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READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
Detroit, 1960s. The ladies of Alder Avenue go about their errands and charity tasks, but everyone is worried - factories are closing, colored men are cutting through the alleys to get to the metal plant at the end of the street. A black woman was found murdered there, and there are rumors that prostitutes stand in the windows of the abandoned building nearby, displaying themselves to the men! Then Elizabeth, a simple-minded young woman who lives with her widowed father, disappears. The men turn out to search, the women prepare food and wait. It's a great portrait of the powerlessness of these women, their need to be pure and not wear a blouse that's too low cut, to bake the right things for the bake sale. A woman is raped and her mother cautions her not to tell her husband because he'll never feel the same about her.
But the story isn't about finding Elizabeth. Every couple on the street has secrets and problems, or will have them by the time this is over. It's quite a collection of unhinged people. Tensions escalate, not only between black and white, but between neighbors, husbands and wives, shop keepers and shoppers. Some of these are resolved by the end.
Yes, I couldn't put it down. Yes, the characters were well done, though cliched. There's a missing cat whose fate is never known. I was so sure she was going to do the easy thing and kitty would be found dead, but at least she spared us that.
HERE BE SPOILERS.
Problems: Elizabeth was killed by her father? That's.... fairly hard to believe. I was very annoyed that Malina apparently killed herself, which seemed completely out of character, and for reasons I didn't understand. A smug Karen like that would never admit she was wrong. Oh and Grace runs down the man who raped her, in front of everyone, and seems to get away with it. Maybe accurate in that era, but still a loose end that annoyed me.
This story is told from multiple perspectives and unlike most books it doesn’t become confusing. It adds to the story, making it more personable.
Wow -- once I started reading this story I couldn't put the book down! Each chapter is written from the point of view of a different character. Usually I don't really care for that sort of jumping around, but in this case, it worked. The shifting from one character to another heightened the suspense and really kept me guessing about what was going on until the very end. The story developed at a nice pace, and there were plenty of twists and surprises. I really enjoyed this story! The ending was perfect. Very well done!
Lori Roy has written several other books. I'm definitely going to read more.
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Penguin via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
I hate to say this, but I hated absolutely everything about this book.
I received a copy courtesy of The First To Read program.
The Disappearing by Lori Roy is a moody, leisurely paced mystery.
Following the collapse of her twenty year marriage, Lane Fielding packs up her two daughters, Annalee and Talley and moves back to her small hometown of Waddell, FL. Her return is not easy since her father is facing allegations he abused the boys in his care at the now closed reform school for boys. Lane is also the under the harsh scrutiny of the townspeople for events in both the past and present. The recent disappearance of college student Susannah Bauer adds to the turmoil swirling around town. When Lane's oldest daughter, Annalee, goes missing, everyone, including Sheriff Mark Ellenton, fear a serial killer is in their midst.
Lane's childhood was a nightmare of verbal and emotional abuse from her father. He also regularly beat her mother who did her best to protect her daughter from her husband's wrath. Lane could not wait to leave her oppressive life behind and despite her teenage romance with Mark, she instead opted to marry Kyle Wallace and start over in New York.
Although her parents are clearly suffering the ravages of age, Lane is still quite uncomfortable to find herself and her daughters living under their roof again. Working at a local bar, she works late and drinks too much in an effort to cope with her current situation. Annalee and her much young sister Talley are often left to their own devices but Lane does not believe they are involved in anything they should not be. However, with Annalee's disappearance, she quickly discovers she should have paid much more attention to what they were up to in her absence.
Loosely based on the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and written from multiple points of view, The Disappearing is an incredibly slow-paced mystery that features an intriguing premise. With the exception and Talley and Mark, none of the characters are particularly likable and in fact, Lane's over the top reactions to, well, everything, quickly wear thin. With some unexpected twists and turns, Lori Roy keeps the tension high as Mark and Ellen desperately search for Annalee. While all of the storyline is completely wrapped up, readers might feel a little letdown with the novel's somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion.
The story is about a family that moves from Detroit to get away from the race problems that are starting to flare up there in the 1960’s, back to Kansas where the father had moved 20 years prior after his sister’s death. Once they get back to Kansas things are not any better, and in fact much worse because the problems they face here are personal; family secrets, some that have been been buried for 20 years, others more recent.
While many of us romanticizes about small town living where everyone is neighborly, and it’s a safe place to raise your kids; Roy knows better and shows the dark underbelly of small town-small minded living.
This would be a good book club selection with lots of themes to explore and characters to dissect. Should be a good starting point for lots of discussion.
Lori Roy is a talented writer and I look forward to reading things by her in the future.
