Southland.

• Author: Long, Sari

by Nina Revoyr Akashic Books. 350 pages. $15.95.

Nina Revoyr has a history of trying to make the characters in her novels as multifaceted as possible, and her second novel is no exception.

The primary plot centers on the mysterious, grisly deaths of four young black boys during the Watts riots of 1965. Revoyr takes us back through time to a Los Angeles where neighborhood meant more than a physical location, and multiracial communities coexisted peacefully. The novel's side project is protagonist Jackie Ishida, a Japanese American lesbian law student. Ishida is fastidious, a workaholic, and not a little neurotic. Her grandfather's past becomes Jackie's obsession as she uncovers family secrets and...