The Cutting Season
A Novel

Atmospheric and engaging crime novel about a woman who manages a plantation turned tourist attraction and event venue and then has to unravel several mysteries, past and present, when a dead body shows up on the property. There is a strong sense of place and I enjoyed how Locke created multiple intr......more

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 i......more

3.5 I really liked this book but it took its slow Southern time getting around to the mystery part. Coverups, migrant workers, railroaded young men, memories of a plantation’s slave days and reconciling the past and the present made for one complicated book. It was a lot to unpack and the plot seemed......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......more

My favorite Attica Locke book so far - less of a noir tone, and more of a slow burn mystery suspense type story. So many rich themes around how the past impacts the present, as well as how oppression shows up across generations in similar and different ways......more