Black Water Rising / Attica Locke / 427 pages

This one is for all you legal thriller lovers out there!  Debut author Attica Locke already seems to be the master of her craft as she leads readers along the intricate paths that Houston attorney Jay Power must tread before uncovering the nasty, rotten truth about what the oil companies are doing.  Power is impeded in his search by the emotional chains he suffered as a young militant in the 70's as well as past experiences with his family.  Locke throws in a couple of other plot elements that she neatly ties together in the end.  The character of Jay Power is finely drawn, and readers will be happy to see  him show up in future novels.