Pleasantville - Attica Locke

First line: "They partied in Pleasantville that night, from Laurentide to Demaree Lane."

Attica Locke returns to her lawyer protagonist, Jay Porter, from Black Water Rising in her third novel, Pleasantville. Set fifteen years after the close of Black Water Rising this new thriller takes Jay Porter into dangerous political territory when a young campaign volunteer vanishes.

Perviously, two other young woman were kidnapped--about a year apart--only to later be found dead. Their murderer kept them alive for several days before dumping their bodies in the same nearby field. There are some differences to the cases, but there are enough similarities that everyone is in high alert, hoping to find the teen before her assailant can leave her in that same field.

When Neal, the nephew and campaign manager of one of the mayoral candidates, is arrested for the disappearance, Neal's grandfather Sam--a prominent citizen originally from Pleasantville--calls on Jay to represent him. Despite his lack of experience in criminal law Jay finds himself with little other choice and takes up the defense. It isn't long before Jay is wading in a case that reaches wider and deeper than the alleged kidnapping of a teen girl.

Pleasantville is a complex, multi-layered thriller with universal themes of power and class. It also pokes at political issues that are just as relevant today as in the novel's 1990s setting. On another level, Locke puts the family unit under a microscope to examine the myriad intricacies that develop over time and through struggles.

Locke's characters are richly developed and readers should have no trouble connecting with them: their motivations, emotions and conflicts. The supporting cast is as engaging as the lead roles. Locke is especially strong in her depiction of a single father trying to make his way with two young children: connecting with them, keeping them safe and raising them to be good people.

The plot overall has a somber tone, but Locke also throws in the occasional line that flickers of playfulness in her writing, "Lucifer himself probably showed up to Jesus's house at least once or twice, claiming to have the twenty dollars he owed our lord and savior."

Readers don't need to be familiar with Black Water Rising to thoroughly enjoy Pleasantville. A gripping story that offers up a lot of food for thought as well as a captivating plot that keeps the book's momentum swift, Pleasantville doesn't disappoint.

Pleasantville will be available in hardcover on April 21st from Harper (9780062259400) and as an unabridged audio (9780062374042), narrated by J.D. Jackson, from Harper Audio.


       

My review today is part of the TLC book tour for Pleasantville, which started yesterday and continues throughout the month. Check the schedule to see what other bloggers are saying about Attica Locke's newest book.

Disclosure: I do some contractual work for one of the owners of TLC Blog Tours. My work with them does not obligate me to a specific kind of review. The reviews are still my own opinions and reflect only my thoughts on the novels. If you care to read more, you can find more information on my Disclosure page.

Quote of the Week

Jay has yet to meet a young lawyer south of Kansas who doesn't put on his best Atticus Finch every time he stands in front of a jury, who doesn't speak in an overly folksy manner, as if he'd dropped years of sophisticated law schooling and legal prolixity like bread crumbs on his way to the courthouse, leaving a trail to find his way back once the audience is gone.
   —Attica Locke, Pleasantville

THE CUTTING SEASON - Attica Locke

First line: "It was during the Thompson-Delacroix wedding, Caren's first day on the job, that a cottonmouth, measuring the length of a Cadillac, fell some twenty feet from a live oak on the front lawn, landing like a coil of rope in the lap of the bride's future mother-in-law."

Caren Gray manages the Belle Vie Plantation, the same plantation where her ancestors worked as slaves and her mother ran the kitchen. Caren grew up on Belle Vie and swore she would escape its hold on her family, but after dropping out of law school and having a baby, she returned to the only home she knew. And life seemed to be going along just fine, until the body was discovered.

The discovery of a migrant farm worker murdered and buried in a shallow grave seems to be the domino that starts the progressive fall of Caren's stable life. Caren is certain her daughter knows more about the murder than she's admitting; the owners of Belle Vie may be selling the plantation, whereby leaving Caren unemployed and homeless; her daughter's father shows up bringing back all the feelings and confusion she thought she'd left behind; and the local sheriff seems to have it in for Caren. Life is never going to be the same for Caren, but will she still have a life left before the murder is solved?

THE CUTTING SEASON is Attica Locke's second novel and the debut novel of the Dennis Lehane imprint with HarperCollins.

From page one Locke builds a haunting atmosphere for the novel. The ghosts that inhabit the Belle Vie plantation don't show up in visions or as unbelievable apparitions. Rather they haunt the souls of the present generation, and they're indiscriminate when it comes to skin color or ancestry.

THE CUTTING SEASON is neither a story of retribution nor a story of how a segment of the population were wronged during our nation's history. It IS a story of discovery, of realization, of individuals. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to learn we are defining ourselves by the wrong standards.

