Judith, a women in her late 70's, has lived in Bound, SC for her entire life. The book takes place in the present, but there are flashbacks to a horrifying event from the 1920's which changed her life forever. This debut novel follows the classic Southern Gothic tradition; it reminded me of two favorites in this genre: Dollbaby by Laura McNeal and The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kraft is a debut novel by Andrea Bobotis. I loved the way this book was written as it made the characters and overall plot that much more interesting.

It has a flavor and flare of a classic novel. An elderly heroine is at the center of the story, charged with protecting the good name of the family while keeping its secrets and her good manners.

I enjoyed reading it for the characters, the story, and the southern charm. As a New Yorker, it was fun to take a glimpse into a southern lifestyle.
Thank you #Netgalley and #SourcebooksLandmark for approving my request. The opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

Happy book birthday to this lovely book! This was one of the books I was most excited about on the @booksparks #src2019 lineup and I was not disappointed. When Judith Kratt was 15 years old, her younger brother Quincy was murdered, and her younger sister Rosemarie fled their hometown of Bound, South Carolina. Many years later, Rosemarie returns home for the first time, and Judith decides it is the perfect opportunity to take an inventory of the many beautiful items in the Kratt estate. In the process, we learn about secrets of the Kratt family, while Judith learns about herself and the people and things around her. This was such a sweet story and I'm so glad to have read it 💕
Rating: 😽😽😽😽
Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for allowing me the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

I don't typically read thrillers but this book's synopsis was so intriguing I ventured out of my comfort zone. This book was worth it. I would classify this more as exciting than as a thriller though so if the genre classification makes you nervous definitely give it a try. This was a perfect engaging summer read for a day sitting by the lake or in a hammock. The characters were compelling and the plot kept the pages rapidly turning.

Rating: 4 dark Southern stars

Andra Bobotis’ debut novel firmly caught me in its web early on, and held me there despite my struggle to leave more than once. I found this piece of Southern Fiction told in dual timelines, set in 1929 and 1989, to be dark as Southern Fiction is often wont to be. Daddy Kratt, the patriarch of the Kratt family, was a pure villain who ruled the 1929 town of Bound, SC in his cruel tight fist. Judith Kratt was Daddy Kratt’s eldest child. She tended to stay in the shadows, watching the goings-on, as a means to keep out of the way of Daddy Kratt. The middle child, and only son, Quincy perfected the art of spying. He used his gleaned information to get in Daddy Kratt’s good graces. The youngest child, Rosemarie simply flees as often as she can. The last time she fled, she left for 60 years.

I say that this is hard book read and that I wanted to abandon the book several times because of the commonplace prejudices and class system found in both 1929, and sadly still in 1989. There were very few glimmers of hope or relief as we watch the aftermath Quincy’s killing in 1929, and see how it’s ramifications still echoed down to 1989. Judith is the narrator of the story. She has remained in the family home as the town of Bound fell further and further into almost a ghost-town status. In 1989 at the age of 75, she starts writing an inventory of the items remaining in the house. As each item is added to her list, we discover the generations of stories that are attached to it.

Judith and Olva, her African American companion, have lived on together their own in the Kratt house for many decades. Olva is a year older than Judith. They seem to have a somewhat distant relationship, but they just kept rubbing along together through the years. The groove of their lives have been firmly set. Judith relies on Olva for the day-to-day tasks that keep the household running. They have had a shared history since well before 1929.

This is a mystery about who killed Quincy. It’s a story about aging, and how family ties affect us. It also touches on the generational effects the South’s inability to come to terms with the horrendous way African Americans have been, and continue to be, sidelined, belittled, and held back economically ever since they were enslaved and brought to the United States. This is an intractable problem, and the author, with a very deft hand, did not get preachy about it. She showed, rather than told how this legacy still continues. That legacy and the cruelty of Daddy Kratt were the disturbing and moving parts of this story for me. While I wanted to look away, I just couldn’t.

