---

Politics is a matter of life and death in this thrilling third novel from Orange Prize shortlisted author of Black Water Rising

---

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS PRIZE 2016

It´s 1996, Bill Clinton has just been re-elected and in Houston a mayoral election is looming. As usual the campaign focuses on Pleasantville -- the African-American neighbourhood of the city that has swung almost every race since it was founded to house a growing black middle class in 1949.

Axel Hathorne, former chief of police and the son of Pleasantville´s founding father Sam Hathorne, was the clear favourite, all set to become Houston´s first black mayor. But his lead is slipping thanks to a late entrant into the race -- Sandy Wolcott, a defence attorney riding high on the success of a high-profile murder trial.

And then, just as the competition intensifies, a girl goes missing, apparently while canvassing for Axel. And when her body is found, Axel´s nephew is charged with her murder.

Sam is determined that Jay Porter defends his grandson. And even though Jay is tired of wading through other people´s problems, he suddenly finds himself trying his first murder case, a trial that threatens to blow the entire community wide open, and reveal the lengths that those with power are willing to go to hold onto it.

---

It´s a fascinatingly complex setting and Locke maps it with great skill, charting the struggles of her characters as the crime remains unsolved ... a smart legal thriller about how far people will go to gain power, and keep it. Jeff Noon Spectator

---

Locke, Attica
Attica Locke´s first novel, Black Water Rising, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her most recent book, The Cutting Season, was published in 2012 to critical acclaim. Attica is also a screenwriter who has written movie and television scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, Dreamworks and Silver Pictures. She is currently a co-producer on the hit show Empire. She was also a fellow at the Sundance Institute´s Feature Filmmakers Lab and is a graduate of Northwestern University. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter.

---