Though it is 2017, five years after losing her husband and son in an accident, Imogene Coulter is still grieving. Then she finds a young child living in the locked basement of a boarded-up house on her family property. Who is he and how did he come to be there? Imogene is convinced that her father, Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Southern Georgia Order, who just died, was involved in keeping the child captive. Though Imogene has rejected her family’s racism, her family has a long connection to the Ku Klux Klan, and her brother Eddie, sister Jo Lynne, and brother-in-law Garland are active members of the KKK.
Besides Imogene’s story, we are given the perspective of Tillie, Imogene’s father-in-law, who left the Klan forty years earlier. And then there’s the first-person narration of Beth, a ten-year-old girl, who was abducted from her home in 2010. What happened to Beth since the child in the basement is a young boy named Christopher? Who is the boy’s Mama whom Christopher claims is always brought back to the basement?
There are major plausibility problems with the plot. It is unbelievable that Imogene does not realize the identity of the person keeping Christopher captive. Imogene’s mother seems almost totally oblivious to what is happening around her. Beth’s behaviour in the last scene which she narrates doesn’t make sense. A policeman who has lived in the town for ten years is so naïve about the actions of the Klan in his town?
Mystery is the technique used to create suspense, but in many ways, the author’s message takes precedence over the narrative. The title, for example, refers to people not paying sufficient attention to the rise of white nationalism: “Regardless of when it first began, Tillie didn’t see it coming, this rising of the Klan yet again, because he had let himself get rusty. For too many years, those sorts had been out of sight, and so they were out of mind too. For too many years, he’s been gone too long from paying attention. A lot of folks have been gone too long.”
Interspersed throughout the book are short chapters outlining the history of the Ku Klux Klan. The last of these chapters mentions the 2017 rally in Charlottesville and the white supremacists’ praising President Trump for refusing to specifically hold them accountable for what happened. The last page of the novel has an explicit warning: “while those men no longer march past, dressed in their robes and hoods and carrying torches, they’re still out there, just underfoot.”
This book has an important message; unfortunately, that theme is developed in an unwieldy fashion. The novel has much real-world resonance so I wish it were of better literary quality.
Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Imogene is related to the man who took Beth. Imogene has had to deal with being the child of her mother and another man who raped her mother. She is the much younger sister to Jo Lynne and Eddie whose father Ed Coulter was the leader of the local chapter of the KKK. Imogene's chapters take place in 2018 and she is still dealing with the death of her husband, Russell, and young son, Vaughn which happened five years ago. She drinks too much and sleeps with a variety of men.
Imogene is asked by her mother to cut the electrical wire to her old dead grandfather's house that was used for Klan business. Now that her husband Ed is dead she is stopping the Klan from meeting on her property. When Imogene goes to the house and investigates she finds a young boy in the basement. He is about five or six years old and believes that his mother will come back soon. That the man who takes her away always brings her back. He lets slip that Ed is the name of the man who has been keeping him and when shown a picture of her daddy, Ed, he recognizes him as the man who has been keeping them.
Someone burns down the building the same night that Imogene finds the boy. The third voice in this story is Tillie, Imogene's father-in-law and the owner of a pawnshop that Imogene helps out at by looking for any insurance claims on the items that are being sold. Tillie left the Klan forty years ago because of something awful that happened one night that haunts him still. He has a problem because Natalie, Tim Robithan's girlfriend tried to pawn two watches that belong to Tim's dad a big man in the Klan who is probably taking over now that Ed is dead since his son is a pretty useless man.
Interspersed between the voices are segments about the history of the Klan that are very interesting. This is a powerful book that explores the life of being in the Klan because Imogene's brother and sister are both in the Klan, even though Imogene hates it with a passion just like her mother. Beth tries her best to make the man who took her happy because she knows that's her only way of staying alive. Her story is tragic and told with bold strokes that belie her tender years. This is a great book that demands to be read. I give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
The man’s voice flows out of him like warm gravy. That’s what Mama says about a Southern man’s voice. Like warm, peppery gravy that’ll leave you craving more and give you heartburn all the same.
-Lori Roy (Gone Too Long p 17)
She told me to talk like I’m a rose, sweet and flowery, to men like this, but to be a cactus inside.
-Lori Roy (Gone Too Long p 315)
Imogene Coulter’s family is known for its connections to the Ku Klux Klan. Edison Coulter, the man she calls Daddy, is one of its local leaders. He’s being buried now but his legacy with the Klan continues with his son, Eddie, his daughter, Jo Lynne, and her husband, Garland. Imogene tries to distance herself from this part of her family but when she’s asked by her mother to get rid of a wire that leads to her grandfather’s house, she’s tragically pulled into the family’s past and history.
