Lane is just fifteen when her mother commits suicide. She is sent from New York City to western Kansas to live with her grandparents. Even though she’s never met them, they claim to love and want her. As Lane adjusts to life away from the dysfunction of her mentally ill mother, her idealistic image of the farm blends with her mother’s version to form a reality she wants no part of.
But home and family are hard to root out, and when her cousin Allegra goes missing, Lane is dragged back into the dysfunction she thought she had escaped when she left Osage Flats ten years before.
There’s a lot of love in this story. Love that’s a bit too much like functional alcoholism. It seems to work on the surface, but over time it’s just not sustainable. Despite the early reveal of the family secret, The Roanoke Girls compels to the very end.
Author Amy Engel will offer a thriller and suspense critique session at our November 2017 Writers Conference. Keep your eye on jocolibrary.org for details.