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The Cutting Season

3.46 of 5 stars 3.46 · rating details · 2,305 ratings · 489 reviews

The American South in the twenty-first century. A plantation owned for generations by a rich family. So much history. And a dead body.

Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the historic plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sug...more

Hardcover, 384 pages

Published September 18th 2012 by Harper (first published September 1st 2012)

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Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden

2012's Best Literary Fiction By People of Color

26th out of 30 books — 64 voters

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Deep South Magazine 2012 Fall/Winter Reading List

7th out of 20 books — 17 voters

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Feb 05, 2013 jo rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: linda, mike, simon, jen, rebecca, everyone in LFPC

Shelves: african-american, blew-my-mind

people will tell you this is like pelecanos and people will tell you this is like lahane. but this is like neither. this is unique and so its own work of art, you want to beg everyone everywhere to read it.

as i said in my updates, this book feels canonical to me, in the way in which Toni Morrison's Beloved is canonical, and Percival Everett's Erasure is canonical. also Edward P. Jones's The Known World. you can add your own books to this list. there are some works of literature that recast a fr...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Roy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-american-fiction, mystery

I love a good mystery. I was intrigued by the mystery within a mystery concept of this book. I may have liked it even more if the narrative went back and forth following the two connected storylines, alternating between the present and slave days, only not via time travel the way Octavia Butler wonderfully did it in Kindred. The fact that Attica Locke sticks to a single setting is by no means a flaw, and like Octavia, Attica is also an excellent writer. That said, I can't say that I was blown aw...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, contemporary

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It had all the elements I love in a good mystery: an interesting and well rendered setting; a varied cast of characters; the "today's mystery brings a mystery from the past to light" plot device that I always enjoy when it is well conceived (as it is here); and a strong woman at the center of it all. I like the writing and thought the book was well crafted. But I still somehow never quite connected with it - never fell into it or reached that de...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reads

Caren Gray and her family have lived and worked on Belle Vie as long as she can recall. Now Caren is managing the sprawling plantation she feels a responsibility to both her staff (Belle Vie is their livelihood) and daughter (Belle Vie being the only home she knows) to keep the place running. The sugar cane plantation next door has always been a concern, but never so much as since the body of a young woman was found on the dividing line between the two properties. As the investigation into the m...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’m giving The Cutting Season all but the highest rating. Not necessarily because I believe it has approached a literary masterpiece, but because I believe in the genius of the author for two specific reasons: it is evidenced in her literary voice, and, more personally, it helped me to weather through my own storms during the time that I was reading it.
Locke’s second novel (and I am eager to read the first now) is sort of a post-postmodern look at the issue of the history of slavery in America...more I’m giving The Cutting Season all but the highest rating. Not necessarily because I believe it has approached a literary masterpiece, but because I believe in the genius of the author for two specific reasons: it is evidenced in her literary voice, and, more personally, it helped me to weather through my own storms during the time that I was reading it.
Locke’s second novel (and I am eager to read the first now) is sort of a post-postmodern look at the issue of the history of slavery in America through the meta-lens of a murder mystery set in a modern day historical preservation site, a refurbished plantation wherein tours are given. Locke’s cast of characters offers a unique, lively, multi-dimensional set of personalities reminiscent of a Balzac tale. The drama is infused with the mystery in a sophisticated manner that doesn’t pander to either. My feeling, however, is that a person of color, and that I personally being an African American in particular would extract a meaning from the content which must be derivative of a narrative voice that only such a person could discern. I am referring to a level of cognitive intimacy that is directly linked to the experience of race in America. I wonder if such a thing would be true in the reverse, and if my sincere enjoyment of works from an array of authors from all around the globe is perennially confined to a secondary or even tertiary degree of cognitive proximity. It seems so much is lost in translation.
At any rate, the same claim about ethnic/textual intimacy could be said about reading, as a person of color, works from Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Alex Haley, Chinua Achebe, and so on and so forth. I’ve recently heard Locke compared to authors of this caliber, but Locke is not any of these authors; she has her own distinct voice. I congratulate her, for I think she has the potential to be remembered amongst their ranks, I truly do. She has given us, with The Cutting Season, a novel that moves with the pace of mystery, but with the deep emotive quality of a serious work of literature. This lucid symbiosis in itself is part of the spirit of literary innovation. I would fervently disagree with all those critics that scoff at this exciting quality of her work by simply boxing it into a category of “the cinematic”. I say shame on these critics for passing off their own inability to recognize literary prowess and, further, mistake it for a deficiency. Admittedly, the author has not reached her pinnacle, but her renaissance is a quiet revolution. The political depth of the mystery which is uncurtained chapter by chapter by Locke lies not in the story’s plot turns—and note that this aspect of the book has also been criticized as being predictable (although I thought it was convoluted enough to hold my attention)—the depth, in my view, truly resides in the multifaceted web of socioeconomic and ethnic networks that are interwoven into the simplicity of a dead body found on a plantation. Still, there are no politics being shoved down the reader’s throat here. This book has spoken to the hidden reaches of my soul. It is a marvelous read and that’s my final word on it.
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Feb 23, 2013 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

First a caveat: I "read" this book by listening to it on Audible, and I enjoyed the narration quite a bit, which might be impacting my review. I have to admit if I had read this as a physical book, I may not have finished it.