While I don’t think that I actually learned any new history, the history that I was already aware of was brought to vivid life. I was touched by the empathy that I felt for many of the main characters. This book made me feel something. I didn’t always like the feelings, but the writing was outstanding and the story ensnared me. As far as I’m concerned, that is a sign of an expertly written book.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark; and the author, Andrea Bobotis for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Miss Judith Kratt is the narrator in this book that moves fluidly between events in 1929 and 1989. As the book opens, she is 75-years-old living with a caretaker in the family mansion, a 6,000 square foot building in Bound, South Carolina. She has received a post card, one of many from her sister who left home sixty years earlier after the death of their brother. Most of the postcards arrived blank – no writing, not even who it is from – but this one says she’s coming home. And Judith has no idea why and that bothers her. Judith decides to take an inventory of all the stuff in the mansion.

This book moves slowly like everything else in the humidity-laden air in the summer in South Carolina. But it that slow movement that lends authenticity to the story. The author has produced a well-written story with characters who are both likable and not-so-likable. While the story moves slowly, it does not stagnate nor does it bore the reader to tears.

If you like Southern-based novels, you’ll certainly put this one near the top of the your to-be-read list.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an eARC.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

In Ms. Bobotis' debut novel, she carefully recreates the history of an old southern family. Miss Judith Katt is faced with the return of her wayward sister, and as a result, compiles a list of the family's belongings.

This is more than a charming old southern lady story. Ms. Bobotis has written a thoughtful, realistic portrait of a family with a self made fortune and all that entails. She doesn't shy away from racial tensions, the fine line between family and servant, growing up and what we inherit beyond wealth. The characters are flawed and wholly relatable.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is Andrea Bobotis' debut novel. It follows the Kratt family and switches between the past and current day. Judith Kratt is now of old age and is left the Kratt family home. She chronicles valuable items in the Kratt home while detailing encounters and their significance in flashbacks from the past. All events lead up to one fateful night which leaves one dead, one fleeing, and family devastation. Secrets are covered up for years before finally being revealed. I really enjoyed the author's prose. Very satisfying ending to the novel.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. This book definitely makes you think about your family history, or history in general. I found myself thinking about perspective and how everyone most likely has a different perspective on any given event. This book is well written and I like the way it alternates from present day to memories Judith Kratt is reminiscing about. One can picture the scenes Judith describes and this book really transports you to that time and place.

This is my first first book by Andrea Bodotis and I loved it!!!!!!!! I love historical fiction and this story is right up my alley. Loved the style of writing and the elegant telling of this story.

Set in the fictional town of Bound, South Carolina, once ruled by the Kratts and now struggling to contain its worst instincts, The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt explores the power of objects, the weight of memory, and the ties between who we are and what we own. Judith inherited all the Kratt family had to offer—the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder no one talks about. For decades, she's been the keeper of the family house, safeguarding its valuables and its secrets. But Rosemarie, her wayward younger sister, suddenly returns home, sparking Judith to write an inventory of all that belongs to them. As Judith writes, she finds that cataloging the family heirlooms can’t suppress their histories, not when Rosemarie is determined to expose what Judith had planned to take to her grave.
Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for my honest review.

A whopping lot of secrets in this southern novel! Although it's titled and focused on Miss Judith, it is the return of her sister Rosemarie, who has been away from town for many many years, who is the catalyst for the story. Who killed their brother Quincy? That's one secret; the other is Olva. You might, like me, figure things out fairly early on but keep reading because there's a good story in here. Lots of drama and perhaps, just perhaps, one note too many with Marcus and his rental situation. My complaint about this well plotted novel is that I really had no sense of anyone- no connection or sympathy (except for Amaryllis and her bunny). This was especially true of Quincy, who conveyed as much much older than 14. Daddy Kratt is vile. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

