Customer Reviews

Uncivil Seasons: A Justin & Cuddy Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great way to start enjoying the works of unheralded author Michael Malone is to read his North Carolina murder mystery, Uncivil Seasons. Malone's anti-hero is Justin Savile, born to a genteel southern family, as his name indicates. The plot is complex, and revolves around Joanna Cadmean, a local psychic, helping Justin to investigate the murder of a member of a prominent family. Both scenic passages and characterizations are compelling, and true to the south. The mystery remains a mystery, and you find yourself pulling for Justin and partner Cuddy Mangum.

There's a romance here, too, and it's played with just the right lightness of touch. It seems as though Malone can do it all, and I can't wait to read more of his works. I'll leave you with a favorite, opening line..."Two things don't happen very often in Hillston, North Carolina. We don't get much snow, and we hardly ever murder one another. Suicide is more our style..."

Enjoy!

Michael Malone is one of America's most gifted and rewarding novelists. If you enjoyed his latest offering, FIRST LADY, be sure to read its predecessor, UNCIVIL SEASONS, in which many of the people and places in both books were first introduced. UNCIVIL SEASONS too is an absorbing mystery yarn, but its real pleasures lie in the richness and depth of its characterizations, its wit and humor, its sharp dialogue. Malone, who was raised in North Carolina, conveys a South often regretfully looking backwards as it looks forward, but he does so with no hint of "Poor us, how misunderstood we are."

I am truly an unbashful fan of Michael Malone and finally found a copy of Uncivil Seasons. In Uncivil Seasons he takes a simple murder in Hillston, NC, and uses it to trigger a thoughtful and purposeful journey into the lives and souls of a cross section of the folks in this Peidmont town. Humorous with an effortless command of dialogue and language, if Uncivil Seasons is your first Malone book you'll be speedtyping through this website to find the rest. Unfortunately he hasn't had anything new published years (that I'm aware of). Perhaps biding his time as head writer on "One Life To Live," (as the inside cover indicates) until this country comes to it's senses and covets stories by authors like Malone instead of stories by White House interns. He's good enough to make you start watching soaps.

i'm a big fan of american literature, i'm a big fan of american crime novels, and i must say that "uncivil seasons" was for me an absolute discovery! an excellent literary mystery, where "literary" definitely DOESN'T mean boring or pretentious, but simply an extremely well-written, elegant, funny, convincing book that, before being a "mystery" is an exceptionally well crafted depiction of a complex and credible southern community with its enmities, affections, social and financial relationships. in this sense, the book is a perfect example of the "realistic" novel in its most classic, nineteenth-century incarnation: and how more human and witty than other contemporary overhyped stuff in the social-realistic vein (like, say, a "bonfire of the vanities"). and, in addition to that, the novel is also a coherent, interesting and well developed detection-story with a very satisfying and ironical ending. alas, the other two books in the savile-mangun series, while good (the second more than the third) are far from the level of this "uncivil seasons", which for me is a sure masterpiece in the genre.

Not all of this author's books are alike, and if you don't happen to like this one, you should still try his others. This book is a murder mystery and is not all that mysterious, but the tone of the prose and the social commentary make it worth the five stars. Here's Malone's marvelous opening lines:

"Two things don't happen very often in Hillston, North Carolina. We don't get much snow, and we hardly ever murder one another.

Suicide is more our style; we're a polite college town, and our lives are sheltered by old trees. Maybe once a year a blizzard slips around a corner of the Smokey Mountains and blusters its way east, or a gale swells up from Cape Hatteras and runs across the Piedmont to break up our agreeable liason with nature; but usually storms lose interest along the way.

Whenever one does barge through town, merchants stockpile sleds as recklessly as Carolina blockade-runners once stowed tobacco and cotton. Schools close. Cars spin off the roads. People have accidents.

The commit murders too, but much more often in thought than in deed. There is some impertinence in being a homicide detective in a town that wants to go on believing it is too small and too temperate to require such expertise."

Of course, it is snowing, and there has been a murder.

These three Michael Malone mysteries, Uncivil Seasons, Time's Witness, and First Lady, are essentially expanded police procedurals written at a fairly high level. The middle book, Time's Witness, is probably the best and Uncivil Seasons is the weakest, though all are superior mysteries. As police procedural mysteries, they are all good in terms of story line, suspense, and outcome of the story. What really distinguishes these books are Malone's efforts to produce highly detailed books with in depth characterization and social analysis. Set in a mid-sized Southern city modeled on Durham, North Carolina, Malone explores issues of race, politics, and particularly, social class structure in the modern South. The protagonists of these books, the homicide detective Justin Savile and his boss, Cuddy Mangum, are attractive, well developed characters. Malone has also a talent for humorous writing that serves him well. While not as good as really fine novels like the best PD James mysteries, these are still superior to most books in this genre.

I met Michael Malone at Borders and my husband bought me Handling Sin (at Malone's suggestion), along with Times Witness. I started reading Handling Sin several times and just could not get into it. Then I turned to Times Witness and I was hooked! I read it quickly and immediately bought Uncivil Seasons and First Lady. The series on Savile and Mangum are well written, funny, and quite entertaining. I love Malone's dry humor. It was not uncommon to hear me laughing out loud. I am still smiling and wondering if there is to be a fourth in the series! What DOES happen with Cuddy and Lee......?!?

A great story with good twists, and characters you find yourself really thinking about. Very good dry humour. By far and away the best of the Savile mysteries. The others don't hold a candle in my opinion.

Michael Malone, Handling Sin
Michael Malone, Uncivil Seasons

Michael Malone writes like there is no divide between popular and serious in fiction. He tells good stories; his characters are engaging and real; he has a humane sense of humor. His prose sometimes rollicks and at other times purrs, it is so elegant.

Handling Sin is one of the funniest books I have read. A reviewer compared it (rightly so, I think) to John Kennedy Toole's classic comedy of errors and manners, A Confederacy of Dunces.

Uncivil Seasons (from which I will quote in a minute) is a mystery and a comedy of manners. In every respect it is engaging. In both books, Malone has created memorable protagonists, who are utterly winning; he surrounds them with a cast of southern grotesques who would be laughable if not so human.

Here's Malone's description of a love scene. It's short, pretty and discrete. It feels like new love should feel:

"She moved above me like a flower swayed, like white peonies and red poppies and rose mountain laurel swayed; and I was the new shafts of spring earth, and so joined with her that there was no way to tell what was earth growing up, and what was flower."

It's like a lyrical passage out of the Old Testament, which is fitting since it's placed in the mouth of a renegade Old South aristocrat, Justin Savile.

At another point in the story, a rough-edged cotton mill owner compliments the hero: "I appreciate your paying Joanna [his dead daughter] your respects. I like a man with good manners. Principles, I've got no use for. Ever notice how most of the slime of the world gets flung there by men with principles? Take care now." And then he leaves.

That's just good writing!

His best book by far. Well-written, good dialogue, fully-realized characters, nice setting and backstory. A literate mystery which is a rare combination...buy and enjoy!