The basic story line here is a murder mystery, and the author does a good job of superimposing a long-cold case of a disappearance into the mix, giving us essentially two mysteries to solve. The setting is picturesque plantation-turned-tourist destination, where weddings ar...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Barb Terpstra rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Cutting Season is not the typical genre of book that I read. I was enticed into reading this because of the reviews on Goodreads. As a bonus, I could borrow it for my kindle from my local library so decided to give it a try. I'd call it mystery and suspense, although I see some descriptions call it a "thriller". I don't know why, but I typically veer away from those types of books.

Caren Gray is an African American woman who manages a plantation in the South. What's fascinating about this is...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Louise rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Story Description:

HarperCollins Publishers|September 10, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-06-220146-1

In The Cutting Season, a riveting thriller intertwines two murders separated across more than a century.

Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a sprawling antebellum plantation that sits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the past and the present coexist uneasily. The estate’s owners have turned the place into an eerie tourist attraction, complete with full-dress re-enactments and carefully restored sl...more Story Description:

HarperCollins Publishers|September 10, 2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-06-220146-1

In The Cutting Season, a riveting thriller intertwines two murders separated across more than a century.

Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a sprawling antebellum plantation that sits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the past and the present coexist uneasily. The estate’s owners have turned the place into an eerie tourist attraction, complete with full-dress re-enactments and carefully restored slave quarters. Outside the gates, a corporation with ambitious plans has been busy snapping up land from struggling families who have been growing sugar can for generations, and now replacing local employees with illegal laborers. Tensions mount when the body of a female migrant worker is found in a shallow grave on the edge of the property, her throat cut clean.

As the investigation gets under way, the list of suspects grows. But when fresh evidence comes to light and the sheriff’s department zeros in on a person of interest, Caren has a bad feeling that the police are chasing the wrong leads. Putting herself at risk, she ventures into dangerous territory as she unearths startling new facts about a very old mystery-the-long-ago disappearance of a former slave – that has unsettling ties to the current murder. In pursuit of the truth about Belle Vie’s history and her own, Caren discovers secrets about both cases – ones that an increasingly desperate killer will stop at nothing to keep buried.

Taut, hauntingly resonant, and beautifully written, The Cutting Season is at once a thoughtful meditation on how America reckons its past with its future, and a high-octane page-turner that unfolds with tremendous skill and vision. With her rare gift for depicting human nature in all its complexities, Attica Locke demonstrates once again that she is “destined for literary stardom” (Dallas Morning News).

My Review:

For some reason, try as I might, I just couldn’t get into this story at all. I attempted it three different times but it just didn’t pique my interest or hold my attention. I’d heard so much about this novel and was looking forward to reading it so much that perhaps I set my expectations too high. Therefore I will leave you without a review. I’m sure someone out there will just love this book!

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Dec 31, 2012 drey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, mystery-suspense-and-thriller

The Cutting Season is a fabulous second novel from the author of Black Water Rising, and if you weren’t a fan before, this will definitely add you to the ranks. Set on an old Southern plantation revamped into a tourist attraction, its characters will pull you in as much as the mysteries do.

I love Attica Locke’s storytelling skill – and they’re mad mad skillz indeed, weaving together present-day reality, tension-wrought history, and very human characters into a confection of ambition and secrets,...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Jaime rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, general_fiction

I found myself sucked into this story right from the start. I have a bit of a thing for old homes, and tour them every chance I’ve get. I’ve even been to Oak Alley Plantation, outside of New Orleans, which I believe is the inspiration for Belle Vie. So the unusual setting for this novel appealed to me.

The writing is beautiful, and I liked the characters, for the most part. I actually found Caren to be one of the weaker characters. There’s not very much that is interesting or unique about her, ot...more

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Dec 09, 2012 OOSA rated it 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful Life?