An impressive debut, The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is an accomplished piece of storytelling.
The year is 1989 and 75 year old Judith Kratt has decided to create an inventory of all the Kratt family property and valuables with the help of her live in companion Olva, whom she has known since childhood. Along with the antique furniture and family silver she has inherited a tragic family secret that she is hoping to take to the grave.
As she goes through the house cataloguing it's contents ,she is drawn back in time to 1929 , the year her brother Quincy was tragically killed. The story proceeds in two timelines as Judith tells her story. In 1929 she is terrified of her father, the rich and autocratic Daddy Kratt, who rules the household with a rod of iron, and at times a riding crop as we learn later in the book, while in 1989 her comfortable life is shattered by the arrival of her long estranged sister Rosemarie. As Rosemarie begins to force her to really examine her bias and attitude to those she regards as her social inferiors, we learn of how the complex relationships between races in the era she grew up in may have formed those biases in the first place. As the secret at the heart of the book is slowly revealed and we see the damage it has caused to more than one family, damage that has lingered to the current day it becomes impossible to put the book down.
Besides the well crafted plot and impeccable prose, this book also has an array of wonderfully developed characters . From the crusty and crotchety Judith to free spirit Rosemarie, to the sneaky but sometimes loyal Quincy , and of course not forgetting the truly terrifying patriarch, the Kratt family is certainly a memorable one and the dynamics between the characters , in both eras, always feels authentic. I particularly loved the complicated relationship between Olva and Judith, one which it is impossible for the reader to understand until the end of the book, but when you get there it makes so much sense. I also liked the way the book explored race relations in both time periods, and showed how much progress has been made in some ways and how little in others, this added an interesting extra dimension to the book as a whole. The author did a really great job of bringing both time and place to life, the setting in a former cotton town almost leaps off the page in certain passages
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own

In this book, Miss Judith Kratt, age 75, decides to make an inventory of all that is in her home in the small town of Bound, South Carolina. In doing so, she reveals the story of growing up in the 1920s, and family secrets abound, including racism and murder. It is a clever way to tell her story.

Beautifully written fictional history of the Kratt family as seen through the eyes of 75 year old Judith Kratt. While the inventory keeps growing the reader is taken back in history, living the Kratt life. Too slow for my liking.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt opens with a newspaper clipping:

“Murder Stuns Distinguished Family
Quincy Kratt, age 14, sustained a fatal gunshot wound to his person in the early hours of Friday, December 20. Young Mr. Kratt was a scion of the cotton industry in Bound, South Carolina. His father, the influential businessman Brayburn Kratt, is one of our local captains of that industry. The principal suspect in the shooting is a negro called Charlie Watson, who is employed by the Kratt Mercantile Company and whose whereabouts are as yet unknown.
York Herald, Saturday, December 21, 1929.”

And instantly I was caught up in this novel. My mind immediately attributed Quincy’s death to an accident, but it’s apparent from the first chapter that Quincy was in fact murdered. Which just added a whole other layer of intrigue, because why would a fourteen year old be murdered? In all of my imaginings, I did not even come close to guessing the full tragedy beating at the heart of this family. But let’s rewind a bit. Before we get to Quincy, I want to introduce you to Daddy Kratt.

“It’s a question of what we own. Do you own your own life? If you have never had to ask that question, you are fortunate indeed.”

Daddy Kratt is a self-made man, born poor, but smart, he moved to Bound as a young man with the profits of luck rattling around in his pocket. He ingratiated himself with the richest family in town, made himself indispensable to them before marrying their daughter and sliding in to undercut and steal their business dealings. At the time we meet him, in 1929, he owns everything in Bound, from the businesses and rural enterprises that employ people to the houses he rents out to Bound’s poorest residents. If there’s a business he doesn’t own or have a few fingers in, then he’s working on a way to acquire it. That’s where Quincy comes in.

Quincy, at fourteen, is a master spy. His job as such is to lurk, eavesdrop, spy, blackmail, and report back to Daddy Kratt. He runs a little racket on the side of course, because he’s fully aware that while his father utilises his talents whenever he wishes, his father has no time for him beyond this. In fact, despite being the only son, his father appears to despise him. Not so with Judith, the eldest daughter. At sixteen, she is running the accounts for Daddy Kratt’s department store. While in no way affectionate towards her, he appears to have an appreciation for Judith that elevates her, an esteem for her intelligence. Quincy can’t seem to help himself from hating Judith for this, despite their mutual fear of Daddy Kratt. Rosemarie, the youngest, doesn’t factor all that much except to skip out on punishments and disappear for hours on end, effectively shirking any responsibility for anything at all. She’s very much a nothing character but she has her role to play as a catalyst twice over within the story.

