Another novel about a West Virginia town plagued by the drug epidemic? Yes, BUT, the author is a native of the state with a PhD who earned a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter, and this is her seventh book featuring Bell Elkins, who readers of the series first knew as a prosecutor and then learned she would spend time in prison for the murder of her abusive father. Michael Connelly called her “one of the most fully realized characters in fiction today.” Oh, don’t worry, Bell Elkins has served her time and returned to Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, for this novel. “This haunting, thought-provoking story proves Keller is one of a kind. – Library Journal (starred review). “This thoughtful, painfully empathetic story will long linger in the reader’s memory.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review). “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.” – Booklist (starred review). “Compulsively readable and rich with psychological and social insight… Keller emphatically captures a community beset by hardship and caught in a downward spiral that she is determined to break.” – National Book Review.
New York: Minotaur Books/St. Martin’s, a 2019 paperback edition of a 2018 release. 319 pages with an excerpt of her next book. Trade paperback.