The Skeleton Key
The Skeleton Key book cover

The Skeleton Key

Hardcover – January 24, 2023

Price
$19.50
Format
Hardcover
Pages
512
Publisher
Mobius
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1473680883
Dimensions
6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
Weight
1.68 pounds

Description

Erin Kelly is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Poison Tree , The Sick Rose , The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind, He Said/She Said , Stone Mothers and Broadchurch: The Novel , inspired by the mega-hit TV series. In 2013, The Poison Tree became a major ITV drama and was a Richard & Judy Summer Read in 2011. He Said/She Said spent six weeks in the top ten in both hardback and paperback, was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier crime novel of the year award, and selected for both the Simon Mayo Radio 2 and Richard & Judy Book Clubs. She has worked as a freelance journalist since 1998 and written for the Guardian , The Sunday Times , Daily Mail , New Statesman , Red , Elle , Cosmopolitan and The Pool . Born in London in 1976, she lives in north London with her husband and daughters. erinkelly.co.uk twitter.com/mserinkelly

Features & Highlights

  • This reunion will tear a family apart ...
  • Summer, 2021. Nell has come home at her family's insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote
  • The Golden Bones
  • . Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of
  • The Golden Bones
  • led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried - gold and precious stones, each a different part of a skeleton. One by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore's pelvis remained hidden.
  • The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.
  • But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.
  • From the bestselling author of
  • He Said/She Said
  • and
  • Watch Her Fall
  • , this is a taut, mesmerizing novel about a daughter haunted by her father's legacy . . .

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(504)
★★★★
25%
(420)
★★★
15%
(252)
★★
7%
(118)
23%
(386)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Character-rich novel with treasure hunts and dysfunctional families

Family is the core of this novel, albeit a complicated, dysfunctional, and almost incestuous one. "It is this ping-ponging between irritation and sympathy and what I suppose is probably, despite everything, love, that makes spending time with my family so exhausting." I love that quote, because who, if they're honest, hasn't felt that way at one point?

This was a character-rich novel and many of them were unlikable. I really liked Nell Churcher and was enthralled when reading of her life with teenager Billie. The Churcher/Lally extended family, not so much...

I enjoyed the writing style, and the vividly rendered descriptions. I did struggle with the first third or so of the book, and wondered if I would become more engaged in the narrative - but never fear... I did!

Treasure hunts, artistic temperaments, duplicity, crowd mentality, deception, betrayal, and familial dysfunction are all themes running throughout the novel. And if I wanted to be a bit facetious, I'd say there were some family 'skeletons' as well.

The 'bonehunters' were at times brilliant and at other times scarily moronic. Aristotle said that "No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness." The influence of the power of social media on the obsessive mind was frightening - and all too credible.

There were myriad plot twists and surprising reveals. It is the type of thriller that you either love or tolerate. Read it and see what you decide.

Note: The collective noun for bones is a 'humility' - I learned something new from reading this book.