Caren Gray’s life has come full circle. She is now an employee at Belle Vie, a sugar cane plantation where her relatives were former slaves and her mother was the plantation’s cook. Now she manages the historical site and its employees. Things are going okay...until she discovers the body of a sugar cane migrant worker on the plantation’s property. The police investigation points the finger at one of Belle Vie’s employees. However, Caren believes they are following the wrong lead....more

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Nov 12, 2012 Doreen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a restored plantation in Louisiana, now a tourist attraction. The body of a Latina migrant worker from the adjoining industrial sugarcane farm is found on the estate. Caren is drawn into the investigation of the case which seems to be related to the murder of her great-great-great-grandfather who worked at Belle Vie as both a slave and a free man.

History is very much a character in the novel; it is a palpable presence to which people frequently allude. It soon becom...more Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a restored plantation in Louisiana, now a tourist attraction. The body of a Latina migrant worker from the adjoining industrial sugarcane farm is found on the estate. Caren is drawn into the investigation of the case which seems to be related to the murder of her great-great-great-grandfather who worked at Belle Vie as both a slave and a free man.

History is very much a character in the novel; it is a palpable presence to which people frequently allude. It soon becomes clear that the past has shaped people’s identities and lives and continues to shape their choices in the present. This is most obviously the case for Caren. There are also parallels between past and present. The poor wages, substandard living conditions, prejudice, and mistreatment experienced by post-Civil War blacks is mirrored to some extent in the wages, living conditions, prejudice, and mistreatment that are the lot of the migrant labourers.

Locke excels at using the plantation to create atmosphere. From the beginning it is clear that this beautiful, apparently civilized setting hides long-buried strife and discord. Belle Vie is “not to be trusted. . . beneath its loamy topsoil, the manicured grounds and gardens, two centuries of breathtaking wealth and spectacle, lay a land both black and bitter, soft to the touch, but pressing in its power” (4).

The book has the requisite suspense and red herrings, but the characterization of the protagonist bothered me. Caren is so very unobservant. As a manager she makes daily tours of the estate, but she is blind to so much that is going on at Belle Vie. She studied law for a couple of years, but she mishandles evidence she discovers and withholds information from investigators, usually for no convincing reason. At the end there is a major revelation concerning her ancestor but she is uninterested in following up on its implications.

There are other flaws in the novel. The police investigators are stereo-typed as incompetent and myopic, as befitting a small town!? There are unanswered questions; for instance, much is made of the victim’s desire to find another home, but no satisfactory explanation is given as to why when her living situation is almost ideal in many ways. The ending is also less than satisfying. We learn that the perpetrator disagrees with the actions of a family member but aided him nonetheless? Furthermore, the final confrontation between Caren and the murderer is staged; it is doubtful that he could arrive at the location before Caren, given the time span involved, and the reasons for some of his behaviour during that confrontation are unclear. Then there are the annoying shifts from direct dialogue to narrated dialogue for no discernible reason.

I admire Locke’s ability to expand the genre of crime fiction by including a theme about the connections between past and present, but I was disappointed with some of the plotting and characterization.
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Nov 07, 2012 Suspense Magazine added it

“The Cutting Season” is steeped in history, both of place and family, and Attica Locke takes full advantage of the Louisiana setting, intertwining the background of the Belle
Vie plantation and a personal legacy of slavery, connecting past and present in surprising and emotional ways.

Caren Gray, the manager of Belle Vie, oversees weddings and other events on the historic plantation, as well as educational tours for school children and tourists. Caren has mixed feelings about her and her daughter...more “The Cutting Season” is steeped in history, both of place and family, and Attica Locke takes full advantage of the Louisiana setting, intertwining the background of the Belle
Vie plantation and a personal legacy of slavery, connecting past and present in surprising and emotional ways.

Caren Gray, the manager of Belle Vie, oversees weddings and other events on the historic plantation, as well as educational tours for school children and tourists. Caren has mixed feelings about her and her daughter Morgan living on the remote plantation. Her family has been connected with Belle Vie for generations, all the way back to an ancestor who was first a slave on the plantation and then worked there as a free man after the Civil War for the man whose descendants still own the property. It’s a complicated and often uneasy situation that adds to the tension building on the plantation after the body of a field worker is discovered. The police quickly focus on one of Caren’s employees as a suspect, but Caren thinks they’ve got the wrong man. Her amateur sleuthing is complicated by concerns for Morgan’s safety and the arrival of Morgan’s father, whose wedding to his girlfriend in DC is fast approaching.

