{"id":2603,"date":"2018-09-21T13:40:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T20:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2018-10-12T16:58:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T23:58:30","slug":"julia-keller-bone-on-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/julia-keller-bone-on-bone\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Keller: Bone on Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BoneBell Elkins is one of the greater creations in recent mystery fiction. A feisty, smart, no-holds-barred prosecuting attorney in tiny Acker\u2019s Gap, West Virginia, each book is infused with both the love of the land and the tragedy of it, a shadow that\u2019s deepened and grown darker through the course of the series. From the very first novel, A Killing in the Hills, <\/em>Keller has had her finger on the pulse of contemporary culture. In that novel, the central event was a mass shooting at a fast food restaurant. In the most recent novel, Fast Falls the Night <\/em>(2017), Keller focused on an alarmingly high series of overdoses related to opiods in one 24 hour period.<\/p>\n

In Bone on Bone, <\/em>Keller has shaken up Bell\u2019s life completely. As the book opens, not only is Bell is no longer the county prosecutor, she\u2019s finishing up a three year prison stint. Mentioned as an aside (this could be a spoiler, but it\u2019s in the first chapter) is the fact that her sister Shirley has died. As this gifted author peels away the layers of her story, sometimes going back in time, Bell\u2019s situation becomes heartbreakingly clear. There\u2019s still a secret to Bell\u2019s back story not revealed until the end of the novel, one that might make you think differently about Bell as the book ends.<\/p>\n

The central story of the book is not Bell\u2019s, however, it\u2019s instead the story of Ellie, Brett and Tyler. Ellie and Brett are the parents dealing with the heartbreaking journey of having a heroin addict for a son. The path each of them takes is often unexpected \u2013 most chilling, however, is Ellie\u2019s determination to rid herself of her son once and for all, by shooting him.<\/p>\n

While I guess this book isn\u2019t technically a noir novel, the situations the characters face \u2013 while not related to corruption \u2013 couldn\u2019t be more dire. Unlike many contemporary novels that call themselves noir, a term I find somewhat artificial, Keller\u2019s writing is so honed to the issues facing our culture that she\u2019s both contemporary and, because of her skill as a writer and her genius with character, timeless.<\/p>\n

While she doesn\u2019t offer a solution to the problem of drug addiction she offers a personal, up close look at it, and illustrates the way this particular community deals with this particular situation. Because Keller\u2019s other talent is her pure mystery writing skill, she\u2019s able to offer twists and turns and a surprising ending, one that even has some portions that are actually hopeful. Every word this woman writes is worth reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bell Elkins is one of the greater creations in recent mystery fiction. A feisty, smart, no-holds-barred prosecuting attorney in tiny Acker\u2019s Gap, West Virginia, each book is infused with both the love of the land and the tragedy of it, a shadow that\u2019s deepened and grown darker through the course of the series. From the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-psychological"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2644,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}