BBC World Service
Last updated: 20 november, 2009 - 15:15 GMT

Attica Locke

The African American author Attica Locke is hailed as a "standout" writer by James Ellroy and compared to The Wire writer George Pelecanos and Mystic River author Dennis Lehane.

On The Strand she discusses her debut crime thriller Black Water Rising, a story of corruption, oil wealth and race relations in 1980s Texas.