Charlie calls Jay's bluff and refuses to settle for a jackpot he knows Jay needs. Jay's opponent is Charlie Luckman, a defense attorney who came close to being elected D.A. Monday, he's in civil court, seeking damages on behalf of his client, an escort who was injured when her date-a port commissioner and former city councilman-crashed them into a telephone pole. He drops her off at the police station and ignores Bernie's pleas that he go in to make a statement. Unable or unwilling to speak, the woman unnerves Jay by the danger she poses to him should she start involving him in whatever business she's mixed up in. When a white woman crashes through the brush and sinks into the murk, Jay rescues her. Just as Bernie, pregnant with the couple's first child, begins to appreciate Jay's thought, they hear two gunshots and a woman's scream. The brown waterway is too putrid to have ever been developed and the raggedy boat they're on can't even turn around in it. Determined to do something nicer for his wife Bernie on her birthday than buying her a bathrobe, Jay arranges for a moonlit cruise on Buffalo Bayou. Jay Porter is an attorney who's scraping by, with clients comping him in favors rather than paying his legal fees.
Only time will tell whether this story will leave a lasting emotional mark on me personally, but the vision dispelled between the pages lingers. But as the novel unfolded and the uncanny details of another place, time and experience began to unravel, I was transported somewhere else. Neither the story or the dialogue enthralled me straight away, skirting so close to reality that it feels more like eyewitness news reporting than storytelling, like a Texas Monthly article from the '80s. Until time travel becomes widespread, I recommend Black Water Rising, a historical mystery that marked the publishing debut of Attica Locke in 2009.
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