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Bent Road
For twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve's death. As a young man, Arthur fled his small Kansas hometown, moved to Detroit, married Celia, and never looked back. But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than his past, he convinces Celia to pack up their family and return to the road he grew up on, Bent Road, and that same small town where Eve mysteriously died.
While Arthur and their oldest daughter slip easily into rural life, Celia and the two younger children struggle to fit in. Daniel, the only son, is counting on Kansas to make a man of him since Detroit damn sure didn't. Eve-ee, the youngest and small for her age, hopes that in Kansas she will finally grow. Celia grapples with loneliness and the brutality of life and death on a farm. And then a local girl disappears, catapulting the family headlong into a dead man's curve...
While Arthur and their oldest daughter slip easily into rural life, Celia and the two younger children struggle to fit in. Daniel, the only son, is counting on Kansas to make a man of him since Detroit damn sure didn't. Eve-ee, the youngest and small for her age, hopes that in Kansas she will finally grow. Celia grapples with loneliness and the brutality of life and death on a farm. And then a local girl disappears, catapulting the family headlong into a dead man's curve...
355 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 2010
170 people are currently reading
4395 people want to read
About the author
Lori Roy
13 books299 followersLori Roy’s debut novel, Bent Road, was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. Her work has been twice named a New York Times Notable Crime Book and has been included on various “best of” and summer reading lists. Until She Comes Home was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.
Let Me Die in His Footsteps was included among the top fiction of 2015 by Books-A-Million and named one of the best fifteen mystery novels of 2015 by Oline Cogdill. The novel also received the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, making Lori the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best First Novel and Best Novel—and only the third person ever to have done so. Gone Too Long was named a People magazine Book of the Week, was named one of the Best Books of Summer 2019, and was excerpted by Oprah magazine.
Lori's latest, THE FINAL EPISODE, will hit stores June 25, 2025.
Lori lives with her family in west central Florida.
Let Me Die in His Footsteps was included among the top fiction of 2015 by Books-A-Million and named one of the best fifteen mystery novels of 2015 by Oline Cogdill. The novel also received the 2016 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel, making Lori the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best First Novel and Best Novel—and only the third person ever to have done so. Gone Too Long was named a People magazine Book of the Week, was named one of the Best Books of Summer 2019, and was excerpted by Oprah magazine.
Lori's latest, THE FINAL EPISODE, will hit stores June 25, 2025.
Lori lives with her family in west central Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 652 reviews
December 30, 2011
I really wanted to like this. I really did. I seem to always be that person in book club who finds fault with the book. And, this book, as a friend said, did have potential. Some of the writing was good, the story was, eh, kind of interesting.
Others have noticed/noted the abysmal editing job, so I'll just say, um, when your editor may in fact be your mom, you probably need another reader.
The thing that bugged me most about this book (written by a WOMAN) is the lack of agency that any female character has! Ridiculous!!!! They're all victimized/controlled/saved by men, with no nuance, no reflection on how weird that is (even for the time period in which it's set). Also, the references to having to leave Detroit because the "Negro" boys were calling Elaine were never earned -- at all. A few other racist comments left a very sour taste in my mouth.
Y'all, skip it.
Others have noticed/noted the abysmal editing job, so I'll just say, um, when your editor may in fact be your mom, you probably need another reader.
The thing that bugged me most about this book (written by a WOMAN) is the lack of agency that any female character has! Ridiculous!!!! They're all victimized/controlled/saved by men, with no nuance, no reflection on how weird that is (even for the time period in which it's set). Also, the references to having to leave Detroit because the "Negro" boys were calling Elaine were never earned -- at all. A few other racist comments left a very sour taste in my mouth.
Y'all, skip it.
April 9, 2011
The story begins with Celia Scott driving through darkness searching for the tail lights of her husband's truck. They are moving back to his rural childhood home on Bent Road, Kansas and he's sped ahead, leaving her without a guide. It's a road that's tricky to navigate even in the day, much less in the dark of night. And this darkness is full of moving, unidentifiable shapes and shadows.
This brooding atmosphere underpins the entire novel. Celia's husband, Arthur, left home over twenty years ago after his beloved sister, Eve, died in mysterious circumstances. He's only returned because their life in faraway Detroit has become untenable. But the return of the Scott family will have unforeseen and tragic consequences.
Bent Road is a beautifully written book. The language seems simple; no running to the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words or gasps at literary flourishes. But I think that what may appear simple is in reality elegance. Roy doesn't use one more word than she needs and her ability to generate suspense is impressive, especially for a debut novelist. There were chapters in this book where I held my breath and had to fight the impulse to turn to the last page to relieve the tension.
Roy deftly handles several themes including fear of the other, the influence of religion on behavior, domestic violence, and the question of how people define masculinity. Her characters are believable and the farm she creates is a farm you can smell, see and practically reach out and touch. This is a book that lived up its buzz.
This brooding atmosphere underpins the entire novel. Celia's husband, Arthur, left home over twenty years ago after his beloved sister, Eve, died in mysterious circumstances. He's only returned because their life in faraway Detroit has become untenable. But the return of the Scott family will have unforeseen and tragic consequences.
Bent Road is a beautifully written book. The language seems simple; no running to the dictionary to look up unfamiliar words or gasps at literary flourishes. But I think that what may appear simple is in reality elegance. Roy doesn't use one more word than she needs and her ability to generate suspense is impressive, especially for a debut novelist. There were chapters in this book where I held my breath and had to fight the impulse to turn to the last page to relieve the tension.
