Oline Cogdill

lockeattica_author.jpg2Historical tourism delivers a personal view of the past, but Attica Locke’s The Cutting Season also shows us the ugly parts of our history. And how important it is that we don’t forget the bad, no matter how uncomfortable we feel.

The Cutting Season takes place on at Belle Vie, a beautiful antebellum plantation between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana. Belle Vie’s breathtaking vistas make it a perfect destination for weddings, parties and other festive events.

Belle Vie also started out as a slave-owning plantation. Its sugar fields, vegetable gardens and the mansion were all tended by slaves.

That history is also a part of the history of Caren Gray, who manages Belle Vie. Caren’s great-great grandfather was a slave who, along with his family and fellow slaves, worked the plantation. The irony that Caren is now in charge of Belle Vie is lost on this African-American woman.

Attica Locke’s discussion about The Cutting Season as well as her background as a scriptwriter and her affinity for crime fiction were just a few things that we discussed in the profile that runs in the current issue of Mystery Scene.

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