Death of an Avid Reader is the sixth in Frances Brody’s 1920s series featuring Kate Shackleton, First World War widow turned sleuth.Last month I asked the author about what she was reading. Brody's reply:
What I'm reading links to where I am presently staying: New Orleans, Louisiana. I came here for Bouchercon, a huge crime writing convention that takes place over a long weekend. The novels I chose were Attica Locke's The Cutting Season and James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown.Visit Frances Brody's website.
Attica Locke's title refers to the cutting season for sugar cane. Her story is set in a grand mansion once occupied by a plantation owning family who have now moved out and run the place as avisitor attraction under the management of Caren, a smart, attractive African American woman with a young daughter. Caren's late mother was cook to the owners and her ancestors worked on the plantation. This is a rich and exquisitely written novel with beautifully drawn characters, involving a mystery from the past and conflict and heartache in the present. I loved this book and it will stay with me for a long time.
I'm not quite halfway through The Tin Roof Blowdown, which is set around the time of Hurricane Katrina. It's powerfully descriptive and intensely evocative. I'm glad to be able to see some of the settings as I walk around the city.
The Page 69 Test: Dying in the Wool.
The Page 69 Test: A Woman Unknown.
The Page 69 Test: Murder on a Summer's Day.
--Marshal Zeringue
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