In this emotionally packed mystery, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Julia Keller adds another fantastic entry to the Bell Elkins series ... The ease of Keller’s words along with each subtle turn of phrase highlight her magnificent writing style. Her vivid descriptions conjure a clear picture in the reader’s mind in a well-balanced fashion that exudes talent ... Keller eloquently describes the small-town life of Acker’s Gap and Bell’s investment in it ... The storylines of Bone on Bone tugged at my heart. The realness Keller brings to the page made it a first-rate story. I didn’t have any trouble jumping into the series here, and I will definitely be following Bell Elkins in the next installment.
Few, if any, mystery writers have treated the opioid crisis as powerfully as former Tribune columnist Julia Keller does in her latest Bell Elkins novel ... Keller writes with such empathy and cutting strength, she overcomes any narrative lapses. And in the face of ongoing tragedy, she somehow lifts spirits.
Keller’s Bell Elkins books rely more on drama than action (though they are not necessarily bereft of the latter) and on slow-boil plots as opposed to explosions. However, there have been plenty of judiciously placed twists and developments to keep the pages of each novel turning. The newly published Bone on Bone is no exception ... Keller is at her chilling best in Bone on Bone, particularly when giving the reader an up-close, unblinking look at the physical and emotional tolls of addiction on both the addicts and those closest to them ... Keller’s vision and voice add a new dimension to the problem, one that stays with the reader long after the last page is turned. It is unsettling but makes for necessary reading.
Award-winning author Keller...focuses on what we do for the people we love. However, the atmosphere of desperation overrides that theme in this issue-oriented, gripping novel ... This haunting, thought-provoking story proves Keller is one of a kind. Readers of Julia Spencer-Fleming's mysteries of communities torn apart by crime may also want to try.
Drug addiction in Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, which was at the center of Keller’s previous series entry...is again the prime mover here. But there’s much more going on, notably in the life of protagonist Bell Elkins ... Keller can spin a mystery plot with the best of them, but it’s her full-bodied characters and the regard they have for one another that really sets her crime fiction apart: a bride’s back-of-the-hand caress of her new husband’s cheek, and his response, is a moment that will linger in memory long after the crime is solved.
A woman determined to atone and make a difference returns to her drug-plagued hometown ... Old friends pitch in, and nasty secrets are revealed, but the big question is still why Bell insisted on going to prison. Fans of this brilliant series will not be disappointed by the murder mystery or the big reveal of its heroine's motivation for trashing her life.
Adults close themselves off emotionally, clutching their despair, while young people are likely to slip into hopeless drug addiction—or dealing ... Despite the pervading melancholy, characters stubbornly struggle to rediscover purpose for their lives and to pin down responsibility for personal failures. This thoughtful, painfully empathetic story will long linger in the reader’s memory.