Roy deftly handles several themes including fear of the other, the influence of religion on behavior, domestic violence, and the question of how people define masculinity. Her characters are believable and the farm she creates is a farm you can smell, see and practically reach out and touch. This is a book that lived up its buzz.
April 23, 2012
Did not enjoy this for a number of reasons. It paints a stereotypical portrait of Kansas, for one. Most of the adults are flat caricatures who use hokey dialogue, for two. The point of view shifts around ineffectively, in some cases the same scene is described -- ploddingly -- by about four different people; I'm ready to move on, but wait, let's have yet another character describe the same scene. In another scene, bits of dialogue were interspersed with description of a character trying to find a pie to serve. Frequently, the characters' movements were described in detail when it wasn't necessary and sometimes slowed the action. I suppose the point is to build tension... but the result for me was frustration.
Also, too many far-fetched points to be realistic: The main one being that the father has stayed away from his hometown for 20 years because of a tragedy involving his sister. But then he moves back from Detroit because "Negroes" have been calling on his oldest daughter? His sister has been secretly battered by her husband for years, and then he brings her over to her family's house freshly bruised from a beating?
Other elements were obviously introduced solely to create tension. For instance, the family has been given a cow, yet no mention is made of actually milking the cow. No, the purpose of the cow seems to be to introduce mystery as she continually gets out of the unlocked gate. Did the son (again) leave the gate open? Or did the escaped mental patient open the gate?
The story is built around this decades-old mystery about the "murder" of Eve, who has blond hair and blue eyes. Coincidentally (or not) the niece, Evie, seems to hold a strong resemblance to her dead aunt, and the author would have us believe that there are only three people in all of Kansas with fair hair and blue eyes, for when a classmate of Evie's -- also with blond hair and blue eyes -- disappears, everyone in town seems to think that there's a person stalking girls with blond hair and blue eyes.
In the end, after much of the "mystery" has been resolved, the author attempts to build tension again by hinting that Evie's brother Daniel, who has struggled for his father's approval throughout the book, is going to use his dad's shotgun to -- do what? Kill his sister's fiancee who has won the father's approval, and to whom he always seems to measure up short? Fortunately, the "real" bad guy shows up, providing a better target...I could go on, but won't....
Also, too many far-fetched points to be realistic: The main one being that the father has stayed away from his hometown for 20 years because of a tragedy involving his sister. But then he moves back from Detroit because "Negroes" have been calling on his oldest daughter? His sister has been secretly battered by her husband for years, and then he brings her over to her family's house freshly bruised from a beating?
Other elements were obviously introduced solely to create tension. For instance, the family has been given a cow, yet no mention is made of actually milking the cow. No, the purpose of the cow seems to be to introduce mystery as she continually gets out of the unlocked gate. Did the son (again) leave the gate open? Or did the escaped mental patient open the gate?
The story is built around this decades-old mystery about the "murder" of Eve, who has blond hair and blue eyes. Coincidentally (or not) the niece, Evie, seems to hold a strong resemblance to her dead aunt, and the author would have us believe that there are only three people in all of Kansas with fair hair and blue eyes, for when a classmate of Evie's -- also with blond hair and blue eyes -- disappears, everyone in town seems to think that there's a person stalking girls with blond hair and blue eyes.
In the end, after much of the "mystery" has been resolved, the author attempts to build tension again by hinting that Evie's brother Daniel, who has struggled for his father's approval throughout the book, is going to use his dad's shotgun to -- do what? Kill his sister's fiancee who has won the father's approval, and to whom he always seems to measure up short? Fortunately, the "real" bad guy shows up, providing a better target...I could go on, but won't....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2011
A very darkly forbiding book, but kept me interested and reading. Family secrets, assumptions, come back to haunt a family moving back home to Kansas from Detroit. From the very beginning one senses there is going to be something violent happening. Well wriiten first novel
August 2, 2011
In the last month I have picked up 3 books by first time authors, and this is by far the best of the three (I couldn’t even finish The Borrower by Rebecca Makki.). Lori Roy does an outstanding job of bringing American Gothic to life in this novel of secrets, lies and despair in the Heartland of America. Roy does a wonderful job of creating tension and dread throughout the novel. The landscape is desolate with tumbleweeds blowing up against fences making them look like monsters; the characters wary, unsure and troubled. Roy’s writing is taut but descriptive, smooth but suspenseful, all carrying the reader effortlessly on to the next page.
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.
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.
September 27, 2014
This book was easy to read, and although some reviewers noted that it needed a good editor, that didn't bother me too much.
What did bother me was the fact that none of the characters were likable, not even young Evie, and especially not Daniel. None of them!
Another problem I had was trying to figure out how old Daniel and Evie were. The mention of Daniel not being a man yet...repeated over and over and over...added to my confusion about his age, because at times he seemed older. A reference was made about Evie's small, chubby hands, with tiny dimples over each knuckle, which I thought would have put her age at about 5, but at other times she acted much older as well.
I got tired of the mention, the whole way through the book, of Jack Mayer, escapee from a nearby mental asylum. He was mentioned so often that it became annoying. More so because he never even made an appearance.
There were a couple of instances of animal cruelty, which never sits well with me.