It makes for rich storytelling that, unfortunately, is marred by a few missteps. At times Locke shifts from quoted dialogue to narrated dialogue and back, deflating the tension developing between characters in heated discussion, and there seems to be no reason for it. On a couple of occasions, Caren, a former law student, mishandles evidence in inexplicably peculiar ways, and there are details she withholds from the detectives for no discernible purpose. When Caren chastises others for not doing all they can to help the police, she doesn’t reflect upon her own bizarre behavior that has hampered the search for the truth. If you can look past these issues, the atmospheric setting and engaging characters draw you in, and the closing chapter, after some initial concerns, veers away from being too neat while still wrapping up the plot threads into a satisfying conclusion.

Reviewed by Scott Pearson, author of “Star Trek: Honor in the Night,” for Suspense Magazine
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Nov 05, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my first book by Locke and I would read her again. She writes very well and her character development was particularly good. I recommend this one, it's a good mystery. Below is the review from Amazon:

Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a sprawling antebellum plantation that sits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the past and the present coexist uneasily. The estate's owners have turned the place into an eerie tourist attraction, complete with full-dress re-enactments and carefully res...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is so much about this book that is good: an interesting setting of historical significance, two mysteries - one contemporary and the other from the past - family drama, star-crossed love, racial, cultural and societal tensions. It is unfortunate that these strong elements don't seem to come together to make a compelling read.

I found the pace was extremely slow-going - I think that was probably intentional in order to create a mood that is at once contemplative and sinister - but the overa...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historic-fiction, historical, historical-fiction, historical-romance, hope, murder, mystery, suspense

Article first published as Book Review:The Cutting Season by Attica Locke on Blogcritics.

You often hear that you can never go home. From experience, I know that what you left behind is never the same as it was before. Often the return brings heartache, and then there are the times that bring terror.

In The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, we visit the Deep South and one of the Plantations of Old. Belle Vie is a huge place and a reminder of the past which includes generations of slavery. Caren Gr...more Article first published as Book Review:The Cutting Season by Attica Locke on Blogcritics.

You often hear that you can never go home. From experience, I know that what you left behind is never the same as it was before. Often the return brings heartache, and then there are the times that bring terror.

In The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, we visit the Deep South and one of the Plantations of Old. Belle Vie is a huge place and a reminder of the past which includes generations of slavery. Caren Gray has gone home to Belle Vie where her mother and several ancestors put all they had into the home and the land. When the body of a young murdered woman is found, Caren finds herself in the middle of a mystery. It is one that could very well relate to the disappearance of one of her ancestors that went missing years before. Under suspicion herself, she works at trying to help find the answers. Little does she know, but there is more at stake than even she can imagine.

As she continues to look for answers, she finds her own past coming back to haunt her. Something is going on with her daughter, and the others at the plantation seem to know more of what is happening then they should. Can she find any answers before she becomes the prime suspect? What is the secret that it seems someone else is willing to kill for?

Locke has given us a beatific look at what the South is known for. The beauty of the lovely old plantations, and the grit and hard work of the slaves of another era are clear in the telling. She has delivered on the descriptions and the vision is easy to see, both the charm as well as the harm. Her visions come clear though the eyes of her characters as they struggle with the lives they lead as well as their reaction to the murder. Each still has an uneasy fear of the law, and it is quite telling in their different defense mechanisms, including that of Caren Gray.

The story is deep and creates a journey into the history of this centuries old plantation. It is well thought out and well told with an eye to detail. The creation of red herrings is twisted throughout the fabric of the story, taking away the usual easy guess as we try to depict who the bad guys are. She has shown us layers of badness, yet the murderer is the obvious winner in the desperation and vileness of his act. If you enjoy history and suspense you will enjoy this novel.

Locke has an uncanny way of taking you into the story without you even knowing until you are there. It is a skill to get the reader to feel the feelings and see the visions. She does that quite well. This would be a great book for a reading or discussion group. It is full of history and the characters just beg for commentary.

This book was received free from the publicist. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.
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Sep 29, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Attica Locke’s latest novel, The Cutting Season, defies categorization. Part thriller, part murder mystery, part historical novel, and part literary contemporary fiction, there is something here to please just about every reader. Caren Gray is the manager of Louisiana’s Belle Vie, a once grand sugarcane plantation turned historical tourist site. Living on site with her eleven year old daughter Caren’s job is a homecoming of sorts. Her mother worked at Belle Vie when she was a child, and her ance...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Book Him Danno rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-sent-by-author-publisher-for, 2012

Imagine you were just beginning a game of Clue and I said to you “Hey, it was either Mr. Green with Revolver in the Library, or Miss Scarlett with the Lead Pipe in the Kitchen, or Colonel Mustard with the Rope in the Ballroom.” Then I let you wander around aimlessly the whole game before apropos of nothing I said it was the last choice. Now let’s finish the game. That is the frustration I felt with this book.

