Charlotte Bacon

Split Estate is a quietly powerful novel that examines the grief of the King family some time after Laura King jumped from their tenth-story New York City apartment, leaving no explanation. Arthur and his two teenaged children, Cam and Celia, are individually and collectively damaged by the suicide, and in desperation, Arthur drags Cam and Celia to live temporarily with his mother, Lucy, in his hometown of Callendar, Wyoming. Laura's memory isn't banished by a mere change of scene, however, show more and as the Kings struggle to relate to each other and adjust to life in Wyoming, each has grief and anger to contend with. The novel's title refers to the mining in Wyoming; as the ranching way of life has become harder and harder to sustain, families have begun to sell off the rights to mine their land, resulting in a split estate. Likewise, Laura still possesses the underlying foundation of the King family, and the question is whether they can either reclaim what they've lost or move on to lives without it.

Bacon's spare, precise prose illuminated with poetic turns of phrase ably compares the brutal reality of Wyoming with that of grief. As the Kings settle into their lives, there is hope that the change of scene might save what is left of the family. Chapters alternate between Arthur, Celia, Lucy, and Cam, but because the grief is collective as well as individual, this doesn't result in a lack of continuity; rather, the story is more nuanced and developed for the varied points of view. Each person has his secrets that are slowly revealed to the reader, and the ending is both shocking and inevitable. This is a beautiful, heartbreaking novel of despair, family, and Western life.

On My Bookshelf show less

How can a family reconcile their studied indifference to a deeply disturbed woman who provides daily sustenance to their lives? How will a husband, a son, and a daughter recover from her final self-destructive action: his wife and their mother jumping out of a window in the New York City apartment where they shared the seasons of their lives?
Overwhelmed by his own loss, Arthur is ill fit to render care and compassion to his teenage children, bewildered and confused in their efforts to show more decipher why fate has inflicted such a tragedy upon them.
Unable to envision New York City as a suitable place for his family to heal, Arthur packs up his family and drives to the small town of Callendar, Wyoming, his mother’s ranch, his beginnings.
There we meet the matriarch, Lucy King, who manages her dwindling ranch, and wonders whether this new arrangement with her son and her grandchildren will provide the solace, they sorely need. As ranching loses its luster, and neighbors sell mineral rights to their land, Lucy struggles with her own personal demons.
Charlotte Bacon persuasively captures each character’s persona as they undertake essential daily struggles and in so doing, discover the inner strength vital to work through their grief, and move forward. show less

The twisted thread in this story is described like so: "Claire had invoked one of the most sacred of the Reign's rituals, which was the making of a braided thread - always red, and braided with a few hairs from the members' heads - that meant those who wore it vowed secrecy for life about a certain topic." The topic in this case is the pregnancy of one of the girls at the prestigious Armitage Academy, Claire, who was subsequently murdered, and her baby taken from the scene and missing. show more Madeline Christopher is an intern in the English department, who feels awful that she had no idea that Claire was even pregnant, and takes it upon herself to ask questions in an effort to find out what happened to Claire, and where the baby is now.

I really liked the premise of this story, and the mystery was a good one. I got confused a lot because there were just so many characters, and all of their backstories ran together after a while. The story could have done with some tightening up and without all the extraneous side stories. The ending was a surprise, which is always a good thing, and tied things up nicely.

All in all, I thought this was a good mystery novel and I would recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars.

*** I would like to thank Hyperion and Charlotte Bacon for the opportunity to read and review this book. show less

This is, on the surface, a murder mystery set at a prestigious boarding school. Told from several viewpoints, from a steady maintenance man to the cop who was once a student at the school, the story ties together to paint a picture of privilege and loneliness, of arrogance and desperation.

Claire Harkness symbolized everything about Armitage Academy; beautiful and clever, she's won early admittance to an Ivy League college. She's the leader of a secretive group of popular, wealthy girls and show more her parents live in New York and Paris. But Claire is found dead in her dorm room one morning, possibly murdered and having just given birth, to a baby that is nowhere to be found.

Madeline has been hired to teach English at Armitage for a year, a temporary placement in a life she doesn't have completely under control. When Claire is found murdered in the dorm that she helps supervise, Madeline is driven to find out what happened and her youth and inexperience allow her to approach the closed world of teen-agers with absent parents and too much money.

This book reminds me of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and The Crazy School by Cornelia Read. It has an uncertain protagonist who is nonetheless willing to confront the past and practices that others would rather keep secret. The plot was well designed, and the characters revealed more and more nuance and depth as the story progressed. My one caveat is that the book lasted just a little too long. it's not necessary to tie off each thread so tidily, and in doing so, the book lost the tension of the earlier chapters. Still, Charlotte Bacon is an author well worth reading and I look forward to her next book. show less