The multiple points of view of different characters was confusing and at times unnecessary.
For me, the whole story lacked depth, it lacked suspense, and for the most part was dull and boring. And the ending was a big nothing.
But, I did finish it. And although there was a lot I didn't like about the book, I didn't hate it either.
December 2, 2011
Dear Lori Roy's Editor (who, I noticed, has the same last name as Lori Roy),
This book had potential, I'll give it that, but what it did not have was attention to detail. Some words and phrases were repeated so often it was completely distracting. Go on, open up your electronic copy of the manuscript and do a "Find" on the following:
Also, one looks through a "window," not a "widow." And when making comparisons, one thing is more than the other, not more then the other.
These weren't the only things that made it difficult for me to enjoy this book, but they sure didn't help. Overall, I felt like the entire story suffered from the lack of an editor with a critical eye and an appreciation for tight narrative, rather than (than!) just a Spellcheck button.
Yours disappointedly,
Andria
This book had potential, I'll give it that, but what it did not have was attention to detail. Some words and phrases were repeated so often it was completely distracting. Go on, open up your electronic copy of the manuscript and do a "Find" on the following:
- frown
- sidestep
- hand on the back of the seat
- cleared his throat like a closing fist (you can really only use this clunky metaphor once, not twice within five pages)
Also, one looks through a "window," not a "widow." And when making comparisons, one thing is more than the other, not more then the other.
These weren't the only things that made it difficult for me to enjoy this book, but they sure didn't help. Overall, I felt like the entire story suffered from the lack of an editor with a critical eye and an appreciation for tight narrative, rather than (than!) just a Spellcheck button.
Yours disappointedly,
Andria
September 13, 2014
Aunt Eve is dead. But she seems to appear again in the form of Little Evie Scott, her niece and a dead ringer for Eve.
Racial prejudice brings the Scott family back from Detroit to home, a small Kansas farm. They want to be where white people predominate. But Little Evie soon becomes overwhelmed and haunted by the secrets of the adults in her family and in the small town near Bent Road by her resemblance to her dead aunt. Old hurts begin to ferment and boil.
Uncle Ray was always the prime suspect in Eve's death, but while nothing was ever proved against him the shunning and whispers destroyed his life. Now his malice has a focus.
Arthur Scott, his wife Celia, the children Elaine, Daniel and Evie, have returned to Bent Road where Arthur's sister Ruth and his mother Reesa still live. Strangely, Ruth has married Ray, the man suspected of murdering her sister Eve twenty years before. Shortly after the family finds a farm to rent and after enrolling the children in school, the community is upset by the disappearance of another child who resembles both Eve and Evie. Celia feels the hidden things unsaid in Arthur's family, but is unable to free herself from the quicksand of being outsider. Daniel finds himself ostracized but believes it's because he is a city kid of 14 in a farming town of muscular farm kids who hunt. Evie is tormented by the other children because she looks like the murdered Eve. Father Flannery, Grandma Reesa's priest and guide, is divisive and frightening, disturbing everyone with his opinions. The family struggles to stay united, but barely, and in the meantime the mystery of who killed Eve begins to threaten to expose the prejudices the Scott family had used to sustain their roles with each other. Hidden prejudices are at the heart of the secrets that maintain accepted behaviors in this small farming community, so truth is unwelcome. However the Scott family starts changing unavoidably when Ruth and Reesa are part of the family again.
The unraveling begins soon after the book opens, and the story picks up with the speed of a Mack truck without brakes going down a hill. Exciting and thrilling.
It's a good murder mystery, which while about an attractive family with secrets threatening their survival as a family, it also has the depths of a good literary read. Each character, Arthur Scott, his wife Celia, and their children Elaine (although she is the reason Arthur moved the family from Detroit to Bent Road, Kansas, Arthur's childhood home, she barely figures in the rest of the book since she quickly changes from troubled teen to happy teen), Daniel and Evie are people easy to understand.
The farming community itself has a tremendous impact on citified Celia and her children, especially Daniel and Evie. To survive as a family, they each have to face the prejudices within themselves as well as within the community, discover the truth behind the secrets they've hidden from each other for twenty years and redefine the moral boundaries that the change of locale forces them to examine.
This is a great read. It works on many levels, so mystery AND literary readers will enjoy it. I easily connected with the characters, unusual for a story full of people who are symbolic representations. Evie, the baby of the family, charmed me the most, with Daniel not far behind. I also adored Arthur and Celia. Ruth was difficult for me because she abased herself in a cause I didn't understand. The author's use of an image of a statue without hands struck me rather powerfully as a literary device signifying how the exposure and recognition of prejudices stopped much of their power to harm. Evie has stayed with me as the haunting conscience, the wailing Cassandra, who remains stunted and ignored until truths are recognized. She begins to grow into health and strength when the family faces up to their actual history.
Racial prejudice brings the Scott family back from Detroit to home, a small Kansas farm. They want to be where white people predominate. But Little Evie soon becomes overwhelmed and haunted by the secrets of the adults in her family and in the small town near Bent Road by her resemblance to her dead aunt. Old hurts begin to ferment and boil.
Uncle Ray was always the prime suspect in Eve's death, but while nothing was ever proved against him the shunning and whispers destroyed his life. Now his malice has a focus.
