There are two journeys at play here: that of an adolescent boy finding his true grit and that of a perennially absent mother getting a grip on her maternal center (mysteriously lax for a woman who has amassed a brood of five). Even though mother and son share the same objective, their odyssey seems to unfold in isolation from one another, a separation exacerbated by Elspeth’s emotional disconnectedness and her omnipresent sense of sinner’s guilt.

It is a testament to the author’s artisan-like control that he is able to tease us with the essence of Elspeth’s crimes from the outset and yet keep the terrible measure of her dereliction at bay until the final clinch, as breathless as it is inevitable.

“The Kept” is gothic in both structure and atmosphere. Violence comes swiftly, with no warning. The strong are without sentiment. The weak retain nothing but shards of their remembered affections. No family is whole. No love can be complete....

Author Scott wastes no time beginning the story, and never lets up until the climactic scene, in prose that’s brooding and intense right up until the final paragraph. All the characters are finely drawn, especially Elspeth and Caleb whom we follow in alternating chapters. Both are thrust into a painful examination of their own actions and desires, and tested beyond their limits. Elspeth’s deep religious convictions clash with her inexplicable obsession with stealing babies and her thirst for vengeance; Caleb’s sorrow at losing a family which turns out not to have been his drives his quest to discover who he really is and where his loyalties lie. Neither of them can reconcile what they believe they’re supposed to adhere to with their anger, confusion, and passion.

Although all this sounds quite grim and Gothic, the book is so packed with incident and character, and so fluidly paced, that it’s brought vividly to life by Scott’s meticulous control. The Kept is a highly accomplished first novel and a pleasure to read.