It’s Judith that Daddy Kratt seems to be shaping into his right hand. He asks the most abominable things of her, and out fear, and to some degree, pleasure of being the favoured one, she always complies, even if her actions and those of her father’s sit uneasy within her. An example is collecting the rents. Daddy Kratt brings Judith along on this pilgrimage, sending her in to each poor family to collect the rents owed that they have no chance of paying. For each family who can’t pay, he makes Judith repossess some of their belongings, items of no value to him, yet mean everything to them. A child’s toy wrenched out of crying arms, or an elderly man’s pipe snatched from his lips; Kratt is a disgraceful man who is blatantly shaping his daughter into his own image. Judith knows these things are wrong, yet she complies every time. It’s not until Daddy Kratt asks Judith to organise a lynching mob for a man she works with, and respects, that she actually stops and examines her own conscience and draws a line in the dirt.

“Quincy always knew everything that was going on around him and everything that was about to happen. It was a kind of ecstasy for my brother, at least I imagined it in this way, that in his final moments on earth, he would be taken by surprise.”

When we meet Judith in 1989, she is the matriarch of her family’s estate, the keeper of all of their belongings. She rattles around the mansion with Olva as her companion, yet it’s apparent from the outset that their relationship is not as straight forward as I initially assumed. Olva waits on Judith, and this seems wrong, that a black woman would be the servant of a white one, still in the same position that she was back in the 1920s. But as the story of the past unravels, we see the complexities that layer Judith’s relationship with Olva. When Rosemarie returns to the family home, she’s intent on rocking the boat, deliberately provoking Judith and undermining Olva’s position. But Rosemarie in actuality knows nothing about her own family, having chosen to run away at the age of thirteen, right after her brother’s murder. It’s been sixty years since anyone in the family has seen her.

“It’s a luxury to be able to write or speak in the way you want.”

There’s a lot of sadness within this story and a lot of hatred too. The racism is profound, but likely in keeping with the times and the context of the Kratts position within a small town in the South in the early decades of the 20th century. But even in 1989, it’s not subtle, and as well as racism, we also see the effects of being labelled as inter-generational white trash. As Judith creates an inventory of the contents of her estate, the story from the past unwinds. With the clever use of the inventory, Miss Judith Kratt’s last list has items added to it at the end of each chapter, the list growing alongside the recollection of the horrors of the past. It’s cleverly done. Whilst in many ways this novel is utterly depressing, it’s a portrait of small town America from times gone by. The contrasting of 1929 and 1989 is interesting, to see that racial and class dynamic sixty years apart within the one small, and frankly, dead end southern town. There’s a lot of violence within the novel, but again, it’s all within context. Overall, it’s a beautifully written novel, passages of gorgeous prose with even the most horrendous things depicted with an elegance that lend weight and purpose to the depravity. The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is an impressive novel, a slice of American history put under the microscope within the context of one family, that many might wish was left in the shadows.

“That last trip to the depot, Judith and I shared the most extraordinary sunset. The earth was both affirming its vastness and reflecting the sprawling wilderness of our souls. Right in front of us, the clouds broke, and the westerly sun asserted itself. It had been waiting behind the depot and , given the opportunity, reached long arms of light straight through the abandoned building, undeterred by two sets of murky windows, until it assembled that light in golden planks on the ground in front of us. I reached over and took Judith’s hand in mine. We would rest our eyes on that place until we couldn’t any longer. We would watch. We are watching . Before us, a house of light is being built, one that will be gone tomorrow.”

Thanks is extended to Sourcebooks Landmarkvia NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt for review.

Told against the backdrop of customary Southern decorum, The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is the sprawling saga of the Kratt family.

The central narrator, Judith, is unreliable, not always likable. She cares more about the legacy of her family and the value of her heirlooms than she does about her surroundings. Borne into the prosperous Kratt family, Judith grew up under the rigid thumb of the oppressive and injurious Daddy Kratt.

Cotton and blackmail kept the Kratts in business for years until a tragic incident cast a permanent shadow over them. Quincy, Judith’s brother, was murdered.

