Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Haunting prose elevates ‘The Disappearing’
Lori Roy comfortably moves into the realm of Southern Gothic with her fourth novel. She cloaks “The Disappearing” with a chilling atmosphere resplendent with an abandoned scary place, hidden graveyards and sudden disappearances. There’s even a hint of a boogeyman casting his shadow over the area.
Roy’s affinity for haunting, lyrical prose that elevates the noir elements continues in “The Disappearing.”
Following her divorce, Lane Fielding reluctantly returns to her hometown of Waddell, Florida, with her daughters, Annalee, 18, and Talley, 10. Even more hesitantly, Lane moves her family in with her elderly parents, Neil and Erma.
The homecoming is not pleasant. Neil has been accused of beating and, perhaps, murdering several boys when he was headmaster of the nowshuttered reform school adjacent to their home, the historic Fielding Mansion. Graves are being uncovered and lawsuits are being filed by the boys who survived their time at the reform school and by families of the boys who were never heard from again.
Gossip on Neil’s guilt or innocence is rampant throughout the town. The home has never been happy — Neil was a controlling husband and father, and he and Erma never loved each other.
But Lane has more reasons to dislike being in Waddell. When she was 13, Lane was kidnapped and held by one of the boys at the school. The town isn’t welcoming to Lane, either. She’s ostracized for having a one-night stand with the married owner of a tavern where she works, and as a result, her daughters also are nearly outcasts.
A college student, who volunteers with the mansion’s historical preservation, goes missing and, shortly after, Annalee disappears. The local sheriff wonders if a serial killer may be the culprit. Lane worries the two young women may have been targeted because of their connection to the Fieldings.
“The Disappearing” smoothly alternates among the different characters’ points of view. Roy churns the plot with an eerie atmosphere, complete with towering trees still scarred from the ropes from which people are rumored to have died.