(Buy this book at the Equal Opportunity Bookshop)
I know I keep saying that thrillers and mysteries are really #notmygenre, but books like this and Razorblade Tears are really trying to change my mind. (Notice that both of these books are blackity-Black. Representation matters!)
Caren Gray is the general manager of the historic Louisiana plantation Belle Vie. She’s also a direct descendant of the enslaved Africans who built its wealth. Now the heirs to that ill-gotten fortune are Caren’s bosses, and she and her young daughter are creating a home steeped in an uncomfortable history on the grounds, a stone’s throw away from the old slave cabins.
That is, until a young Guatemalan cane worker is found dead on the property. What seems to be a senseless tragedy is actually linked to the history of the plantation and the people who lay claim to it, past and present. Economic injustice and human exploitation from the past interweave with the ambitions of the present, and one death points to another, with jarring ramifications across generations.
This book was published in 2012, but it’s still startlingly relevant now. Without giving too many spoilers, much of the plot hinges on revisionist history and narrative control for political reasons, and boy, doesn’t that sound familiar? When this book was written, the USA was still immersed in the hope and idealism of the Obama years but there’s a simmering hurt in this book embodied through Caren that almost feels a bit prescient now.
I’m not giving a lot of details because one of the pleasures of the thriller genre is unwrapping all of the details as you read, and I don’t want to deprive anyone of that. I can say, however, that this book is very well-written. The prose is atmospheric and builds up a slow, uneasy suspense without sacrificing beautiful imagery or wordplay like a lot of thrillers do. (At least, according to my stereotypes of the genre, which admittedly may be a bit unfair.)
This was a rare summer read for me–enjoyable, easy, but also very thought-provoking and immersive.
Accurate records and true justice to The Cutting Season.
(Fellow readers, this book is one of the reasons you should be reading the backlist, which is something I should really write a whole post about. I’m glad I discovered it. If you’re looking for this book or more like it, consider perusing the Equal Opportunity Bookshop, which has two great features; a)it’s not Amazon and b)if you purchase anything from this site’s Bookshop link, we get a little affiliate kickback. Whatever you do, go read something good! Peace!)
Equal Opportunity Reader 