.

"

"Darren Mathews is a rarity in that he's a black Texas Ranger. He also has troubles of his own that may cost him his career and his marriage. While his future, both professional and personal, hangs in the balance, Darren finds himself in Lark, a tiny East Texas town out in the middle of nowhere, where the local sheriff suddenly has two homicides on his hands. The first victim was thirty-five-year-old Michael Wright, a black lawyer from Chicago who was found floating in a bayou after being beaten to death. The second, Melissa Dale, was a twenty-year-old married white woman who worked as a waitress at a roadhouse, and who had been seen talking to Wright just before he was killed.

Lark is a town with racial divisions and and relationships that go back for decades, and the bar where the waitress worked and where she was seen talking to the black victim, is home to a number of members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Shelby County hasn't had a homicide in years, and when Missy's body is pulled from the bayou three days after Wright's, it's clear that the two crimes must be connected.

The logical and and all-too-traditional conclusion that many are ready to jump to, is that a black man committed an act of violence against a white woman and has been summarily punished for his crime. But as Darren realizes, the order in this case is wrong: The black man was killed first. As a second alternative, it's possible that someone was upset about seeing a black man and a white woman "fraternizing" together and thus decided to punish both of them. Or, in fact, the situation could be much more complicated than either of these scenarios.

The local hick sheriff would like to see both homicides swept under the rug ASAP, and the last thing he wants is outside interference in his "investigation." But he's forced to allow Darren access, and the Ranger is not about to let this case go until he's satisfied that the solution is correct. Given the forces arrayed against him, however, this will be a virtually impossible and a very dangerous task.

This is a beautifully written book with an excellent sense of place. Locke obviously knows the territory very well, and the reader is immediately immersed in this tiny, troubled town. The characters, Darren Mathews in particular, are complex and believable, and the web of relationships between and among them is expertly woven. The story is compelling and tragic, and Locke has a great deal to say about race, class and justice in today's United States. One of the best books I've read in quite a while, and a solid 4.5 stars."

"An enjoyable murder mystery, set in rural Texas. Engaging prose, steeped in the culture and landscape of east Texas, which makes you wish to taste the food and feel the red dirt for yourself. a novel that challenges reader’s preconceptions of the roles that race, family, history, and small-town personal dynamics play when a Black man, and then a white woman are found dead within a few days of each other. The way you expect the story to play out shifts as you get to know more about the people who live in this small town.
For the most part, it’s a good plot and interesting character development. One criticism is in the lack of depth given Randie’s character. The protagonist Darren has his flaws, and some of them play an important part in the ultimate resolution, but it was hard to get over the decision to have him spending so much of his investigation time driving around and sharing information with the murdered man’s young widow. I can’t believe any investigating officer with any experience, Texas Ranger or otherwise, would do this, but it didn’t do too much to lessen my enjoyment of the book. "