Darren Mathews is the protagonist of Attica Locke’s Highway 59 trilogy, a Black Texas Ranger whose investigations pull him into the racially divided small towns that line Highway 59 in East Texas. Raised in rural East Texas by his uncle, Darren has deep ties to the communities he polices, which makes his work both personal and complicated.
Across three novels, Darren confronts cases that expose the fault lines of race and history in the American South. In Bluebird, Bluebird he investigates two murders in the town of Lark. Heaven, My Home sends him after a missing boy in a community with Aryan Brotherhood connections. Guide Me Home pulls him out of early retirement to find a Black college student who disappeared from her all-white sorority.
Reading Order
See the complete Highway 59 reading order for all books in the series.