Arthur Scott, his wife Celia, the children Elaine, Daniel and Evie, have returned to Bent Road where Arthur's sister Ruth and his mother Reesa still live. Strangely, Ruth has married Ray, the man suspected of murdering her sister Eve twenty years before. Shortly after the family finds a farm to rent and after enrolling the children in school, the community is upset by the disappearance of another child who resembles both Eve and Evie. Celia feels the hidden things unsaid in Arthur's family, but is unable to free herself from the quicksand of being outsider. Daniel finds himself ostracized but believes it's because he is a city kid of 14 in a farming town of muscular farm kids who hunt. Evie is tormented by the other children because she looks like the murdered Eve. Father Flannery, Grandma Reesa's priest and guide, is divisive and frightening, disturbing everyone with his opinions. The family struggles to stay united, but barely, and in the meantime the mystery of who killed Eve begins to threaten to expose the prejudices the Scott family had used to sustain their roles with each other. Hidden prejudices are at the heart of the secrets that maintain accepted behaviors in this small farming community, so truth is unwelcome. However the Scott family starts changing unavoidably when Ruth and Reesa are part of the family again.
The unraveling begins soon after the book opens, and the story picks up with the speed of a Mack truck without brakes going down a hill. Exciting and thrilling.
It's a good murder mystery, which while about an attractive family with secrets threatening their survival as a family, it also has the depths of a good literary read. Each character, Arthur Scott, his wife Celia, and their children Elaine (although she is the reason Arthur moved the family from Detroit to Bent Road, Kansas, Arthur's childhood home, she barely figures in the rest of the book since she quickly changes from troubled teen to happy teen), Daniel and Evie are people easy to understand.
The farming community itself has a tremendous impact on citified Celia and her children, especially Daniel and Evie. To survive as a family, they each have to face the prejudices within themselves as well as within the community, discover the truth behind the secrets they've hidden from each other for twenty years and redefine the moral boundaries that the change of locale forces them to examine.
This is a great read. It works on many levels, so mystery AND literary readers will enjoy it. I easily connected with the characters, unusual for a story full of people who are symbolic representations. Evie, the baby of the family, charmed me the most, with Daniel not far behind. I also adored Arthur and Celia. Ruth was difficult for me because she abased herself in a cause I didn't understand. The author's use of an image of a statue without hands struck me rather powerfully as a literary device signifying how the exposure and recognition of prejudices stopped much of their power to harm. Evie has stayed with me as the haunting conscience, the wailing Cassandra, who remains stunted and ignored until truths are recognized. She begins to grow into health and strength when the family faces up to their actual history.
June 8, 2011
What can I say? I was looking forward to reading this due to all the positive reviews, but I just did not like this book much. I didn't like the writer's style, and I thought the storyline was pretty predictable and at some times downright unpleasant. This is a mystery written for adult audiences, and I guess it can be classified as slightly historical as well since it's set in the 1960s. The story revolves around a family that has moved to a small KS town from Detroit. The family's father, Arthur, grew up in the town and left years ago after his little sister died and hadn't been back since. Once the family gets back to town, a child disappears, and suspicion falls on several family members. I guess one thing I didn't like about this book is the negative light in which rural farm life is portrayed. I just felt like it was presented as a very bleak existence, which may be the reality. I don't know since I didn't live on a farm in the 1960s, but I found the book, overall, to be dark and depressing. I also felt like the storyline of the mystery was fairly predictable. I struggled to get through this and will admit to skipping passages, especially when the kids were killing animals for fun. Yuck.
May 12, 2013
Hmmm. I tried really hard to like this book, but it just never really grabbed me. I think it was supposed to be suspenseful, but the way it was written didn't really build suspense for me at all. Part of the problem was the spelling & grammar errors that snuck in. Some of them were so glaring and obvious that I got really distracted at points. Another part of the problem was the author's repetition of certain phrases - it felt like she was beating you to death with them. For example, talking about Daniel "becoming a man/being a man" was WAY overused. Also, WTF is so important about Dan "being a man" anyway? I get that this is set in the mid to late 1960s, but seriously, this was obsessive to the point of being irritating, and it's never given any context to show the reader WHY it's so important.
I also didn't connect to the characters. Dad, Arthur, is mainly emotionally absent, Ruth is a non-entity for a lot of the book, Ray is a violent drunk, Dan is obsessed with being a man, Elaine is only into Jonathon, Jonathon is seemingly the perfect, handy Kansas dude, Ian is obsessed with escapees from the nearby mental hospital, Evie is obsessed with her Aunt Eve (a woman who died long before Evie was born) and Reesa is the know it all mother-in-law. The only character that I could relate to for short flashes was Celia, the mom, and those moments were too few and far between. She could be funny and interesting, especially when dealing with Reesa, but most of the time she chose to just drift along and wasn't really interesting.
I think a large part of my problem is that I read Dark Places recently and this book really suffered by comparison. Both books talk about farm life in a small community (Bent Road in Kansas, Dark Places in Missouri), where something terrible has happened. In Dark Places, the main character's family is massacred, Bent Road has the death of Aunt Eve and disappearance of Julianne (a girl that looks a lot like Eve) many years later. The bottom line for me was that Dark Places did a very similar story better. Even though Libby, Dark Places' protagonist, is a horrible person and very unlikeable, she's INTERESTING, and the story keeps you reading because Gillian Flynn crafts a mystery that's focused and coherent. Bent Road has too many tangents that don't really add up to a coherent story.
