The Skeleton Key
Author: Erin Kelly
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 500
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 500
Format: Paperback
My Rating: ★
Summer, 2021. Nell has come home at her family's insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote The Golden Bones. Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of The Golden Bones led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried - gold and precious stones, each a different part of a skeleton. One by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore's pelvis remained hidden.
The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.
But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.
The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.
But now the Churchers must be reunited. The book is being reissued along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting everything that follows. Nell is appalled, and terrified. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.
My thoughts:
I recently picked up The Skeleton Key to read as part of a monthly book club I attend. I was initially really intrigued by the premise and went in with high hopes.
Unfortunately, however, I felt that the book’s title and blurb was very misleading. The novel is described and presented as a thriller with an emphasis on the concept of a dark treasure hunt, but I felt it read more as a long, rambling family drama with a plot that simply didn’t grip or thrill me at all. The premise of this one sucked me in, but once I picked it up and started reading, I sadly realised that it wasn't grabbing my attention. The first two hundred pages dragged and dragged, providing very little in terms of plot or intrigue. Thrillers need to be fast-paced or they don't thrill. The characters felt bland, unlikeable, and strangely under-developed despite the many pages of mostly unnecessary dialogue.
The two dysfunctional families are loosely tied together by a book one of them published long ago, that became a sensation and attracted a lot of attention from fans. The hardcore fans become obsessed by the treasure hunt, which was the part of the book I was most interested in reading about. However, the treasure hunters are almost all portrayed as stalkers and weirdos, and the family members are awful. This book was just full of despicable people.
With reading, I resolutely stick with something until the bitter end. Normally. But in this case, I decided that life is far too short to waste my time on something as dull as this book and eventually I decided to stop reading. This was an extremely rare DNF for me.
Ultimately, this story failed to hit the mark. It took me a long time to become engaged in the story at all. I didn't really care for the characters and logic behind the puzzle of the golden bones felt farfetched and silly. The followers of the fabled story felt like a cult following and they would do anything, including hurting people, to succeed in their goal. All in all, The Skeleton Key features an insufferable main character in an implausible, convoluted plot which tries to solve a boring mystery. It is also far too long which makes it a chore to keep reading. Sadly this one just really wasn't for me.
Overall reaction:
