Mysteries of Colour

The Black Lives Matter protests reminded me that I read a very limited number of books by writers of colour. So I went looking for some mysteries that would help address this gap.

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is about Darren Mathews, a Texas Ranger who tries to determine who had committed two recent murders in a small community in East Texas. It’s a messy, complicated situation as Darren himself explains: “Michael’s and Missy’s murders were race crimes, yes, but that was mainly because of the ways race defined so much about Lark, Texas, especially in terms of love, unexpected, and the family ties it created.” The mystery itself is totally absorbing, but so is the glimpse of life in Texas if you are African American. It’s home, but it’s also a very dangerous place to live.

I expected the main character in A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee to be Indian like the author, but of course that wasn’t be possible as the book is based in colonial India in 1919. Instead, a disillusioned, grieving ex-Scotland Yard detective has the main role, amply assisted by his Cambridge-educated Sergeant, Surrender-Not Banerjee. The series opener has well-developed characters and a complex plot. Best of all, there’s lots to learn about life in India on all levels of society.

A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang contrasts the 1920s glamour of jazz and stately homes with the hidden tragedy of shell-shocked soldiers. The main character, Christopher Huang, is half-Chinese and loathes the current fascination with exotic Chinese villains and opium dens. His father’s heritage gains him entry to a gentlemen’s club but doesn’t protect him from the overt racism. He perseveres, however, determined to root out the mystery behind a murder and a missing hypodermic kit. I highly all three books. They’re eminently readable with interesting plots, sympathetic characters, and relatively unfamiliar settings ripe to be explored.

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