The Kept

The Kept

Summary

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR YOUR FAMILY, FOR LOVE, FOR REVENGE?

'Dark and mysterious ... reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy ... Sparse, elegant ... haunting.' New York Times

In the winter of 1897, Elspeth Howell returns home to her isolated farmstead to find her family brutally murdered. Only her twelve-year-old son, Caleb, survives.

Mother and son set out into the frozen wilderness to track down the men responsible for this horrific crime. Their search takes them to the ice-locked shores of Lake Erie, and a merciless town where violence abounds. As Caleb is forced into a brutal adulthood, he begins to uncover truths about his family he could never have anticipated, while Elspeth must confront secrets she has long kept hidden. Together, they discover the bond between mother and son may be their only hope for redemption.

Reviews

  • A classily written crime novel that is also an atmospheric evocation of a bygone era.
    The Sunday Times

About the author

James Scott

James Scott is Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Texas at Austin. James is a statistician and data scientist who studies Bayesian inference and computational methods for big data. His has collaborated with scientists in a wide variety of fields, including health care, nuclear security, linguistics, political science, finance, management, infectious disease, astronomy, neuroscience, transportation and molecular biology. He has also worked with clients across many different industries, from tech startups to large multinational firms. James lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Abigail.
His academic research has been featured in The New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC, NBC, Fox, the BBC UK, BBC World News, Radio 4, The Guardian and many other prominent media outlets.
Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more