This is a dark, chilling tale of violence against race. This isn’t a typical thriller but rather an in depth character study of people whose oppose all that the KKK stand for but whose family members are involved in it. Their lives and families are torn between these opposing forces. My heart broke for Beth and the life she led after being taken from her home. And Imogene, who is no stranger to tragedy herself, is so courageous and broken, she’d melt anyone’s heart.
What makes this book even more disturbing are the true life historical references the author places between chapters telling the history of the KKK. The most chilling historical fact of all is the most recent one – the 2017 United the Right rally in Charlottesville.
Recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
I’ve read all of Lori Roy’s books and they never disappoint. The author is very good at bringing her damaged characters to life and keeping her readers hooked. This is a slow moving book, sometimes I thought it was a bit too slow but then it would pick up again. I loved Lane and admired her efforts to be a good mother to the often difficult Annalee and the young vulnerable Talley. Lane had a hard upbringing and she vowed to do better by her daughters. She and her twisted family and their battle with their demons makes for an interesting story. The past is never too far from the present. This novel is apparently based on the real-life tragedy at the Arthur Dozier School for Boys in Florida.
Recommended.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
As Annie heads out, she expects that her father John Holleran will be following her to make sure she's alright, but it turns out he drank too much whiskey with the neighbor Abraham Pace and doesn't wake up to do this. Caroline her beautiful, slightly younger sister does show up with a flashlight. The two climb over the rock wall and look into the well and Caroline who isn't supposed to be looking yet sees a face in the well, but Annie sees nothing and believes that Caroline has stolen her man. While they are arguing Annie notices a body on the ground and they run for home to tell their dad and Abraham. It turns out the dead body is that of Mrs. Baine.
There is one thing that Annie and her Grandma, John's mother, and Juna have in common: the know-how. It comes fully on when a girl reaches her ascension. John's mother knew that Sarah would marry him and they'd have a happy life. She knew Sarah would be a sweet girl child and should be named Sarah. The difference between the Grandma and Annie and Juna is that they have deep black eyes that some say are filled with evil. People can't look them in the eyes and believe that they are up to no good. This was true of Juna.
In 1936 you see it through the eyes of Sarah and Juna scares her father who everyone believes is cursed. His crops are put in late and don't do well. The house was built in the shadows so it is always cold and damp. They have a younger brother Dale, whose birth took their mother's life, is ten years old and helps Sarah around the house while Juna works in the fields. But Dale is starting to look too soft and their Daddy wants him to go out with Juna one day in the fields and Sarah to go pick blackberries. But Juna says it's not a good day for Dale to go into the fields. Her father goes against what she says and later Dale goes missing. Juna won't talk about what happened. She seems like it's too much and she's too worn out to talk about it. But there is something else afoot. Because Joseph Carl will hang for something here.
Just like Annie cannot get any boy to notice her because of her harsh looks, and all the attention going to her sister Caroline the beautiful one with the curves and the lovely hair, Sarah cannot get anyone to notice her because of Juna's beauty. But both girls have someone who notices them, even though this person is not someone they are interested in. Sarah is pining away after Ellis Baine who has no idea she exists but is very much aware of Juna. And Annie seems to like Jacob Riddle who only has eyes for Caroline and Ryce Fulkerson who seems too interested in the girl who saw him in the well. Ellis Baine shows up with two of his brothers for his mother's funeral, but Ellis stays to clean up the place in order to sell it and perhaps to find out what really happened back in 1936, which causes problems for Sarah and John, as she thinks she still has feelings for him.
This is one hot summer that is boiling up for something to happen in 1952. In 1936 it is also summer and things there will boil over and scald a county permanently. This is an excellent book that the author got the idea for from the last public hanging that was held in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1936 for the rape of a girl. Even though he had also murdered her, he was only convicted of the rape so that they would be able to have the hanging be public. Murder convictions were private hangings. And the person who pulled the lever was a female sheriff, just like in this book. The crime was different in the book, though and she created a whole county from scratch. It was still very realistic and quite a tale.
Quotes
Grandma would have called it wishful thinking, and she always says nothing causes a person more harm than wishful thinking.
-Lori Roy (Let Me Die In His Footsteps p 45-6)
You like that he knows a thing for certain, Joseph Carl had written. You want someone who knows things, doesn’t hope for things, because hoping is common. Hoping is easy.
-Loir Roy (Let Me Die In His Footsteps p 155)
It’s a disturbing thing to know someone love you. It makes a person wonder why.
-Lori Roy (Let Me Die In His Footsteps p 238)
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While it was well written and the characters were interesting, I was a bit dissatisfied with the plot devices. Is the moral of the story, avoid preadolescent and adolescent girls in ky?