This is part of a series, which I did not realize at first, but do not feel that had any impact on my rating. I thought this book would be a little different based on the description, and was a bit disappointed in the end result. I may try some of the others in the series, to see if I was just having an off reaction.

I always loved a good mystery myself. Of course I was not stopped by the fact that this book is part of a series. It was not at all so bad like this that I knew nothing about the other books, but I will definitely buy them. Awesome book that you have to read.

Did not read this because it is 6th in a series and I didn't know that before requesting it. I sincerely apologize.

St. Martin's Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Fast Falls the Night. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Prosecutor Bell Elkins faces one of her toughest challenges when her small town of Acker’s Gap, West Virginia falls siege to an intense period of drug overdoses. As the police struggle to track down the source of the deadly drug, Bell comes face to face with a decision that she has to make. When her sister forces Bell to confront the past, will the future become as shaky as the past?

I am usually a big fan of the Bell Elkin's novels, but Fast Falls the Night falls a little short of the norm. As far as the story is concerned, the author stretches the plot very thin in places. There was very little by way of character development for Bell and, although the author does reveal secrets of Bell's past, the rest of the book was not too surprising. Because I like Bell as a main character, I will continue to read the series. It is my sincere hope that the author can bring the story back around and grab my attention. Readers who are new to the series should start with A Killing in the Hills, if possible, as the character of Bell Elkins builds from this first book.

The whole story being told in a 24 hour time period was unique. I can't figure out what it was about this one that just felt missing something. Maybe it was the storyline was depressing. I still enjoy this series but can't say it was my favorite.

Another one I jumped into without reading the previous in series. Two reasons for this. Richard's wonderful reviews of this series, and a conversation I recently had with a good friend of mine and my husbands. He was born and raised in West Virginia in a mine family, ten of them and they were very poor, he still has family there. We were discussing how so many have left, and how drugs have ravaged these declining towns, where jobs have dwindled away. Then I saw this on Netgalley, and the place and the theme just called out.


For those responsible for the people in Akers Gap, West Virgina, the law enforcement, the paramedics, Belle, the prosecuting attorney, the next 24 hours will be unforgettable. An unprecedented number of heroin overdose, some unable to be revived, and a new and dangerous strain being sold keep them running from one scene to another. Who is selling this and can they be caught?

Love Belle's character, her toughness and willingness to purse this case despite knowing people are doing this by their own choice. A shocking secret will be revealed to her, a personal matter that will leave her reeling. This is I can see a series than can become addictive. It is finely written, evenly paced and shows the truisms of desperate people willing to risk everything even their own lives to momentarily escape the misery of their lives. The author herself explains why she wrote this book and what it meant to her. A book that hits home as the scourge of drugs is not just affecting this area but in many areas in the United States. The lure of drugs seems insurmountable. Another very good and timely read. Now I fully intend to go back and read the five in this series I have missed. Luckily, I own the first.

ARC from Netgalley.

Reviewed at Reviewing the Evidence - http://reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=10939
Reprinted here with permission.

Julia Keller earned a Pulitzer as a journalist before turning to crime fiction. Perhaps that gives her greater license than others to rip stories from the headline. She explains in an author's note that this one, the sixth in her Bell Elkins series, was inspired during a visit to her home town of Huntington West Virginia, waking to learn the city had recorded 28 heroin overdoses in a single 24-hour period, two of them fatal. She imagined the effect such a crisis would have on her fictional mountain community of Ackers Gap where Bel Elkins, the county prosecutor, does her best to protect her home town from an epidemic of addiction that feeds off poverty, joblessness, and the loss of hope.

Readers are warned at the outset that the story will take place in a single day. It begins shortly after midnight when a gas station attendant lets a girl use the bathroom. When she doesn't come out, he asks a police officer to check. It's too late. She has died of an overdose.

At two a.m. Bell Elkins, a native of Ackers Gap who escaped a nightmarish childhood, only to return to serve as county prosecutor, is lying awake thinking about how she came home to make a difference and how pointless that seems as heroin takes the community in its grip. She's pondering an offer a friend has made to join a new law practice in DC Is there any point trying to help people who don't want to be helped? What good is she doing in a town where nothing is getting better?

When she arrives at work in the morning, she learns police have responded to five overdoses since midnight. Someone is cutting heroin with carfentanil, a synthetic drug that's more than two thousand times the strength of heroin, and as the day progresses police and EMTs will be on the run, bringing addicts back from the brink, putting up with their resentment at being pulled out of their stupor. Those dealing with the crisis wonder why they bother; the people they're working so hard to save have already given up and will only stagger off in search of their next score.

The pace of the book is slow at first as the characters are developed, but as the crisis deepens, it accelerates, with suspenseful plot tributaries flowing into the story, adding to the sense of time slipping away as things grow more and more desperate. Keller has always balanced a fierce love for the place she describes and its people with a gritty realism. This is the darkest entry in the series, and the shocking ending will leave readers wondering if dawn will ever come to these hills.

If you haven't been introduced to Keller's Bell Elkins series, you're missing something. Set in rural West Virginia, Keller's series honestly explores the bleakness and beauty found in a small mountain town. Here, prosecutor Bell Elkins faces the very real problem of opioid addiction found in poverty-stricken towns across America. Keller shows how this epidemic changes lives and families and makes the reader confront the uphill battle confronted by law enforcement, especially those with limited resources, to combat it. We hear about opioid addiction every day on the news, but Keller will take you inside and make you feel how complex a situation it really is.

