Book of the Week - Attica Locke, Black Water Rising

Most UK collectors prefer UK first editions, even for American authors where the true first is likely to be the US edition. Sometimes, however, the American first may be a better buy. Black Water Rising, a first novel from Attica Locke, has just been released in the UK as a paperback with jacket from Serpent’s Tail. However, the American edition released earlier this year was a hardback from HarperCollins. The book has impressed almost all reviewers and is into multiple reprints; a few signed first editions are still available, whereas at present no signed copies of the UK edition have appeared (although this might change). I was able to purchase a signed American first at cover price, although these have now gone. The author is an experienced screenwriter for both film and television, and there must be a good chance that this book will translate through to the screen in due course.

"Reminiscent of early John Grisham and Walter Mosley, this taut, fast-paced novel heralds an exciting and powerful new voice in fiction. Big oil and its twin, corporate corruption, meet their match with Jay Porter, a struggling personal injury attorney down on his luck, who suddenly finds himself in a situation spiraling out of control. Jay knows a boat ride on the Bayou won't measure up to his wife's expectations of a birthday celebration, but it's all he can afford. Once a man of virtuous ideals, he is now just waiting for a break. All that changes when midway through dinner, gun shots and sharp cries for help ring out. When he fishes a woman out of the Bayou, his sixth sense tells him this charitable act will lead to no good. Unraveling the woman's past, Jay finds himself enmeshed in a web that weaves together greed, politics, and corporate corruption. And the secrets of his own past come back to either haunt or save him."