I also didn't connect to the characters. Dad, Arthur, is mainly emotionally absent, Ruth is a non-entity for a lot of the book, Ray is a violent drunk, Dan is obsessed with being a man, Elaine is only into Jonathon, Jonathon is seemingly the perfect, handy Kansas dude, Ian is obsessed with escapees from the nearby mental hospital, Evie is obsessed with her Aunt Eve (a woman who died long before Evie was born) and Reesa is the know it all mother-in-law. The only character that I could relate to for short flashes was Celia, the mom, and those moments were too few and far between. She could be funny and interesting, especially when dealing with Reesa, but most of the time she chose to just drift along and wasn't really interesting.
I think a large part of my problem is that I read Dark Places recently and this book really suffered by comparison. Both books talk about farm life in a small community (Bent Road in Kansas, Dark Places in Missouri), where something terrible has happened. In Dark Places, the main character's family is massacred, Bent Road has the death of Aunt Eve and disappearance of Julianne (a girl that looks a lot like Eve) many years later. The bottom line for me was that Dark Places did a very similar story better. Even though Libby, Dark Places' protagonist, is a horrible person and very unlikeable, she's INTERESTING, and the story keeps you reading because Gillian Flynn crafts a mystery that's focused and coherent. Bent Road has too many tangents that don't really add up to a coherent story.
June 26, 2013
Bent Road's setting, Kansas, evokes lonliness and isolation. Celia, Arthur,and three children
drive to Arthur's home in Kansas to escape threats in 1967 riots from racially divided Detroit. They move into a house near his mother and start a new life. Celia and Evie, the youngest, have difficulty accepting the very different lifestyle where the local Catholic church is the only social contact. Reesa, the mother-in-law, is dominating and belittling to Celia. In a memorable scene, Reesa is frying chicken and making dumplings when she is called outside, leaving Celia in charge. Celia turns up the fire under the cast iron skillet simmering with chicken and walks out. When Reesa returns, the kitchen is filled with smoke and dinner is ruined.
The antagonist is Ray, Arthur's sister's husband who beats Ruth until one day when Arthur sees the bruises. He moves Ruth into his house creating the conflict that will eventually bring to light the reason Arthur has not been back to Kansas in twenty years, his sister, Eve's unexplained death. Daniel the eldest son is striving to become the man his father expects him to be, Evie is friendless and dressing in her dead aunt's clothes, Ruth finds out she is pregnant and Elaine the oldest daughter plans to marry. The landscape is achingly depicted with tumbleweeds blowing down Bent Tree road and snow trapping characters inside while Ray threatens Ruth, Evie and Celia.
This novel is Lori Roy's first with a suspenseful Gothic center whose mystery is not solved until the final page.
drive to Arthur's home in Kansas to escape threats in 1967 riots from racially divided Detroit. They move into a house near his mother and start a new life. Celia and Evie, the youngest, have difficulty accepting the very different lifestyle where the local Catholic church is the only social contact. Reesa, the mother-in-law, is dominating and belittling to Celia. In a memorable scene, Reesa is frying chicken and making dumplings when she is called outside, leaving Celia in charge. Celia turns up the fire under the cast iron skillet simmering with chicken and walks out. When Reesa returns, the kitchen is filled with smoke and dinner is ruined.
The antagonist is Ray, Arthur's sister's husband who beats Ruth until one day when Arthur sees the bruises. He moves Ruth into his house creating the conflict that will eventually bring to light the reason Arthur has not been back to Kansas in twenty years, his sister, Eve's unexplained death. Daniel the eldest son is striving to become the man his father expects him to be, Evie is friendless and dressing in her dead aunt's clothes, Ruth finds out she is pregnant and Elaine the oldest daughter plans to marry. The landscape is achingly depicted with tumbleweeds blowing down Bent Tree road and snow trapping characters inside while Ray threatens Ruth, Evie and Celia.
This novel is Lori Roy's first with a suspenseful Gothic center whose mystery is not solved until the final page.
April 19, 2011
BENT ROAD
Lori Roy
This outstanding debut novel soars with a keen sense of place, crisply descriptive prose and finely etched strong characters and plot.
Set in the mid 60’s on the wide open plains of Kansas, the author depicts a haunting family drama with shades of Midwestern noir. Almost becoming one of the characters is the harshness and isolation of farm life, and the damage of repressed emotions.
Arthur and Celia Scott return to Arthur’s home town after a 20 year absence. He moved away right after his sister, Eve’s mysterious death. When a neighbor’s child disappears suspicion settles on the man everyone suspected of Eve’s murder, and the seemingly calm community becomes a hot bed of mistrust.
This psychologically acute and breathtakingly suspenseful tale with gothic overtones is a sure winner, and a marvelous read.
Lori Roy
This outstanding debut novel soars with a keen sense of place, crisply descriptive prose and finely etched strong characters and plot.
Set in the mid 60’s on the wide open plains of Kansas, the author depicts a haunting family drama with shades of Midwestern noir. Almost becoming one of the characters is the harshness and isolation of farm life, and the damage of repressed emotions.
Arthur and Celia Scott return to Arthur’s home town after a 20 year absence. He moved away right after his sister, Eve’s mysterious death. When a neighbor’s child disappears suspicion settles on the man everyone suspected of Eve’s murder, and the seemingly calm community becomes a hot bed of mistrust.
