The Roof Tree

The novel opens on a mountain cabin thick with gunpowder smoke and the aftermath of violence. A man stands dazed beside his sister's fallen husband, having killed to protect her from brutal abuse. This is Kenneth Thornton, and from this moment, he becomes a fugitive. What follows is a flight through the rugged Kentucky hills, where Kenneth assumes a new identity to survive while carrying the weight of what he's done for love. His sister Sally, now pregnant and grieving, represents both his burden and his reason for running. Buck writes with visceral intensity about the mountain landscape and the raw emotional terrain of loyalty and loss. This is a story about the identities we choose and the ones that choose us, about the lengths we'll go to for blood and the price of redemption.