I was drawn to this book for the gorgeous cover and description. Unfortunately it fell short for me. The premise and plot had potential but there was a lot of unnecessary detail and too many characters to keep up with. I do think the author’s writing was intentional and the twists were interesting. and normally I don’t mind a lot of detail but this one just wasn’t for me.

I had high hopes for this novel! The title and the cover alone intrigued me and I thought the description sounded fascinating! Unfortunately, the story is just too long. I initially enjoyed following Nell as she arrived back home to navigate the 50th anniversary of her fathers book and all the chaos that ensues, but I felt as though I had to drag myself through the middle of the book to get to the ending. It was a very original concept (especially with the folklore that surrounds “The Golden Bones”) but it was hard to stay completely interested.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

"The Skeleton Key" by Erin Kelly is a gripping and suspenseful thriller that keeps the reader on edge throughout the entire book. The plot is well-crafted and filled with twists and turns that keep the reader guessing until the very end. The characters are well-developed and their motivations are clearly defined, making it easy for the reader to understand their actions and decisions. The use of multiple narrators adds depth to the story and provides a unique perspective on the events unfolding. The writing style is engaging and vivid, allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves in the world of the book. Overall, "The Skeleton Key" is a highly recommended read for fans of psychological thrillers, mystery novels, and contemporary fiction.

I was first drawn to the Skeleton Key by its beautiful cover and the praise it had already received from authors like Lucy Foley. When I learned it was a book about a book AND included a modern-day treasure hunt, I was hooked! This book explores how one explosive story impacted the lives of two families, who exist side-by-side in an almost parasitic fashion, for generations. What lengths would you be willing to go to achieve fame and fortune, sacrificing your family to your greed and obsession?

The beginning started slowly for me as the author introduced the premise of The Golden Bones and the various characters who compose the Churcher and Lally families. Things quickly picked up about 1/3 of the way through the story and then I became 100% invested in the mystery. This story was extremely clever and the characters incredibly well-written. I didn’t see those final twists coming.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the cross between the historical fiction and mystery/thriller genres. This was my first book by the author and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Book Group for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,’ is already deceptive – as it turns out are ALL the members of the combined, misaligned, co-dependent Churcher and Lally families.

The saying is deceptive because it sounds so much like Shakespeare – but it isn’t. It’s a quote from Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion that is OFTEN attributed to the Bard. The many, many interwoven deceptions of the Churcher and Lally families are a whole lot more intertwined – and that much more difficult to untangle.

The Skeleton Key begins in the summer of 2021, just barely post-pandemic – or at least post the pandemic lockdowns, which adds a whole ‘other layer to pretty much everything. Frank Churcher, now in his 70s and starting to feel his age, has decided to have one last hurrah over the thing that made him famous 50 years ago and is still wrecking the lives of his entire family – even as it made their privileged lifestyle possible.

Frank, now Sir Frank, created an armchair treasure hunt puzzle phenomenon combining creepy, Celtic myths and a touch of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with gorgeous imagery into a book titled The Golden Bones. It wasn’t just a best-seller, it became a worldwide obsession. An obsession that some people still haven’t gotten over.

One of those people is his daughter Nell. Not that she was obsessed with The Golden Bones, but that more than a few of the fanatics who called themselves Bonehunters conflated the woman in the story, Elinor, with Frank’s daughter Eleanor and stalked her. With knives.

The prize of The Golden Bones was a literal set of golden bones which were worth lots of money to motivated – or crazed – Bonehunters. By the time Eleanor was 15, all the bones had been found except one – the pelvic girdle. As obsessions and conspiracy theories went, the idea that Eleanor’s pelvic bone was actually Elinor’s pelvic bone wasn’t that far a stretch. At least not for someone who had lost touch with reality.

Eleanor, who is now reaching middle age, left her family behind with all its messiness – including Frank Churcher’s massive ego. She still sees them, but she’s steadfastly refused any money or help no matter how much she might need it. She owns a narrowboat and lives on England’s waterways with a surrogate daughter she’d adopt if she could. Her living situation can sometimes be a bit dicey but it’s safer away from her family’s mess and the media spotlight that seldom leaves them alone for long.

But the 50th Anniversary celebration of The Golden Bones brings Nell back home – if only for the celebration itself. Frank was supposed to retrieve that last piece of the original skeleton from a tree behind the house. He does uncover a pelvic girdle, but not the tiny jeweled piece that was part of the original prize skeleton. What comes out of that tree hollow is a real human pelvis from a long-dead woman who is about to unravel all the secrets that everyone has been keeping for more than 50 years.

