An Irishman and a Black Lady Walk into a Bar . . .

What do Northern Irish author Adrian McKinty and Black author Attica Locke have in common?-- besides never having been in my kitchen?-- I will tell you: though McKinty created Detective Sean Duffy, an RUC detective who works cases during the 1980s, the height of The Troubles in both Belfast and nearby Carrickfergus, and Attica Locke writes about Darren Matthews, a Texas Ranger who investigates drugs, murders, and white supremacy in Eastern Texas, the common ground is that both their detectives are fish out of water; Sean Duffy is the token Catholic working in an almost entirely Protestant force—and thus he's constantly under threat and scrutiny—and Darren Matthews is a Black Texas Ranger who finds himself investigating two murders in racist rural Texas and suffers for it . . . I just finished Bluebird, Bluebird, and it's one of the best crime novels I've read in years—I immediately started on the next one, Heaven, My Home . . . anyway, kudos to McKinty and Locke, they are birds of a feather . . . thanks for not making your mysteries "cozy" and tackling some tough themes about race and religion while also providing compelling procedural crime novels—well done!