From Attica Locke, a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire:
“The Cutting Season is a rare murder mystery with heft, a historical novel that thrills, a page-turner that makes you think. Attica Locke is a dazzling writer with a conscience.”–Dolen Perkins-Valdez, New York Times bestselling author of Wench
After her breathtaking debut novel, Black Water Rising, won acclaim from major publications and respected crime fiction masters like James Ellroy and George Pelecanos, Locke returns with The Cutting Season, a second novel easily as gripping and powerful as her first–a heart-pounding thriller that interweaves two murder mysteries, one on Belle Vie, a historic landmark in the middle of Lousiana’s Sugar Cane country, and one involving a slave gone missing more than one hundred years earlier. Black Water Rising was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an Edgar(R) Award, and an NAACP Image Award, and was short-listed for the Orange Prize in the U.K.”
—New York Times
It’s been a minute, but the Spoilers are back with another compelling book conversation — this time about Attica’s Locke’s best-selling mystery. The novel takes place on a plantation, so you know we have to ground things with a little bit of history (Dr. Moten would have it no other way). As usual, we have a lot to say about this book. We offer some praise and some criticisms, but in the end we give a pretty positive take on what we all seem to think is a pretty solid read. The fact that we keep comparing it to Queen Sugar has to tell you something about how we end up feeling about Locke’s novel. Check out the episode and see what you think. It’s definitely worth the listen.
Mentioned in the Show:
What the Spoilers are up to:
- Octavia Butler, Kindred (Novel)
- Brandon Jacobs Jenkins, Kindred on FX (now canceled)
- Natalie Baszile, Queen Sugar (novel and OWN show)
- Dark on Netflix
What We’re Watching, Eating, Reading:
- Todd: 1899 on Netlix (now canceled)
- Crystal: The Crown (season 5) & Megan and Harry — both on Netflix
- Anita: Farha on Netflix (2023)