Locke's characters are richly developed and yet every single one maintains an air of mystery about them, helping to drive the suspense of the novel. Readers will find empathizing with the characters to be an easy task. They will also find it easy to wonder, "why would you do that?" Don't we also wonder that of ourselves?

The crime is the central event of THE CUTTING SEASON, but the themes that intertwine with that crime flavor the overall novel. An especially poignant theme being the mother-daughter relationship. Caren's relationship with her own mother comes out via Caren's memories while the relationship with her daughter plays out in real time. The contradictions in these relationships remind us how intricate and fragile and beautiful they are:

"She couldn't put her in a corner or physically wrest the truth out of her. At this stage, the two of them, mother and daughter, were left with the crudeness of language, the imprecision of words."

Many times the volume of the actions drown out the sound of our words; sometimes having our mother brush our hair or pick our clothes registers hundreds of decibels above "I love you."

Through her vivid setting and relaxed tone, Locke allows the stereotypical slow Southern nature to embrace the Belle Vie Plantation. And through her mysterious characters and multi-layered plot, she ramps up readers' anticipation. THE CUTTING SEASON may well be the fastest, laid back novel of 2012.

And the writing is simply exquisite. Whether it's beauty, horror or the mundane she's describing, Locke finds the symbols, metaphors and words that allow her readers to see, hear, taste, smell and feel the experience:

"It's the rain, too, she said, that likely brought the bone up from out of the ground, pushing it out like a depraved and dirty birth, death clawing its way back toward the light above."

The plot has an ideally readable complexity that demands the reader bring his/her own experiences, beliefs and biases into the reading process. And because of that unique element, every reader will undergo a singular experience and walk away altered in a different way. THE CUTTING SEASON will make a perfect bookclub choice to see this effect.

The characters of Locke's THE CUTTING SEASON are haunted by their Belle Vie ancestors; readers will find themselves equally haunted by her gorgeous sophomore novel.

THE CUTTING SEASON is available from Harper in hardcover (ISBN: 9780061802058) and is available as an unabridged audio, narrated by Quincy Tyler Bernstine, from Harper Audio (ISBN: 9780062205179)

You've the Right to Six Words: Week 9

So here we are for Week 9 and a new batch of most wanted crime writers. I really didn't fathom making it to Week 9 last year, let alone again this year. But here we are. And let me get right to it.

We're starting off this week with a writer who put his love of Hemingway to work for him. Michael Atkinson is the author of HEMINGWAY DEADLIGHTS, his debut novel, and the upcoming HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT. These books are part of his series that he claims has "negligible respect for history but a veins-in-the-teeth yen for truth, irony, cocktails and the good graces of a well-turned sentence. Novel-writing is not his first foray into the writing world, however. Michael writes film criticism and book reviews for various publications; he's written non-fiction works, unproduced TV and poetry. Among Michael's other interests: very good beer, shellfish, and Italian opera in the summertime. So with all these interests and writing experiences, Michael says

I've only begun to babble.

Babble on, Mike!

Our next memoirist this week is still celebrating her debut. Attica Locke's BLACK WATER RISING was nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, an L.A. Times Book Award and a Strand Magazine Critics Award. In addition, it was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Not too shabby for one's first novel. Attica comes to the crime fiction world via screenwriting, having written movie and television scripts for a plethora of production companies. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Feature Filmmakers Lab and a graduate of Northwestern University. This amazing young woman's been all over. She's a native of Houston, Texas but now calls Los Angeles home. Whew. Attica's parents were activists in the Civil Rights movement, naming Attica for the Attica Prison uprising in New York in 1971. She explains that origin and leads up to the origin of BLACK WATER RISING in a haunting personal note on her website. I encourage you to check it out. In the meantime, Attica puts her experiences to these six words:

Could never hold a real job.

And in the anchor position this week we have a fire-fighting crime fiction writer. By day, Earl Emerson is a lieutenant with the Seattle Fire Department - despite an effort to retire a year and a half ago, and by any other time he's an award-winning crime fiction writer. He has two series, Thomas Black and Mac Fontana, in addition to six stand-alone thrillers. His Thomas Black novel, POVERTY BAY earned him a Shamus Award for Best Private Eye novel and an Edgar nomination for Best Paperback Original in 1985. Last year, Earl returned to his Thomas Black series after a short hiatus with CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT. He reports that he has a futuristic novel in the works now. Born and raised in Washington State, Earl and his wife still call it home. So what does he call his memoir?

Like a cat: work, play, nap.

Well, I'm not sure how one has much time for the playing and napping part in between writing and firefighting, but I'll take his word for it! So happy he made time to participate in the project, though. Many, many thanks to these wonderful writers for their contributions to the genre and to "You've the Right to Six Words." See ya next week!

Happy Reading!


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