The Cutting Season

A Novel

By: Attica Locke

Narrated by: Quincy Tyler Bernstine

Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

In Black Water Rising, Attica Locke delivered one of the most stunning and sure-handed fiction debuts in recent memory, garnering effusive critical praise, several award nominations, and passionate reader response. Now Locke returns with The Cutting Season, a riveting thriller that 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 cane 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 pause resister 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).

©2012 Attica Locke (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

Good story

I love Attica Locke. She is one of the few mystery writers than can write a good mystery with interesting and believable characters and then kick the story into overdrive by bringing in the past history of the setting. This book starts out slow, but had me guessing until close to the end. And she is just a sublime wordsmith; a Renoir of words.
The narrator wasn’t bad. She did have some issues Narrating a southern accent but that can be difficult difficult for many actors.

Enjoyed

I really enjoyed the story!! The narrator did a great job too!! I recommend this story.

Delightful story!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, captures the conflict of the past and present

What did you like best about this story?

The complexity of the story.

What does Quincy Tyler Bernstine bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The passion and presence of the characters

If you could take any character from The Cutting Season out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Donovan's Grandmother - to hear her stories of her life and dreams.

Mediocre

I had high expectations based on the reviews. But i found myself plodding thru this, hoping it would just end. The narrator was ok but after a certain point, her voice started getting on my nerves with this sort of forced inflection of passion which just sounded whiny to me. This was just OK and slightly dull.

Great listen

Attica Locke is fantastic, story is thrilling and context elevates it to that special place

So boring to be called a thriller

The story could have been really good but it just dragged. I lost the plot line at points because it was so slow that I found myself tuning it out. Maybe this is one of those books I should have read instead of listened to?

Annoying narrator, good story

Quincy Tyler Bernstine's voice is a little too squeaky for me. It took me awhile to get used to it enough that I didn't want to constantly turn the book off.

I got this book because I heard an interview with the author on NPR. I love it when you can get the background story of a book straight from the author. Attica Locke explained how she was addressing the issue of a successful black woman moving up to the big house and the guilt that comes with her success.

The story was a bit contrived, but well told. I rolled my eyes a couple of times, but never lost interest.

loved it!

Great murder mystery weaving a past into a present murder, setting to rights a terrible, historical wrong done to past slave family. A story that very well could have been many a family in post civil war times...

Great! Could not stop listening.

Would you listen to The Cutting Season again? Why?

Yes I really enjoyed it.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

You just could not anticipate what would happen next.

What about Quincy Tyler Bernstine’s performance did you like?

Love the voice inflections and changes.

Excellent history w suspense

Perfect story! Fiction intertwined with history. Unpredictable. A few holes but not bothersome. Narrator is great. Believable.