This psychologically acute and breathtakingly suspenseful tale with gothic overtones is a sure winner, and a marvelous read.
May 7, 2011
Very atmospheric debut set in Kansas during the sixties. Lots of small town intrigue and interesting characters but I felt overall the book was a bit overwritten and somewhat overwrought. Thought the final portion of the book was very good though so I will probably give this author another try.
November 15, 2013
Three and a half stars. This is another story about secrets and their effects on a family and on a town. Arthur left his home in Kansas with plans never to plans never to return. But events in Detroit frighten him more than the past and so he packs up his family and moves back to Bent Road where he grew up and to the Kansas town where his sister died so many years before.
Arthur and his eldest daughter Elaine adjust to country life but Arthur's wife Celia, and children Daniel and Evie do not find it as easy. When a young local girl disappears, suspicions that have been harboured by many in town resurface. Tensions bubble.
The picture of small town Kansas and the rural life in the 1960s is evocatively portrayed. The language used is stark and spare. It aptly depicts both the scene and the difficulties confronting this family. It is not always a comfortable read as some incidents are harsh and brutal.
The dark cover is indicative of the content. The novel raises issues like incest, domestic violence, not fitting in, the price of keeping quiet and how choices always have a consequence. While I found the story gripping, especially towards the end, I never really warmed to the characters. So worth reading for the content, but I struggled to like the characters. Others may well react differently. For a debut novel it is very powerful though and appears well researched.
Arthur and his eldest daughter Elaine adjust to country life but Arthur's wife Celia, and children Daniel and Evie do not find it as easy. When a young local girl disappears, suspicions that have been harboured by many in town resurface. Tensions bubble.
The picture of small town Kansas and the rural life in the 1960s is evocatively portrayed. The language used is stark and spare. It aptly depicts both the scene and the difficulties confronting this family. It is not always a comfortable read as some incidents are harsh and brutal.
The dark cover is indicative of the content. The novel raises issues like incest, domestic violence, not fitting in, the price of keeping quiet and how choices always have a consequence. While I found the story gripping, especially towards the end, I never really warmed to the characters. So worth reading for the content, but I struggled to like the characters. Others may well react differently. For a debut novel it is very powerful though and appears well researched.
June 2, 2011
There's menace threaded all through this story about a family that moves to rural Kansas from Detroit. Kansas itself seems menacing, with dangerous roads and tumbleweed that looks like a monster hanging from the fence. The disappearance of a young girl the week the family moves back makes everything even more creepy and threatening. And then there's the mysterious death of the family's aunt, decades ago, assorted acts of animal cruelty, a battered wife stalked by her husband, a priest who seems to be out to harm the family...in this book, it's even kind of scary when the fried chicken for Sunday dinner gets burned.
The pace is slow, due to the author's penchant for describing significant events from the viewpoint of multiple characters. But it really heats up towards the end. After the book was over, I felt like the story had been kind of small in scope -- I thought it was going to be a book about the social rules of rural America in the 1960s, but maybe it was just a murder mystery, about one extended family.
The pace is slow, due to the author's penchant for describing significant events from the viewpoint of multiple characters. But it really heats up towards the end. After the book was over, I felt like the story had been kind of small in scope -- I thought it was going to be a book about the social rules of rural America in the 1960s, but maybe it was just a murder mystery, about one extended family.
March 22, 2011
This is a gripping debut novel from an author to watch. Lori Roy tells a story in southern-gothic tradition of a family haunted by the past.
To escape the race riots of 1967 Detroit, Arthur Scott returns to Kansas, after fleeing his family homestead there twenty years before.
While his teen daughter settles into a new love and life in Kansas, his adolescent son, and grade school daughter struggle to fit in and belong.
Arthur’s wife must come to terms with being a farm wife, as she struggles with Arthur’s secret past and what drove him away from his home here so long ago.
Ms. Roy portrays a very real picture of farm life, country folk, and the secrets a family will go to all lengths to hide, even from each other.
The characters are believable, their struggles heartfelt. This is a haunting, memorable story. This author has much to offer, in a genuine way. I welcome her, and highly recommend her.
To escape the race riots of 1967 Detroit, Arthur Scott returns to Kansas, after fleeing his family homestead there twenty years before.
While his teen daughter settles into a new love and life in Kansas, his adolescent son, and grade school daughter struggle to fit in and belong.
Arthur’s wife must come to terms with being a farm wife, as she struggles with Arthur’s secret past and what drove him away from his home here so long ago.
Ms. Roy portrays a very real picture of farm life, country folk, and the secrets a family will go to all lengths to hide, even from each other.
The characters are believable, their struggles heartfelt. This is a haunting, memorable story. This author has much to offer, in a genuine way. I welcome her, and highly recommend her.
September 25, 2014
A well written book that keeps you interested throughout. I liked the writing style in which the author's use of several narrators allowing each one to tell the story from their point of view. Most of the narrators are women with the exception of Daniel, the young man transitioning from a boy into manhood.
The book centers on the mystery of a family moving back to Kansas from Detroit. They are doing so because of the race riots in Detroit. The story also deals with the horrific damage that secrets can cause in a family and a community. The interaction among the family members that the secret has caused is wonderfully described by the author.
In addition to all the above the author dwells with the acceptance of spousal abuse in a small community by its citizens and the church. There is a lot of violence and some raw scenes and the narrative sometimes is very suspenseful and quite bloody.
