Bone on Bone

A Novel (Bell Elkins, Book 7)

By: Julia Keller

Narrated by: Shannon McManus

Bone on Bone, the next powerful chapter in Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Keller's beloved Bell Elkins series, sends readers headlong into the thick of a mystery as young as today's headlines - but as old as the mountains that hold these lives in a tight grip.

How far would you go for someone you love? Would you die? Would you kill? After a three-year prison sentence, Bell Elkins is back in Acker's Gap. And she finds herself in the white-hot center of a complicated and deadly case - even as she comes to terms with one last, devastating secret of her own.

A prominent local family has fallen victim to the same sickness that infects the whole region: drug addiction. With mother against father, child against parent, and tensions that lead inexorably to tragedy, they are trapped in a grim, hopeless struggle with nowhere to turn.

Bell has lost her job as prosecutor - but not her affection for her ragtag, hard-luck hometown. Teamed up with former Deputy Jake Oakes, who battles his own demons as he adjusts to life as a paraplegic, and aided by the new prosecutor, Rhonda Lovejoy, Bell tackles a case as poignant as it is perilous, as heartbreaking as it is challenging.

©2018 Julia Keller. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“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.” (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)

it seemed like it was written out of obligation

I like these books and characters but this one didn't seem to have a lot of heart to it. Assuming she'll continue the series, it's a turning point for all the main characters and I'd like to see how they adapt, but I'm not convinced the author is committed.