The Cutting Season: A Novel

I read a lot of mystery/suspense fiction and I often can't recall the details of most of them a month later. This book will be the rare work I'll be able to remember for a long time.The premise of the story is prosaic. Take an 180 acre estate with a history that goes back over 200 years and is now operated as a tourist attraction and a venue for weddings and business events. It's resident caretaker, Caren Gray, is a young woman who's own family has ties going back generations to the property. Add two brothers, sons of the very old owner, one of whom -- Raymond Clancy -- has expensive political ambitions, and the other -- Bobby --is a loser.The action starts with Caren discovering the body of Ines Avalo, one of the undocumented immigrants working on the acreage adjacent to the estate, rented out to an agricultural corporation.As events unfold, this modern day mystery gets complicated with questions about a man named Jason who mysteriously disappeared at the time the estate came into the hands of the Clancy family. A newspaper reporter is very curious about Avalo's death and a young employee on the estate, Donovan Isaac, has ideas about what happened to Jason in that long ago era.Not an especially original plot line one would think. But wait. Some details, I've omitted in the above summary, turn The Cutting Season into a fascinating, uncommon story.The estate is Bellle Vie, a plantation in Louisiana; the field being harvested by the immigrants is sugar cane, just as it was when once worked by slaves. The Clancys are white; their ancestors took over the plantation after the Civil War when the original owners of Belle Vie abandoned the property.Caren is African-American; Jason, the man who disappeared in 1872, was her great, great, great grandfather. He had stayed on at Belle Vie as a freed man hoping to be reunited with the wife who had been sold away from him when they were enslaved.Caren's own immediate past has ties to Belle Vie. Her mother worked on the estate as a cook to the Clancys (before the plantation was turned into a living museum), so Caren grew up knowing the Clancy sons in the kind of complex black/white way of the South. Which is how Caren came to be offered the caretaker job by Raymond Clancy when she came "home" after fleeing New Orleans ahead of hurricane Katrina.The author, Attica Locke, grabbed my attention and set the atmosphere of the story with this beginning:"It was during the Thompson-Delacroix wedding, Caren's first week on the job, that a cottonmouth, measuring the length of a Cadillac, fell some twenty feet from a live oak on the front lawn, landing like a coil of rope in the lap of the bride's future mother-in-law. It only briefly stopped the ceremony, this being Louisiana after all."As the plot develops, full use is made of the atmospherics of the isolated property. At various times Caren has to be out on the grounds in the pitch black quiet of night to deal with unexplained goings on. As caretaker, she must visit the area known as "the quarters" where the last cabin on the left, once Jason's home, has an unsettling aura to her. The lush beauty of the ante-bellum world is described through the eyes of visitors to Belle Vie.Ms. Locke is equally artful in drawing characters. Raymond Clancy can contemplate a political career because the family has a reputation of being good to Blacks. Young Donovan Isaacs, who thinks he's uncovered the truth about Jason, sneaks around at night, a would-be film maker, and ends of accused of the murder of Ines Avalo.There's also a troop of men and women who dress up as owners and slaves to put on a play about the history of Belle Vie several times a day for tourists.And, of course, there's Caren Gray, who during the course of the action deals with issues of what is "home" and who is "family."I wouldn't characterize The Cutting Season as a "mystery story." The mystery elements in the book so plausibly arise from the setting and the history of the place that it's more of a story with some mysteries involved. As such, it is a well told, satisfying reading experience.