The book centers on the mystery of a family moving back to Kansas from Detroit. They are doing so because of the race riots in Detroit. The story also deals with the horrific damage that secrets can cause in a family and a community. The interaction among the family members that the secret has caused is wonderfully described by the author.
In addition to all the above the author dwells with the acceptance of spousal abuse in a small community by its citizens and the church. There is a lot of violence and some raw scenes and the narrative sometimes is very suspenseful and quite bloody.
September 30, 2015
2.5 stars. I've never been to Kansas but I hope it's not as awful as the author makes it sound. Guns and alcohol seemed to be the answer to many problems. My audio book was defective (again) and was jumping around in parts (am I doing something wrong?), or else the middle of the book was just very confusing and repetitive on its own. I didn't let that affect my rating though.
May 31, 2012
I read this book in less than 3 days. They were not boring, sick-in-bed with-nothing-better-to-do days either. It was that good. It's seems even better to me because BENT ROAD is this author's first novel.
Like this sentence, Lori Roy styles her story in present tense rather than in the usual past tense. Instead of saying "Arthur slammed his fist on the truck again and held up his other hand to Reesa" the author writes, "Arthur slams his fist on the truck again and holds up his other hand to Reesa." This difference was very noticeable from the beginning and at first was a little distracting. I do wonder why Ms. Roy chose to express her tale in this manner but after a bit I realized I like(ed) it!
This is not a shoot-em-up or my usual spy or murderous person thriller, rather I would call it a mystery that builds slowly to a fascinating climax. The author described characters and their interactions so well I felt like I knew these people. They weren't heroes nor were they dummies. It could have been written about a family down the road from any of us. Hopefully not though because, despite likable and realistic characters, BENT ROAD contains considerable sadness and what can only be called tragedy. The thing is, the sadness is not because of what you think and the tragedy is not what you expect and, thankfully, neither defeats all the characters.
It's the end of the story before the reader really knows what happened in this small Kansas town, either those unknowns from the past or the more recent mysterious events. I mean THE VERY END. As I read I remember thinking "Well, I'll be d_ _ _ ed!"
To me a four star rating means that, though this story will never be an everlasting favorite, nor is it full of profound truths and lessons I will always remember (a five-star rating is reserved for those very few stories that produce those factors), to me it is EXTRA FINE. Hope you like it too!
Like this sentence, Lori Roy styles her story in present tense rather than in the usual past tense. Instead of saying "Arthur slammed his fist on the truck again and held up his other hand to Reesa" the author writes, "Arthur slams his fist on the truck again and holds up his other hand to Reesa." This difference was very noticeable from the beginning and at first was a little distracting. I do wonder why Ms. Roy chose to express her tale in this manner but after a bit I realized I like(ed) it!
This is not a shoot-em-up or my usual spy or murderous person thriller, rather I would call it a mystery that builds slowly to a fascinating climax. The author described characters and their interactions so well I felt like I knew these people. They weren't heroes nor were they dummies. It could have been written about a family down the road from any of us. Hopefully not though because, despite likable and realistic characters, BENT ROAD contains considerable sadness and what can only be called tragedy. The thing is, the sadness is not because of what you think and the tragedy is not what you expect and, thankfully, neither defeats all the characters.
It's the end of the story before the reader really knows what happened in this small Kansas town, either those unknowns from the past or the more recent mysterious events. I mean THE VERY END. As I read I remember thinking "Well, I'll be d_ _ _ ed!"
To me a four star rating means that, though this story will never be an everlasting favorite, nor is it full of profound truths and lessons I will always remember (a five-star rating is reserved for those very few stories that produce those factors), to me it is EXTRA FINE. Hope you like it too!
May 24, 2011
More literary fiction than mystery, Lori Roy's Bent Road is a fabulous debut novel from an author who has earned her right to be on my permanent radar. I loved most everything about the book, right down to the lovely cover & somewhat double meaning of its title. Besides being a fabulous read, Bent Road had the honor of rescuing me from the tedious read that The Gathering has thus far been. (I'll have to force myself to finish the latter). Back to Bent Road, I was most impressed with the author's ability to paint such a vivid portrait of late 1960s rural Kansas. I've never read such haunting descriptions of tumbleweeds! I completely agree with author Megan Abbott's praise of the novel: "Lori Roy transforms 1960s small-town Kansas into a haunting memoryscape." Not only did Roy perfectly capture the essence of small-town Kansas and generations of family secrets against that Kansas backdrop, but she also made me care about most all of the "good guys & girls" who lived there. Even though there was plenty of suspense to keep me turning the pages, I found that I enjoyed the unfolding details of the characters as much as I did the unraveling of the multiple twists. As I've said in the past, I absolutely hate any type of spoiler, so I'm not going to discuss what the family secrets in this novel involve. You'll have to read the book to find out! On a final note, I just discovered the author's blog, and if you end up enjoying Bent Road as much as I did, you should check it out. It has a lot of fascinating backstory and photos that shed light on Roy's inspiration for her first novel.
