by Attica Locke
First published 2012
Caren has spent four years managing Belle Vie, a historic Louisiana plantation house owned by the same wealthy family for generations. During her morning walk across the grounds, she notices disturbed earth near the fence that borders the sugar cane fields. She assumes an animal dug up the soil and asks the gardener to repair it. He calls back with disturbing news. A girl's body lies buried in the dirt, covered in blood. Police arrive to investigate the murder while a staff member disappears without explanation. Caren finds herself pulled deeper into the victim's story as she uncovers disturbing truths about Belle Vie's future and its buried past. The plantation's beauty masks dangerous secrets that force Caren to confront how little has changed in the modern South, even with Obama in the White House. Her search for answers threatens everything she thought she knew about the place she calls home.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, hidden-past
Setting: Louisiana, South
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Amistad
Content warnings: racism