Those revelations and the events that precede them will melt the thin ice of Nell’s precarious safety. She’s never really been safe. She just didn’t know how unstable the web of lies that kept her family afloat truly was.

Escape Rating A: It’s all too easy to comprehend the obsessions of the ‘Bonehunters’ while reading The Skeleton Key, because the complex, twisted nature of the puzzle – and the people at its heart – sinks its teeth into the reader and does not let go until the end.

Two things to start. First, the concept of The Golden Bones may sound vaguely familiar – and that’s intentional on the part of the author and acknowledged at the beginning. There was a real, worldwide craze for armchair treasure hunt books in the 1980s, kicked off by the publication of the massively illustrated puzzle/story book Masquerade by Kit Williams in 1979. Plenty of people got obsessed with Masquerade and the imitations that followed in its wake, and there was a scandal around the solution to the puzzle. Not a murderous scandal, but a scandal nevertheless.

Second thing is that even from the beginning of the story, it’s pretty obvious that there are multiples of things wrong in this semi-combined, utterly co-dependent, joined at the hip double household. It’s tempting to say that the family is a hot mess, but even from the initial glimpses we get into the family dynamic it’s all too clear that a hot mess would actually be a step up. The Churchers and the Lallys are not putting the fun in dysfunctional, but there’s plenty of dysfunction to go around.

We see this family through Nell’s adult eyes as she observes these people she knows, loves and even sometimes hates through a perspective that is not exactly that of an outsider but still has more than a bit of distance. They may not recognize that the family is not healthy, but she knows that living in their midst is not healthy for her and never has been. That her parents named her after the dead woman in their famous story and never even thought that it might inspire the crazies is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg of parents behaving very badly indeed.

Because, as we see the incidents in the past that brought them all to this mixed-up present, the center point of the family is Frank Churcher and his ego – and he’s never cared or taken care of anyone but himself. Everyone else just enables him and lives off the proceeds – whether they see it or not.

And what Frank is, at the center of that massive ego, is rotten to the core. And that his rot has seeped into all of them. The best thing Nell ever did was to walk away. And it’s the best thing she can do now, too. Even if she has to let herself be smeared with just a little bit of that rot to escape from the rest.

While it is easy – and cathartic and filled with oodles of schadenfreude – to get caught up in The Skeleton Key for its story of rich people behaving very badly indeed, what made it fascinating for this reader was the way that the story wove backwards and forwards in time to reveal that everything that existed between all of them was founded on a web of lies that burned away once the truths started coming out – leaving them all blinking in the light of an unforgiving new day.

Just as I sat blinking when I turned the last page, because WOW! what a ride!

"Flesh can spoil and blood can spill, but true love never dies. Gather the lady's bones with love, and see the lady rise."

At the heart of this story is a book called The Golden Bones that tells an old folk story of Elinor and her lover Tam. When Elinore die, Tam has to gather her bones to help make her whole again. The book is full of clues so that the readers can find golden skeletal bones that have been hidden around England. The book has created a legacy of treasure hunters (Bonehunters) who are intent on finding the final bone - and saving Elinore.

The "mystery" to this book didn't kick off for almost 1/3 of the book and I was getting frustrated but I realized that this book isn't really about the mystery so much as it is about the legacy it leaves. There are two families who wrote and illustrated the book and helped build its legacy. The Churchers include Frank Churcher, the author of the book, and our primary narrator Eleanor, his daughter. We also have the Lally's notably Lal, Frank's best friend and key secret nemesis.

Eleanor doesn't want anything to do with book because naming her after the character has led to a lot of trauma for her throughout her life. Meanwhile Frank is basically a jerk. But as he tries to out-do Lal and basically continue his narcissistic quest for fame, he causes a lot of trauma.

Some of the twists I predicted, others I didn't, but I did enjoy getting to know the characters and seeing how they navigated not only the Bonehunters but also the slew of secrets and lies that start to come to light.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mobius for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Enjoyable solid read. Heavily invested in the story. Had a love/hate relationship with the characters, which helped make the book fun to read. They were fleshed out and I enjoyed the opportunity of getting to know them.. The story just flowed and before I knew it, I was finishing up the book. Thus was my first read by the author and it won't be my last.

