But Will sees his parishioners' agitation as a moral panic, a deviation from true faith. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist is enthralled, convinced the beast may be a real undiscovered species. They meet as their village is engulfed by rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming human lives, has returned. Cora is a well-to-do London widow who moves to the Essex parish of Aldwinter, and Will is the local vicar. Set in Victorian London and an Essex village in the 1890's, and enlivened by the debates on scientific and medical discovery which defined the era, The Essex Serpent has at its heart the story of two extraordinary people who fall for each other, but not in the usual way. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.Īs it weaves between Lane's first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran fast and far away.Įleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls.

After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas.

Outlawed by anna north review