It seems the author wanted to write a great novel of modern race relations but felt com...more Imagine you were just beginning a game of Clue and I said to you “Hey, it was either Mr. Green with Revolver in the Library, or Miss Scarlett with the Lead Pipe in the Kitchen, or Colonel Mustard with the Rope in the Ballroom.” Then I let you wander around aimlessly the whole game before apropos of nothing I said it was the last choice. Now let’s finish the game. That is the frustration I felt with this book.

It seems the author wanted to write a great novel of modern race relations but felt compelled to force it into a mystery format, thus missing on both fronts. The unfortunate problem is Ms. Locke is a very talented writer, the setting of her book was beautiful, her characters had definite possibilities, and the crime itself was intriguing. She had all the pieces for a great novel but failed to put the puzzle together.

I think the plot derailed with the choice of main character, Caren, the caretaker of the living history museum Belle Vie Plantation. While an interesting person in her own right she never really investigated anything, nor as an ordinary citizen did she have an avenue to. Rather like my initial analogy, she was just a person to whom full solutions could be presented to over the course of the book. Typically a solid mystery would have a character dig into the threads of a solution and as the story progresses slowly find the truth. The side character of the investigative reporter would have had the means to pull that off much better.

Then when we are given the big climax wherein all is explained and it really comes as a complete package instead of a rewarding journey. There was so much to be explored and discussed between the two family histories, both Caren’s and the villain’s, and the two crimes, both ancient and modern.

In the end there were the seeds of a great novel contained in The Cutting Season that I would have loved to have read, and Attica Locke is more than capable of writing it. This novel was okay and worth the read, but I am anxiously awaiting her next effort with high hopes she hits the homerun I feel is coming.
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Sep 21, 2012 K rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery-fiction, suspense

Author Locke turns her attention to southern life (specifically Louisiana) and the past (slavery) in her second book after her highly respected novel Black Water Rising. Caren Gray is a single mother to 9-year old daughter Morgan. Years ago while at a New Orleans law school she met a fellow student, Eric, and fell in love. But unable to finish her law degree due to financial hardship and with a baby to care for Caren moves on with her life while Eric becomes a lawyer, first in Chicago and later...more Author Locke turns her attention to southern life (specifically Louisiana) and the past (slavery) in her second book after her highly respected novel Black Water Rising. Caren Gray is a single mother to 9-year old daughter Morgan. Years ago while at a New Orleans law school she met a fellow student, Eric, and fell in love. But unable to finish her law degree due to financial hardship and with a baby to care for Caren moves on with her life while Eric becomes a lawyer, first in Chicago and later in Washington DC at a governmental agency.

Having fled New Orleans as Katrina hit Caren ends up working as the manager of Belle Vie, a large antebellum plantation of the past that has been preserved by the Clancy family for generations. Now a museum she is in charge of the mansion that serves as a party center, the old school house which serves as a theatre where locals put on a play about the history of the plantation (as seen through the eyes of the white owners), the library full of historical documents (over which she and Morgan live), and especially the preserved slave quarters. Much of the surrounding land has been leased to a sugar company, Groveland, using migrant workers as cheap labor instead of locals.

But Caren didn’t accidentally come to Belle Vie. Caren’s family has worked at Belle Vie for generations going back to before the Civil War when her relatives were slaves working the sugar fields. After the war many of the slaves stayed to continue to work the fields for William Tynan, including her ancestor Jason. But one day in 1872 Jason disappears – some said he just ran away from trouble while others felt there was something more devious that happened. William Tynan later marries into the Clancy family who have owned the plantation ever since. The current Clancy’s include patriarch Leyland and his two sons, Raymond and Bobby. And while an old and ill Leyland loves the plantation it is Raymond who runs it but only to make money. And Caren loves the plantation for the memories of growing up, her mother working in the kitchen.

Then one night a migrant female worker is murdered on the grounds of the plantation near the preserved slave quarters, her throat cut. Why she was on the locked grounds in the middle of the night and who killed her is the mystery. Caren is quickly drawn into the murder when one of her actors, a young black student who wants to tell the plantation’s history through the eyes of its black slaves, becomes a prime suspect. And then she discovers her daughter may have played a role in the murder too!

But nothing is clear cut and everyone can be a suspect. The Groveland supervisor comes across more as a slave overseer than a modern supervisor as he abuses and misuses the migrant workers. May it have been an angry local? And Raymond seems to be focusing on running for state Senator from his prestigious law offices. The Clancy’s have always come across as fair to all races but does this murder mean something else, especially when Belle Vie itself is in jeopardy of disappearing?

