The Cutting Season / Attica Locke / 372 pages

If you like mysteries set in the depths of the South and featuring complex characters, you will like The Cutting Season.  Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, an old plantation now a State of Louisiana historical site, where her own ancestors were slaves.  A body is found on the plantation and this sets off an investigation that resolves mysteries of the past and present and allows Caren to be released from her own past history.  Locke does a great job of creating characters, setting, and plot that are very gratifying to readers who like their mysteries with some meat on their bones.