The Kept

James Scott’s historical thriller The Kept (2013) centers on a woman seeking vengeance after thugs murder her husband and four children. The book received mixed reviews upon publication, many readers and critics found the ending dissatisfying. Despite this mixed response, the novel received nominations for awards, including the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. An American novelist., Scott earned a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and he has received numerous writing awards. The Kept is his first novel.

The book takes place in the deep winter of 1897 in upstate New York. The protagonist, Elspeth Howell, is a midwife who lives in a farmhouse with her husband and children. Since the farmhouse is so isolated, Elspeth often works in nearby towns for months at a time. Once winter sets in, she comes home to spend the coldest months with her family before leaving for work again.

Elspeth has five children: Mary, fifteen, Amos, fourteen, Caleb, twelve, Jesse, ten, and Emma, who is six. She always buys them gifts when she is away and she can’t wait to see their faces when they open them. She feels guilty that she is away from home so much and for leaving Mary to take on the responsibilities of running the household.



The moment Elspeth enters the woodlands near her home, she knows that something is wrong. Everything is too quiet. The boys aren’t out rounding the animals, and there’s no smell from winter fires. Elspeth can’t put her finger on it, but she knows that once she walks through her front door, nothing will ever be the same.

Elspeth doesn’t make it inside before she finds the first body. The youngest, Emma, lies in a pile of snow beside the front door. She died from a gunshot to the forehead. Elspeth finds Mary slumped over the stove. Someone shot her in the back. Beside Mary’s body is Amos, who also died from a gunshot wound. Jesse lies dead outside Elspeth’s bedroom; Jorah, her husband, is also dead.

Broken, Elspeth goes looking for Caleb. He is her last hope. If Caleb is dead, there is nothing left for Elspeth to fight for. She finds him in the barn where he always sleeps. Caleb loves animals and he keeps them company at night. Amazingly, Caleb is still alive. Traumatized from the carnage, he accidentally shoots Elspeth.



Elspeth is not fatally wounded, and she doesn’t blame Caleb for shooting her. She asks him what happened, but he isn’t sure. The first thing he remembers is someone shooting Emma. She died outside because she was coming to summon Caleb for breakfast. He doesn’t know what happened in the house because he hid under piles of hay. He didn’t come out again until he heard Elspeth’s footsteps.

Elspeth tells Caleb that he must burn the bodies. It is too cold and the ground is too hard for burial. Caleb doesn’t want to see the corpses, but he knows that Elspeth can’t burn them herself. Armed with a shotgun, Caleb makes for the farmhouse and drags the bodies outside. He doesn’t feel much because the shock numbs his mind. All he feels is guilt because he lived and no one else did.

Caleb sets the fire, but he lights it too close to the farmhouse. Embers catch on the house and set it alight. Before Caleb can stop it, the fire rages through the farmhouse and burns it down. Now, there’s nothing left of the bodies or Caleb’s life. When Elspeth sees what happened, she isn’t angry with Caleb. All she cares about is slaughtering whoever murdered her family.



Elspeth isn’t sure who could be responsible. The farmhouse is a six-hour walk from the nearest town, and there are no other farmhouses nearby. Elspeth knows that someone deliberately targeted her family; she feels that enemies from her own past are responsible.

Together with Caleb, Elspeth sets off for the nearest town. She cuts her hair short and wears her husband’s clothes so that she looks like a man. She must blend in, drawing no attention to herself because this is the only way to gather information on the shooting. When she arrives in town, she finds a job hauling ice from the lake. Caleb works as a cleaner in the town brothel.

Just when Caleb thinks that life can’t get any worse, he learns the truth about Elspeth’s past. The murderers targeted Elspeth’s family because she is a kidnapper. None of her children belonged to her. She stole them all, including Caleb, from local families. That is why she moved them all to the isolated farmhouse. The murderers are local men who demanded retribution for her crimes.



Everything eventually comes to a head for Elspeth and Caleb. Elspeth is shot dead and Caleb takes shelter in a secluded inn. The ending is left open. Caleb is trapped inside this inn with armed killers who know exactly where he is. It is only a matter of time before they shoot him dead.