April 16, 2011
I won this via a Goodreads giveaway. (Thanks Goodreads and Dutton!) In Bent Road Ms. Roy has written a compelling novel with fully drawn characters. The story is part family saga, part (dual) murder mystery. Despite the mystery, which made me want to read right through to the conclusion, I was equally happy to spend time with the characters, even those were quite unlikable! My major complaint with the novel was that it was very choppy. Some scenes were only a few paragraphs long, and at times there were multiple such scenes in a row. I would have preferred Ms. Roy to have spent more time in certain places or added transitional scenes. Still, Ms. Roy announces yet another new voice in literature who I will look for again in the future!
April 16, 2011
Author Lori Roy’s debut novel follows Arthur Scott and his family as they pack up their city life in Detroit, Michigan and move to a small town in Kansas. The book’s description is a bit misleading as it states:
“But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than the past…”
What actually frightens Arthur, and it’s stated multiple times throughout the novel, is that black men begin calling after his oldest daughter Elaine. Right or wrong, this fact is ultimately what prompts him to uproot his family and move them all back to his small hometown where his older sister mysterious died so many years ago.
READ MORE:
http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...
“But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than the past…”
What actually frightens Arthur, and it’s stated multiple times throughout the novel, is that black men begin calling after his oldest daughter Elaine. Right or wrong, this fact is ultimately what prompts him to uproot his family and move them all back to his small hometown where his older sister mysterious died so many years ago.
READ MORE:
http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...
September 12, 2013
Elmore Leonard advised writers to leave out the parts readers skip. Oh, how I wish I skipped. Could I be that kind of reader in my next life? The first two-thirds of this book were almost unbearably dull. I forced myself to keep reading. After all, the book won an Edgar. I am not sure why. Perhaps because of the writer's style, which I'll describe as wispy. I didn't like the style, but perhaps the judges deemed the style as literary. I did like the last third of the book, which was suspenseful. Still, I can't recommend it.
January 15, 2025
Bent Road est un roman qui joue sur deux registres : une lente immersion psychologique et une intrigue policière en arrière-plan. Lori Roy nous plonge dans un univers rural du Kansas, à la fin des années 60, où les secrets familiaux reflètent les tensions sociales et culturelles de l'époque.
C'est un roman lent et exigeant dont la seconde moitié et le dénouement surprenant ont récompensé ma persévérance. Mon intérêt s'est accru au fur et à mesure de l'histoire. Pas d'un suspense haletant mais une bonne construction de l'intrigue.
C'est un roman lent et exigeant dont la seconde moitié et le dénouement surprenant ont récompensé ma persévérance. Mon intérêt s'est accru au fur et à mesure de l'histoire. Pas d'un suspense haletant mais une bonne construction de l'intrigue.
April 7, 2011
This was a pretty gripping debut. Not the best I've read, but good. It's 1967 and Andrew takes his family back to Kansas, where he hasn't been for 20 years. Andrew's sister, Eve, died mysteriously 20 years before, and when the family arrives a little girl goes missing. The setting is important here--flat, dry, tumbleweeds and shadows--and Roy creates a forboding atmosphere throughout.
July 2, 2011
I felt like this book dragged. It had a simple but decent plot, but 100 pages or so could have been cut easily. Characters were not well developed at all.
I was disappointed, especially after reading bookmarks magazine and being told this book is reminiscent of Tana French's work. I love Tana French and this came nowhere near her work.
I was disappointed, especially after reading bookmarks magazine and being told this book is reminiscent of Tana French's work. I love Tana French and this came nowhere near her work.
May 3, 2012
I find it hard to believe that this is Ms. Roy's first novel! All I can say, is WOW! She had my attention from the first page to the climactic ending. I will definitely be looking for more of this author in the future!
March 11, 2019
Technically, the contents of this book is better than the two stars I have given it. It’s a story of a complicated family mystery, bound up in a recent, unrelated one, occurring right after a branch of the family move back after being away a long time. It’s a complex relationship study, and it’s probably what is called slow burn. Perhaps it’s my allergies and my not being able to take any meds for it that is making me especially cranky, but it bored me half to death while I waited for it to get somewhere. It does, but the denouement is very very abrupt, there are several parts to it, and coming after such a long setup, it’s not satisfying. I’m interested in reading more from this author, but this one left me cold.
May 1, 2018
I'm oddly unsure of how I feel about this book. Like, most of the characters were compelling, but I never cared about Elaine even though it was because of her that the family moved back to Bent Road. Similarly, I thought the main plot twist was...unsatisfying? It fit with the story and wasn't too predictable, but everything wrapped up so quickly that I just lost interest.
I did appreciate the whole "stop looking for enemies of other races when the true enemy has been with you the whole time" message, even if that part WAS super obvious. 🤷🏽♀️
I did appreciate the whole "stop looking for enemies of other races when the true enemy has been with you the whole time" message, even if that part WAS super obvious. 🤷🏽♀️
September 6, 2017
3 1/2 Stars. I thought this book was engaging with the character descriptions. It felt as if the emotions of each character were tangible. I wish the descriptions of the midwest were more detailed however. I felt as if this story could have happened anywhere in the US, yet it was supposed to have taken place in Kansas. I read other reviews of this book and do not agree that the animal cruelty scene detailed in the beginning of the book being the most gruesome part of this story. I (pretty much) figured out what was going to happen. It contained a slow going plot with a heap of suspense at the end. A sad and sick story of a families disfunction. It had an "In Cold Blood" feel to it, though it wasn't a true story. I would recommend this for anyone 18+ who enjoys stories of family secrets and mysteries of the non-cozy type.
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