Rosemarie, Judith’s sister, has always believed Judith was responsible for Quincy’s death. Because of this, she fled the suffocating small-town of Bound, never to darken Judith’s doorstep again.

Since then, Judith hasn’t left her home. She’s been in a shut-in for 65 years with only Olva, a family friend with secrets of her own, to keep her company.

The story is told with two alternating narratives, one from when Judith was only 15 and one in present-day Bound where Judith is 75. The segments of the novel set in the past follow the events leading up to Quincy’s death.

Andrea Bobotis is a competent writer. The world of Bound is fleshed out through lustrous descriptive passages. You can feel the swelter of Southern heat, feel the blanket of dust coating the untouched miscellaneous objects in the old Kraft house and see the splinters of the sun’s rays filtering through the windows.

This story less about the mystery and more about establishing the arcs of its central characters. It also focuses heavily on how the past can inform the present.

Because The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt is more intrinsically motivated, the ending feels somewhat anticlimactic. Everything de-escalates quickly, and the core conflicts in the book wrap up a little too neat.

But that doesn’t make this novel any less of a compelling read. Despite feeling underwhelmed by the final chapters, I felt wholly gratified by the understanding of Judith’s inventory. What makes her family history worth preserving?

One has to learn how to hang on, and also when to let go.

Judith Kratt, age 75, reflects on her life as she prepares for her looming death. As part of this, she prepares an inventory of the items in the family house. This provides an avenue to return, from 1989, to 1929 when he brother was killed. The story unfolds slowly, with priority placed on character and relationship development, and doesn't provide many surprises to an astute reader. The book provides a personal look at the Jim Crow era sentiments prevalent in the South. All of this, Ms. Bobotis presents nicely wrapped up in a family's saga. Don't compare this book to many of the other popular senior citizen books that provide hijinx and adventure. Instead, this book is more introspective as the characters come to terms with their own histories and choices.

Southern literature at its best a dark story told through the eyes the memories of Judith Kraft a75 year old woman whose voice I can still hear taking inventory of her families possessions,As she looks through her families possessions her memories come alive leading to the memory of a fateful night .This book is uniquely written down to the inventory lists on the end of each chapter,A new author I will be following. Recommending.#netgalley #sourcebooks.landmark.

It will be obvious to the reader from the start that The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt, a debut novel by Andrea Bobotis, is not her first writing. Her practice of the writing craft and her roots in South Carolina are apparent even in the beginning obituary. Quincy Kratt, age 14, who sustained a fatal gunshot wound on December 20 , 1929 . . . The principal suspect in the shooting is a negro named Charlie Watson, who is employed by the Kratt Mercantile Company and whose whereabouts are yet unknown.”
The setting of the body of the book begins in 1989 as his older sister Miss Judith Kratt reminisces, “Whenever I hear a train’s horn in the distance, that bruised sound, I think of Quincy.” As she nears the end of life, it occurs to her to make an inventory of the items in the grand family home built and furnished by her father. She and Olva, who is neither completely family nor completely help, are all that is left. Her autocratic father, her subservient mother, and her rescuing Aunt Dee are dead. Her younger sister Rosemarie left the day Quincy was murdered, never to be heard of again.
The inventory brings the flashbacks of family secrets. Unexpectedly, Rosemarie turns up, determined to make things right and tell the truth of what really happened in that segregated society. Often, the reader may feel smug and more knowledgeable than the characters in the story, but the author’s skillful red herrings leave enough surprise for the end.
While the author has written many other things and taught creative writing, this is her first novel. Let’s hope it’s not her last.

“Memory and history are bound up with one another. Where does one end and the other begin?”

Judith Kratt was born into wealth and privilege in the small Southern town of Bound. She is first introduced as an older woman living in her family’s crumbling 1922 home which once was the envy of her community. 67 years have passed and Judith is in the midst of the mundane task of inventorying the home’s eclectic contents and contending with the sudden appearance of her long-estranged sister, Rosemarie, “who had gone out to get some fresh air for sixty years’. Old memories bubble up, recollections of buried secrets, her tyrannical father’s rise and fall as the family’s patriarch and a tragic past are unveiled. Poignant, engrossing and cleverly written.

*will post in online venues and add link below upon publication.