Most authors have a specialty of sorts, and for Florida-based writer Lori Roy, that specialty seems to be haunted southern women with complicated families in evocative settings. Originally from Kansas, Roy worked as an accountant for Hallmark before moving to Florida in the late 1990s and starting her writing career. Now living in St. Petersburg, Roy is married with two adult sons and spends her free time renovating her home, playing tennis and pickleball, kayaking, traipsing through swamps, and taking her dog to the dog park.
Roy’s first book, Bent Road, won the Edgar Award for best debut novel in 2013; her third book, Let Me Die in His Footsteps, won the Edgar for best novel in 2016. Her work straddles the line between commercial and literary, with stunning prose and haunting description.
Roy’s latest novel, The Final Episode, is her most commercial to date. Twenty years ago, nine-year-old Francie Farrow was snatched from her bed, and Paul Jones went to jail. Now the TV show Inspired by True Events is recreating the days that led up to Paul’s arrest, forcing his daughter Jenny to relive them as well. Will the show reveal what really happened to Francie? And is Jenny in danger as the truth comes out?
The book alternates between Jenny’s current adult life and detailed descriptions of the TV episodes. Jenny, on the cusp of turning 11 in the TV show, is haunted by Francie’s kidnapping. When 13-year-old Nora moves in nearby, Jenny and her friends Mandy and Tia become mesmerized by the older girl, especially when they learn that Nora was in the room when Francie was snatched. As the show unfolds, adult Jenny deals with the ramifications: Losing clients. An attempted break-in. Tension in her relationship with her boyfriend. She moves back in with her grandmother to the Big Cypress swamp where the events took place. As past and present converge, the tension builds to a surprising climax.
Roy sat down to talk with Chick Lit Central about her inspirations for the story (remarks are edited and condensed for clarification):
Setting is generally the first thing that comes to mind when starting a book. I love a gritty setting that will be an obstacle to the characters, that’s overwhelming. When you’re in a swamp, it overwhelms every sense. It triggers fear. The smell, the sight, every sound is magnified because it might be an alligator.
Which swamps did you explore?
Big Cypress a few times. Okefenokee in Georgia… My older son lives in Naples, so whenever we’re down there. Some don’t have names, and there’s the Corkscrew Swamp that is designed for tourists. When you’re in a swamp, you’re going through a number of different types of geography. There’s the swamp, then there’s the mounds, the Everglades—the open areas. There are different ranges of accessibility, of scares. How close am I to that one alligator? If you’re on a boardwalk, you don’t have that same kind of sizzle, that you constantly have to be on alert.
Which podcasts or shows did you watch to research the book?
The Jinx was one of the first ones that interested me, because you had things uncovered by the producers that law enforcement never had. And then the series ended up allegedly affecting law enforcement such that they ultimately arrested Robert Durst. So the idea of the interplay of those things is when I started to dig down into that show. They find something that viewers would think, oh that’s so incriminating, he’s absolutely guilty, and the producers said that they provided that to law enforcement—they’re not obligated to; they don’t have to. But then law enforcement doesn’t do anything. Two years pass before he’s arrested. What is Robert Durst doing during those two years? That interplay between reality, and its real people, and what got dug up, and how they behaved, and how does law enforcement behave… what is it like when you are the subject of a show like this? The show Candy is another one I watched, and I got on Google wondering where they are now. It turned out that one of the main guys seems to be living nearby. And that idea of, what is it like being that person, and everyone’s seeing it, and whether it’s true or not, people are watching it and thinking it’s true. Even when it says, this has been dramatized, it’s still in people’s minds. I did a lot of research trying to get behind the scenes, finding interviews with producers… how did they handle it when they got something that law enforcement didn’t have? Did you give it to them right away? That’s when it gets a little cagey: When did they give it to them? How much time transpired? Because of course they’re thinking about the show….
How did you get into the mindset to write close third person POV for teen and pre-teen girls?
A lot of it’s just harkening back to what it really feels like to be that age. I think about the people that I knew, and how we all processed the drama of those years differently … the mean girls who seem to thrive on that, how they’re very smart and cunning about manipulating that drama and seem to thrive on that drama—that’s another thing I find fascinating, you need to be very smart and very quick to do that. And the insecurities; everyone has them, but they show them and deal with them differently. Once you start to know who a character is, that helps drum up how they would act. There’s no trick but trying to write the character honestly. Sometimes it takes a while. It’s like trying to get them to come into tune, like tuning a radio… and once you land on it, it just clicks. When it doesn’t happen, keep looking, keep starting, keep coming at it a different way. Sometimes their dialogue, how they speak, helps with that. When it feels good, they start to come alive. Sometimes that takes a while, and then you go back and rework it. Sometimes it comes easily. My last book (Lake County) every one of them was there from the get-go. Couldn’t write it fast enough. This one came together pretty quickly too. Others, not so much.
The dynamic among Nora, Jenny, Mandy and Tia feels very real and uncomfortable. Was it prompted by anything personal?
It seems like when we were young, if you have two girls hanging out—maybe it’s the same for boys—but it seems to be okay. But you put three together, one of them becomes a target. Certainly not always… Nora’s a bit older, she’s very bright and does manipulate the drama. I personally think that would be an exhausting way to live… just that dynamic of thriving on making someone else hurt. Some people thrive on that… which is just a sad part of human nature, but it’s indisputable.
Jenny believed that on her 11th birthday, she would be visited by her ancestor and told her life’s density. This reminded me of a similar plot point in Let Me Die in His Footsteps. Are there any superstitions that mean a lot to you? Is it a southern thing?
Looking for ideas in the beginning, I learned that Claire Danes was descended from Salem witch Margaret Scott. (Editor’s note: This was revealed on the PBS show, Finding Your Roots.) For some reason, that just struck me—of course there are descendants. I started poking around—there are hundreds of thousands of people; there are Facebook groups. I started looking into the witch trials; how they ended. I fictionalized some of it for the drama, but some of it is also true. It’s an element of Southern gothic fiction, the superstition rolled into the history. It’s one of those things you sink into. I do as a writer, finding it really interesting. It started with the fact that Jenny is a descendant of the last Salem witch—a real person, Margaret Scott.
Similarly, Jenny’s interest in orchids reminded me of the lavender in Let Me Die in His Footsteps… is there a special meaning in flowers for you?
In southern gothic fiction in general, and in the swamp very specifically, one of the elements is that you have very rugged harsh images butted up against something beautiful. I enjoy that beauty that you’re searching for in this whole huge swamp. I’ve never seen a ghost orchid in person; they are so rare. It’s an essential swamp image, there’s something metaphysical about it. I wanted to put something beautiful in the middle of this scary and beautiful setting.
Have you been influenced by other southern writers?
Harper Lee, more than anyone else. To Kill a Mockingbird… that book mattered so much, beyond the story and the characters… the depth of that work, the thread count—that certainly inspired me. If I’m going to write a book, I have to feel, why do I have to write this book? There are hundreds of thousands of books out there. I don’t think I could get over that hurdle if I didn’t feel that it had something in it that mattered to me.
You’ve set books in many places in Florida, but not St. Pete. Any plans for a book set in your hometown?
It’s such a happy, vibrant, bustling place… that’s not my writing vibe! It doesn’t have that gritty feel. It doesn’t act upon its characters in a negative way. Maybe it’ll change one day if I stumble across a certain part of town! I love it here! I love living here!
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