I enjoyed getting some "unknown to me" history along with a good mystery story.It wasn't perfect & I had some trouble believing that Caren would keep staying at Belle Vie if she had any doubts as to the safety of her child but sometimes you get a little leeway in a mystery to keep things going. I knew the killer was not the guy who seemed most likely but did not figure out who the real killer was until the end so the story held my interest. I do not "get" the allure of having your wedding at a place where people were bought & sold like livestock but Locke does a good job of explaining why some people might be drawn to such a place. More understandable for the people who have a history inter-twined with it -- even an ugly history. I was intrigued by the post Civil War rules of land ownership -- who could claim what and how and why. Appreciated that Locke tried to show the absurdity of the Belle Vie show/play without being condescending to the characters IN the play. Of course I am not a big fan of people in costumes acting out historical scenes-- they can be utterly embarrassing. Writing was fine and if I have to put a book down but look forward to going back to it then I rate it rather highly. The topic of immigrants vs. local workers is also covered but could have used some fleshing out altho that wouldn;t have moved the mystery plot along very much so I can see why she kept it to a minimum.She is still effective at raising that as a topic for further investigation if the reader is so inclined. She covers a lot of ground but keeps a good forward momentum going so the reader feels like they are a bit breathless by the end. There were a few slow-ish patches but overall I enjoyed the pacing.

If you prefer prose that peppers your nose and wows you with wonder and awe, then you might find yourself having a grand time while reading about the Deep South, where the tea is always sweet, an afternoon rain happens daily, and the humidity is so thick you have to keep your head down and plow forward through the mist. With the opening line I was caught in time and found myself veering ahead with what might have been excitement mixed with hope. But alas she was a fairer lass than Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton who changed her mind at the drop of a dime, and I found myself rather chagrined with the story I was about to begin. It ended there this love affair, and I slogged through the rain in my poncho and galoshes, the rain splashing my face and assaulting my senses. I sneezed, and then sneezed again.The story could have been much more and something I could adore, but alas twas not meant to be, and so it shall go down in history as another two star read. What might have been much better in this little endeavor is if the plot and the ending matched the rest of the prose, instead of just taking me on a journey with atmosphere and vocabulary. What I discovered was a killer who spouted off a little too long in the mouth, and bequeathed our fair heroine with more than a few antidotes. If sugar cane and acid rain had mixed on the page and devoured this journey, tearing and ripping its way toward salvation, and extending the plot with more than a few thoughts, I might have found myself in the middle of THE CUTTING SEASON and happy to be placed out in the fields of labor.Instead, I feel I am the one who missed out on the fun, and now I must end this little simulation with a dance imitation and shuffle and grand production where the tourists with the t-shirts and flip-flops and backpacks shall endeavor to visit my plantation.Robert DownsAuthor of Falling Immortality: Casey Holden, Private Investigator

This is a Masterclass on atmosphere, which Locke uses to create an intense feeling of peril for her characters. To the extent that I was so scared for Ceran and her daughter that I would get overwhelmed and have to put the book down. But I still had to know what happened and it kept drawing me back in.This is some of the best characterisation I've read in a book, the clarity and realism of the characters is so good. How they interact with each other is so natural. There is no Vaseline fuzzing the lens. I had no distance from these characters. Ceran, the investigator is not police, but it feels natural for her to investigate to protect her daughter and the workers she feels responsible for. To find some justice for the dead woman whose struggle mirrored that of her ancestors.The plotting is on the minimal side, I would say it was very successful until the ending, which was good, but not great. If the writing and characters are easy five stars, I would say the plot is a four star. Normally not having a great climax in a mystery book would be a pretty big negative for me, but in this case because it is so much about the character and she does have a very satisfying arc, I would still overall go five stars.I would recommend for those who like their genre books with that bit of extra quality. I would recommend for Lit Fic peeps who might want to dip a toe into a genre book which explores some really interesting themes. I would recommend for those who like character led fiction.I would not recommend for those who like a lot of pace and action. I would not recommend for those who want a low-stakes read.Once I've recovered, I can't wait to read more Attica Locke books, so she can put me through the ringer again.

This book should not be in the “cheap” kindle section. It was wonderful.The complexity of the mystery and layers the story are a delight and the writing!My goodness, I loved the writing!From the opening paragraph you can hear a cadence in the narrator’s voice that draws you into the world of the main character.I would happily pay full hard cover price to read another of the author’s books.

Relatively fast-paced and provides insight into the history of Louisiana

Great thriller with finely drawn characters and a really compelling lead character. The book started a bit slowly but could not put it down for the last half.

Ein spannendes Buch. Ich empfehle auch die anderen beiden Bücher von Attica Locke, die ich gelesen habe, besonders "Black Water Rising".