As Caren digs deeper with the help of Eric, who comes running when he believes Morgan may be a part of the murder, and an investigative reporter who seems to be around a bit too much, it is Jason and William’s ghosts that may be the key to the present murder. The ending may surprise many and not all ends well for everyone but that seems to have made the novel even better and more realistic. This is a great book for those who want a mix of southern history, social issues and a strong black female protagonist as part of the story.

Plantations -- Fiction.
Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.
Migrant labor -- Fiction.
Louisiana -- Fiction.
Mystery fiction.
Suspense fiction.
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Sep 18, 2012 Luanne Ollivier rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have a mental list of authors that I faithfully follow and I pick up everything they write. I know what I like and I have a good idea of what I'll be reading. But on the other side of that coin - picking up a book by an unfamiliar author is an adventure.

The Cutting Season is Attica Locke's second book. I missed her debut novel - Black Water Rising - it won numerous prize nominations and lots of praise. But, after reading The Cutting Season, I can see why. Attica Locke is good -really good.

Car...more I have a mental list of authors that I faithfully follow and I pick up everything they write. I know what I like and I have a good idea of what I'll be reading. But on the other side of that coin - picking up a book by an unfamiliar author is an adventure.

The Cutting Season is Attica Locke's second book. I missed her debut novel - Black Water Rising - it won numerous prize nominations and lots of praise. But, after reading The Cutting Season, I can see why. Attica Locke is good -really good.

Caren Gray and her young daughter have returned home to Belle Vie - the Louisiana plantation Caren was raised on. Her family history with Belle Vie stretches back to the days when her ancestors were slaves in the sugar cane fields. Now the plantation is a tourist attraction and Caren is the manager. It's not the path she wanted to pursue in life and she has mixed feelings about returning to the plantation.

When an migrant worker is found murdered on the grounds, old and new wounds are opened - long buried history and new controversy. And Caren puts herself in the middle....

Locke drew me in immediately. I was of course caught up in the present day whodunit. There are lots of suspects and the path to the answer is winding. But, at the same time, Caren is caught up in the disappearance of her ancestor Jason, one hundred years ago. Locke skillfully weaves the unravelling of both narratives together.

The mysteries are intriguing, but I enjoyed Locke's exploration of race, politics, business, history and yes, love, just as much. The juxtaposition of abolished slavery and the plight of migrant workers today provides much food for thought.

The character of Caren came across as 'real'. Her own uncertainties, her relationship with her daughter, her ex and her coworkers all rang true. All of the supporting characters were just as well drawn. Having worked as a historical interpreter I enjoyed the descriptions of the cast and their dialogue.

Locke's prose are wonderfully rich and atmospheric and brought her settings to life.

"That beneath its loamy topsoil, the manicured grounds and gardens, two centuries of breathtaking wealth and spectacle—a stark beauty both irrepressible and utterly incapable of even the smallest nod of contrition—lay a land both black and bitter, soft to the touch, and pressing in its power. She should have known that one day it would spit out what it no longer had use for, the secrets it would no longer keep.”

For this reader, a winner on all fronts. (And I'll be hunting down that first book!) Locke has been added to my 'list'.

Dennis Lehane has picked The Cutting Season as the first book for his new imprint for Harper Collins.

"I was first struck by Attica Locke's prose, then by the ingenuity of her narrative and finally and most deeply by the depth of her humanity. She writes with equal amounts grace and passion. After just two novels, I'd probably read the phone book if her name was on the spine."(less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars

My sincere thanks to Harper Collins for provinging the E-galley to be released in September 2012.

This is a mystery plain and simple. Or is it? simple, that is? Right from the get go there is a body and the presumption of wrong doing though it needs to be proved. And there's a storyline that goes back many, many years that involves a missing free slave but no body.

What I loved about The Cutting Season by Attica Locke was the peeling back of generational history and seeing what was, the post civil...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

I chose this book because I was very taken with 'Black Water Rising' by the same author, a book that conjured up the seedier side of a city and a realistically disappointed protagonist who gets mixed up in scrapes while you whisper, "Don't do it...just don't". A background of racial tension was used to good effect.

'The Cutting Season' does not have the same immediacy. A sense of place is somewhat sluggishly built up around the sanitised setting of an antebellum mansion with manicured lawns and r...more I chose this book because I was very taken with 'Black Water Rising' by the same author, a book that conjured up the seedier side of a city and a realistically disappointed protagonist who gets mixed up in scrapes while you whisper, "Don't do it...just don't". A background of racial tension was used to good effect.

