In her short career (2 books - Black Water Rising and now The Cutting Season) Attica Locke has received plaudits from other authors, media critics and readers alike. In this, only her second book, she demonstrates, again, a steady hand on the tiller of slow moving crime suspense writing.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the breakdown of her relationship with Eric, Caren Gray moves herself and her daughter back to her childhood home, the Belle Vie estate in Louisiana . There she manages the estate as the tourist attraction it's become under the ownership of the last of the Clancy family. The house is used as a venue for conferences and weddings, and a cast of players performs a production meant to depict a snap-shot picture of life at Belle Vie during its days as a slave worked sugar plantation, for tourists.
Caren's quiet but busy life is turned upside down by the discovery of a young woman's body, buried after her throat has been cut, in a shallow grave on the estate's border with a sugar field across the road.
What follows is the story of Caren's desperate attempts to solve the crime and the mystery of the young woman's identity. She has real fears that her 9 year old daughter might, somehow, be involved in the crime, and the re-emergence of her former partner, Eric, in their lives complicates things. Caren's feelings become conflicted, which doesn't help her keep a clear head as she tries to understand what's been happening on 'her' estate. When a young man employed by the estate is arrested and charged with the murder, Caren becomes even more desperate to find out exactly what happened.
Then Caren learns that the estate is to be sold to an industrial farming combine, and the house and its ancillary buildings will be raised to the ground to make way for new sugar fields. Could the success of this deal be threatened by publicity surrounding the murder? Is the sale somehow connected? What does the history of Caren's ancestor, Jason, have to do with today's mystery?
This is a slow burning story, sometimes re-tracing itself, as Caren becomes more anxious and more determined to find answers in the face of police incompetence and stereo-typical assumptions. Tension builds gradually, carrying the reader forwards in skilful fashion. The plot is complex and almost leisurely in the way it performs the twists and turns of the very best crime stories. History and today collide in thought provoking fashion without a trace of sentimentality.
This book will appeal to lovers of crime fiction, mystery stories and those who have an empathy with the American deep south and its history. Recommended.