I could not put it down. Timely and frightening, it leaves you waiting for the next installment in the series.

An appropriate read considering the news casts and written articles screaming crisis of late. Having been in Beckley and Charleston West Virginia many times, perhaps I’ve some bias, but the story seems realistic, at least most of the story. A fictional account of the all to nonfictional drug addiction issue in today’s world. I have also heard rumblings about no longer using Naloxone on repeat overdose offenders. But driven by a rash of deadly drugs this small town is at wits end to root out the dealer and the suppliers. It is a hectic paced day long chase by law enforcement and prosecutors. The medical examiner is also busy with OD’s as the heroin laced with fentanyl takes its toll. Numerous other issues occur throughout the story in a small town where many have known each other since grade school. If they did not know someone it is a sure bet they knew about that person through the small-town grapevine. Sadly, the story doesn’t end, it just stops. I am not sure if I have a final chapter missing or if a sequel will bring closure but the final page in my story left me disappointed.

Great book! I found myself speeding through this fast paced novel to see where the story would lead me, enjoyed the characters and found them to be interesting and believable. This book is a scary inside look into what could really happen in opiate addicted small American towns.

This book had a lot of potential to bring light to an epidemic that is plaguing the midwest/southeast part of this country. Coming from a town full of heroine overdoses, I thought this book would hit home. Hard. There are so many characters, each playing a part in this story told over a 24 hour period. Had there been less characters, the book would have been stronger. I had to keep going back to figure out which character went with another and where that character played into the story. Some of the leads that we had were not related, in my opinion, to the overall narrative, and seemed like a useless road to go down. We are left with unanswered questions at the end of the book....too much for the imagination.

This book starts off with writing that grabs you and shakes you. Not your too often normal bland mystery writing but descriptive phrases that have you right there in place and time. If I weren't reading an advance copy, I would give you some examples.

The Marathon 24 hour gas station and mini-mart is not any place you really want to be, especially when there's an OD in the bathroom. The novel involves the opioids crisis that every state seems to be dealing with nowadays, but West Virginia more than most.

This is a dark novel, as you would expect from the subject matter. Keller has done an admirable job detailing how drug addiction hits everyone, not just the addicts or their families or the judicial system, but the entire community. She describes the despair and sometimes the cynicism of the responders. This is a very timely book given that every night there's something else on the news concerning the opioids addiction. The darkness is even getting to Bell, who’s considering leaving West Virginia to return to D.C.

In a switch up from her norm, this story is told from multiple perspectives. It's more of an ensemble piece with the reader getting multiple angles. Also, the story is told over the course of a single day.

I don't typically think of a mystery as a good book club choice, but there is a lot of meat here and I think this could make an interesting choice, especially given the current environment.

I've liked the Bell Elkins series up to this point but here Keller has stepped it up a notch.

My Thanks to netgalley and Minotaur Books for an advance copy of this book.

In the small town of Acker's Gap, a young drug addict is found dead in a gas station bathroom of a lethal drug overdose. She is not the first casualty-throughout the day many more addicts are found dead or very sick. After investigating, Prosecutor Bell Elkins and her team find the drugs have been laced with poison. This is the story of how they figure out who is lacing the drugs and catching the criminals. I liked the way the author writes-she tells the story through the viewpoint of several characters, but laces it all together. I plan to read the other books in this series. A very good crime thriller!

I have been a huge fan of Julia Keller ever since I read her first book, "A Killing in the Hills." The setting is West Virginia where life is difficult for many-the miners, the teens, the drug users-and where it is challenging to find a sense of well-being and peace. The humanity of the protagonist, Bell Elkins, brings me back again and again. "Fast Falls the Night," takes place over the course of a single day and was inspired by real events in the author's home town. A series of drug deaths is being investigated. At the same time, there is the chance to visit with many of the series' regular characters. This literary trip to West Virginia can be tough and heart-breaking but oh, so worthwhile. Highly recommended.

Fast Falls the Night is the sixth Bell Elkins novel by Julia Keller. You'll understand why I have included the hymn lyrics when you read the book! This is a fabulous series and I have read every book. Fast Falls the Night is an excellent addition to the series. The reader is left with some cliffhangers at the end. So now I am dying for the next book!

Fast Falls the Night blazes through a 24 hour period in Acker's Gap, West Virginia. Heroin has become the drug of choice for the opioid addicted people of Appalachia and when it is cut with carfentanil then the overdoses and deaths begin. I am from Vancouver where this is also a massive daily problem so I am very familiar with the deadly carfentanil. Just like the day after Welfare Wednesday in Vancouver, drug overdoses are happening one after another. With the county strapped for funds, even Bell is helping with the crisis.

Fast Falls the Night is quite the ride for readers. And there is a big bombshell at the end. Author Keller does an amazing job of fairly and accurately portraying the people involved in the drug crisis. She has heart but is also realistic.

I love this series. I highly recommend Fast Falls the Night.

I really enjoyed how the story took place within a 24-hour period. Beginning at 12:04 when a victim of a drug overdose is found on the floor of a gasoline station bathroom and ending at 11:58 with a bit of a cliff-hanger involving the Sheriff Deputy Jake. I have already been pondering the final conclusion! A fictional story that is based on real news accounts of a small town. People are dying of drug overdoses and Prosecutor Bell Elkins and Sheriff Deputy Jake are hot on the trail of the dealers! Fast paced and thought provoking! A great series!