'The Cutting Season' does not have the same immediacy. A sense of place is somewhat sluggishly built up around the sanitised setting of an antebellum mansion with manicured lawns and rose garden and desirability as a wedding venue. The history of the plantation, and present complications and tensions, are gradually revealed. The main character also seems bland and uninteresting initially. In time, her history too is revealed and a certain sympathy felt. But the author has to work hard with unpromising materials. Locke clearly wants to highlight the exploitation of present-day immigrant workers and the significance of events around Hurricane Katrina and draw parallels and links with slavery and is using the plantation as a microcosm of these troubles. Perhaps this is too rich a mix to support an exciting thriller. The murder which stirs up the tensions and uncovers the past seems included for this purpose alone - a contrivance. There is also some sloppy writing. Can a person, however dejected, rest their chin on their sternum? Can a person already asleep be 'somnolent'?

Despite these flaws, the story picks up in pace and there are some genuinely thrilling moments as Caren gets tangled up in the drama of the crime and its ramifications for business and political interests, all of which reflect the local history around slavery, civil war and emancipation. One senses the writer, having diligently introduced characters and background, frees herself to tell the ripping yarn, and consequently the narrative starts to grow wings. There is a sting in the tail. Ultimately it is good page turner, and the historical aspect and details of Deep South life prove interesting.

It's not a patch on 'Black Water Rising'.(less)

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Oct 28, 2012 Patrice Sarath rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this. The author set up the mystery very well, and staged the murder against a backdrop of Louisiana history, culture, and politics. The setting, an antebellum and Civil War-era plantation, is lovingly described but Locke also doesn't try to sugar coat the ugliness that the stately beauty hides.

I love a good mystery. We all know that the police have the wrong suspect, and we also know that everything the main character, Caren, does will backfire on her, yet we also understand why...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Kelly Hager rated it 4 of 5 stars

This could probably best be described as a literary thriller. Normally when I hear that, I think something that's a little boring, but that's not the case here at all. The emphasis is more on "literary" but "thriller" is very well represented, too.

Instead, The Cutting Season is incredibly well-written but it's also very gripping and hard to put down.

I'd never read Attica Locke before (she has one other novel, Black Water Rising) but when I heard that this was the first selection for Dennis Leha...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Paul Lunger rated it 3 of 5 stars

Attica Locke's "The Cutting Season" is a mystery that doesn't quite know what it wants to be at times. The story is set on a plantation in Louisiana named Belle Vie. The owner, Caren Gray, is the central figure in this mystery that erupts when a woman's body is found in a grave while visitors are around for a tour. When both her daughter, Morgan, & an employee, Donovan, become partially implicated in the crime she launches her own investigation that delves a bit into the past of the plantati...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

Nice solid mystery. Caren runs a Louisiana plantation that's been turned into a museum / event center. Right behind the former slave quarters, including the cabin of her great-grandfather, which never fails to give her the creeps, are the plantation's cane fields, which are now worked by a corporation which hires illegals. The body of one of those illegals shows up on the plantation side of the fence. Who killed her? Why was she there?

A little bit of southern Gothic, a little bit of historical...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Diana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller, 2012

This book really made me think about famous librarian Nancy Pearl's theory about the doorways into fiction. She says that there are 4 doorways that draw people in, plot,setting, character and writing. When I first read this, I shrugged and said, "I want them all." But thinking about it further, I've realized that really, I'm a person who cares about the writing. Marilynne Robinson's books about small town religious life? I love them, and I'm not really very interested in Christianity or small to...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: america, contemporary-fiction, crime, fiction, library, literary-fiction

Caren is the manager at Belle Vie, a sprawling plantation house deep in Louisiana One morning whilst making her inspection of the grounds, she comes across a young Mexican woman, brutally murdered and discarded. With the police investigation inadequate, Caren investigates and the more she finds out, the more she starts to suspect a cover up. The white owner of the property is desperate to sell, the woman's employer has a history of violence and she might have uncovered something she shouldn't ha...more Caren is the manager at Belle Vie, a sprawling plantation house deep in Louisiana One morning whilst making her inspection of the grounds, she comes across a young Mexican woman, brutally murdered and discarded. With the police investigation inadequate, Caren investigates and the more she finds out, the more she starts to suspect a cover up. The white owner of the property is desperate to sell, the woman's employer has a history of violence and she might have uncovered something she shouldn't have just before her death. The investigation even leads back to Caren's ancestor Joseph, a slave on the plantation that disappeared soon after gaining freedom. An ambitious book, The Cutting Season covers race relations, history and politics as well as a criminal investigation.

