Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Drug addiction in Acker's Gap, West Virginia, which was at the center of Keller's previous series entry (Fast Falls the Night, 2017) is again the prime mover here. But there's much more going on, notably in the life of protagonist Bell Elkins. Having confessed to a crime and insisted on serving a prison term an inexplicable act, given extenuating circumstances former prosecutor Bell is newly free, finishing community service, and tired of trying to answer why she did what she did. Then she's asked by the new prosecutor to help investigate the murder of bank officer Brett Topping, shot in his driveway shortly after threatening his addicted son Tyler's drug supplier. Tyler, caught in a downward spiral of rehab and relapse, is currently back to living at home and so affecting his parents' lives that his mother is planning drastic action. 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.--Michele Leber Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The inhabitants of the dying town of Acker's Gap, W.Va., face only bleak prospects in Keller's beautifully written seventh Bell Elkins novel (after 2017's Fast Falls the Night). Adults close themselves off emotionally, clutching their despair, while young people are likely to slip into hopeless drug addiction-or dealing. Wheelchair-bound former sheriff's deputy Jake Oakes and just-out-of-prison former prosecutor Bell, who was put behind bars after confessing to her abusive father's murder, also appear to have no useful futures, but they get a new focus by investigating the shooting murder of banker Brett Topping. The police question Topping's 19-year-old drug-addicted son, Tyler, but once Tyler is cleared, along with his ultraviolent dealer, Deke Foley, suspicion shifts to more seemingly wholesome members of the community. 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. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Released from prison after three years, Bell Elkins heads home to Ackers Gap, WV, where her career as a county prosecutor is over, yet she still hopes to make changes in a county that's infested by the opioid epidemic. And she's the only hopeful one. The Toppings live in fear of their addict son, Tyler. When their home is attacked by Tyler's dealer and a family member is slain in the driveway, the community reacts in shock and horror. Desperate for help, the new county prosecutor hires Bell and former cop Jake Oakes, now a parapalegic, to find the killer. Award-winning author Keller (A Killing in the Hills) focuses on what we do for the people we love. However, the atmosphere of desperation overrides that theme in this issue-oriented, gripping novel. VERDICT 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.-Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A woman determined to atone and make a difference returns to her drug-plagued hometown.Bell Elkins was born poor in Acker's Gap, West Virginia, and her life has been through many phases (Fast Falls the Night, 2017, etc.). She married, became a lawyer and a mother and led a life of wealth, then divorced and returned home as a tough and determined prosecuting attorney. The revelation that her sister, Shirley, had terminal cancer, and moreover that she had spent years in prison for killing their abusive father while knowing that 10-year-old Bell was guilty of the crime, even if young Bell didn't realize it herself, sent Bell's life into a tailspin. None of her family and friends can fathom why Bell insisted on serving her own prison term for her father's murder when the powers that be would have been happy with a slap on the wrist considering all the mitigating circumstances. Now Bell is back in town trying to decide what to do with her life as she is no longer a lawyer. With the whole state ravaged by opioids, her first thought is to work to hold drug companies morally if not legally responsible, but then she becomes involved in the town's latest drug-related murder. Banker Brett Topping and his wife, Ellie, are at their wits' end trying to save their addicted son, Tyler. Rehab has failed numerous times, and now he's home and stealing their possessions to feed his habit. Ellie is so desperate that she's decided to kill Tyler, but before she can get up the nerve, her husband is shot dead in their driveway. Both Ellie and Tyler have alibis, and Tyler insists it was Deke Foley, the dealer he worked for, whom Brett had threatened to turn in to the police along with "dates, times, places, license plate numbers." The sheriff and prosecutor, desperately short-handed, hire both Bell and a paralyzed former deputy to help with this latest case. 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
