Review: Pleasantville by Attica Locke

Pleasantville

by Attica Locke

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 432

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Fifteen years after the events of Black Water Rising, Jay Porter is struggling to cope with catastrophic changes in his personal life and the disintegration of his environmental law practice. His victory against Cole Oil is still the crown jewel of his career, even if he hasn’t yet seen a dime thanks to appeals. But time has taken its toll. Tired and restless, he's ready to quit.

When a girl goes missing on Election Night, 1996, in the neighborhood of Pleasantville—a hamlet for upwardly-mobile blacks on the north side of Houston—Jay, a single father, is deeply disturbed. He’s been representing Pleasantville in the wake of a chemical fire, and the case is dragging on, raising doubts about his ability.

The missing girl was a volunteer for one of the local mayoral candidates, and her disappearance complicates an already heated campaign. When the nephew of one of the candidates, a Pleasantville local, is arrested, Jay reluctantly finds himself serving as a defense attorney. With a man’s life and his own reputation on the line, Jay is about to try his first murder in a case that will also put an electoral process on trial, exposing the dark side of power and those determined to keep it.


Kritters Thoughts:  The sequel to Black Water RIsing that centers around a man who has now be widowed and must raise his two children while still keeping up his fight for equality for him and his neighbors.  This book takes place 15 years after the first one and Jay is still embroiled into the case from the first book, but also has new adventures in store for this one.

I liked this book better than the first.  I felt like the flow for this book was overall better.  I also loved how all of the little stories were creatively connected.  I felt as though there was the larger political story and then the missing girl and they were both so perfectly aligned - they fit well together.  

Another big cast of characters and I completely suggest an org chart!  There were many characters from the first book, but another group that was new with the campaigns and a new town of neighbors that Jay is working with.  

I absolutely loved the sequel better than the first, but I was glad to read the first to get to know Jay's past as it was referred to at moments in the sequel.  

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.