Crime is not a genre I read very often but I had heard good things about Attica Locke. In fact, I own her previous novel, Black Water Rising, although typically I haven't got around to reading it yet. I'd seen some positive reviews of Cutting Season on other blogs and the setting of the book really appealed. On our American honeymoon last summer, my husband and I spent a few weeks in Louisiana and we visited lots of those old plantation homes and there is something about the history and atmosphere of such places that I thought would make for a great crime story. And that atmosphere was conveyed excellently in the book by Locke, it had an almost gothic, sinister feel which helped build suspense throughout.

On the whole, I enjoyed Cutting Season. It's expertly written and ambitious in coverage. The topics of race and slavery are handled sensitively and the book is thought provoking - who should really own the plantation houses? Should they be preserved for history or should we wipe the slate clean and start again? Does history belong to all of us or just a select few? Should history affect modern day decisions? Although I'm not a big fan of crime fiction, I could see that the mystery of who had killed Ines was well structured with enough red herrings to keep me guessing. I didn't work out who it was before the big reveal.

Despite everything I enjoyed about the book, it just seemed to be missing that special something. I don't know if it was purely because I don't love crime, but the middle section lagged and I never felt fully engaged with the story. In some ways, I think Locke was too ambitious and couldn't do everything she wanted to do within the confines of a crime/mystery novel; the genre was too restrictive for all the themes she wanted to cover. Locke was experimental by adding so much more to the genre but too confined by the conventions of the genre. I would have liked to see more of a gothic literary style novel rather than a traditional whodunit.

I'm sure crime fans will love this book as it's a good mystery and the writing is excellent. I wasn't the biggest fan of this one but I don't think I was the right reader for it.(less)

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Oct 03, 2012 Amanda Leigh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Caren returned to Belle Vie, a plantation in Louisiana and her childhood home. The descendent of slaves and daughter of the plantations cook, Caren now holds the title of property manager and lives on site with her daughter Morgan (separated from Morgan's father who she never married, a law school drop out, and displaced by Hurricane Katrina).
A Plot: While doing her rounds one morning, Caren discovers that the ground by the fence is disturbed and tells the maintenance workers to fix the site in...more Caren returned to Belle Vie, a plantation in Louisiana and her childhood home. The descendent of slaves and daughter of the plantations cook, Caren now holds the title of property manager and lives on site with her daughter Morgan (separated from Morgan's father who she never married, a law school drop out, and displaced by Hurricane Katrina).
A Plot: While doing her rounds one morning, Caren discovers that the ground by the fence is disturbed and tells the maintenance workers to fix the site in order to prepare for school tours and a benefit in the evening. The find a woman's body. Caren's life is thrown into chaos: rude, racist police officers, a pesky blood stain, an innocent man accused, the return of her ex, a pain in the ass daughter, and a coverup by the family he owns the plantation.
B Plot: Caren's great great great-grandfather disappeared from the plantation years after being emancipated. An employee opens Caren's eyes up to the fact that there was just as big a coverup then as there was now.

Why 3 Stars: While it is very clear that Locke is a talented writer, I just felt that there was something lacking in the plot of this novel. Caren wasn't exactly a detective, a lot of what she found she had dropped on her lap. It was a who-done-it, following the classic mystery format: a murder, suspects, read herring, pro/antagonist. It bothered me that the murder is briefly mentioned and really there were other people who had better motives in the novel and would have made more sense as the murderer. I was also irked by the fact that Caren was such a strong character, but she made such stupid mistakes and discussions throughout the course of the novel that I had to just shake my head at times (I know that this was the authors attempt to humanize her, but honestly the final confrontation with the murderer at the end left me thinking what was wrong with her!)
With all that said, the writing was solid. Locke paints a gorgeous setting and details characters beautifully. Her plot had such potential, it just fell flat for me. (less)

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Sep 26, 2012 Wanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Attica Locke certainly has a skill for writing. She was able to intertwine two murders separated by more than a century with vivid detail.

The storyline takes place at Belle Vie, an 18 acre plantation located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The plantation is used as a tourist attraction with full dressed re-enactments, weddings and special business meetings. In the present time the body of a female migrant worker is found in a shallow grave on the plantation.

Caren Gray is the manager at Bell...more

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About Attica Locke

About the Author
Born in Houston, Texas, Attica Locke has worked in both film and television for over ten years. She has written movie scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and most recently completed an adaptation of Stephen Carter's The Emperor of Pictures. She now lives in Los Angeles. Black Water Rising is her first novel.

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“The decor was attractive and strong, but blander than she would have thought his wealth and position afforded him. Caren couldn't see the point of having that much money if all of it led to beige.” — 3 people liked it

“Mothering, she learned the hard way, was about loss as well as love.” — 2 people liked it

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