I really enjoyed this book. I'll tell you I didn't see any of the twistys coming. I really liked how the beginning and made a really nice loop tying the story together. Totally one of my tops so far for the year.

What a unique, exciting, whirlwhind of a book-- a book that centers around a book!
The Skeleton Key drew me in by the cover first, and then the description, and then through it's pages. Erin Kelly spins a story quite well, with multiple timelines jumping back and forth, leaving you to guess who the bad guy is while wading through the books past, present, and whole slew of jaded family secrets.
Will the book bring financial succes, or familial ruin? It was a tale I absolutely enjoyed unraveling.

This was a lovely complicated and intelligent book. It was a bit of a difficult read and the flipping between two different timelines made it even more challenging. I did enjoy the characters and the mystery was a really intriguing one. It was fast enough paced to keep me interested but I still had to slog through parts of it. Overall though it was a really good read.

"To notice it would be like noticing blinking or swallowing.”

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, and this felt like a cozy mix of 'Knives Out' and 'Uncharted'. Who doesn't love a book packed full of mystery, murder, suspense and treasure???

Perfect for anyone who loves a bit of a murder/thriller vibe, but not bloody or too intense.

The Skeleton Key was published in September 2022. Thank you to Hachette Book Group, Hodder & Stoughton, NetGalley and the author for the digital advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was first drawn to this book by the gorgeous cover. It's a book that weaves a story around another book: The Golden Bones is part picture book and part treasure map, created by Frank Churcher and based on a folk song that tells the story of the murdered Ellinore, who can be brought to live through love and reassembling her scattered skeleton. The book is also a treasure map to bejeweled bones hidden across England, and after 50 years, all that remains to be found by the "Bonehunters" obsessed with the book is Ellinore's pelvis. Frank's daughter, Ellinore (Nell) returns home for the 50th anniversary celebrations, which include a book re-release and a new app, but she has tried to distance herself from her family and the book ever since a crazed Bonehunter became convinced that Nell's own pelvis was the missing piece and tried to cut it out of her when she was a teenager. Amid the 50th anniversary hype, Frank has promised to reveal the location of the last bone, but instead all hell breaks loose. This book spans genres, from mystery/thriller to women's fiction. It's pretty long and complex, jumping between the present and seminal moments in the past, and it took me a while to get into it but the further I got, the harder it was to put down.

This was a great read, not to mention how beautiful the cover is, which immediately (along with the synopsis), made me request it. This book was a totally refreshing read. It was something different, and I highly recommend it to anybody who likes a twist of historical fiction and thrillers.

I’m so sad I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would because the synopsis seemed so promising. However that’s not what I got from this book.

This book gives you Twyford Code from Janice Hallett vibes! This mystery had me finishing this book in one sitting. It was unbelievable and really good! I will be purchasing this for the library.

This book was so unique in its premise. It bounces back and forth amongst different eras in the characters’ lives, but never to an extent where it was difficult to follow. The family members have a lot of depth, and nobody is who they seem to be. Secrets upon secrets are uncovered, and the book truly keeps you guessing as to who the “bad guy” is. I’ve settled upon who the truest villain is in my mind, but I can easily see how others would reach different conclusions.

When her father’s infamous book “The Golden Bones” reaches its 50th anniversary milestone, Nell Churcher reluctantly returns home to take part in the celebration. The main character of “The Golden Bones” (Elinore) is murdered in the book, and her bones are scattered across England. While the narrative itself is fiction, there are real clues hidden within the text that lead treasure seekers to seven different “bones” made up of gold and jewels. As of the anniversary party, six of the seven treasures have been found, with only the pelvic bone remaining.

While the book meant success and financial security for her family, Nell (short for Eleanor) is estranged from her family because of it. In their quest for the bones, treasure hunters have turned fanatical. The real-life Eleanor has been stalked and attacked by rabid fans who thought maybe the pelvic bone was inside her! So when Nell returns to her homestead, she is disappointed but not surprised to find that secrets and tragedy surround her family and the book. To what lengths will the family go to keep those secrets hidden? And how will the family move on after everything is revealed?

Thank you to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton for providing an ARC of "The Skeleton Key". I absolutely loved the premise of a treasure hunt for a segmented skeleton, but unfortunately really none of the story was about the hunt or clues, instead it was just a big family drama. Such a promising plot was bogged down by so many unnecessary and uninteresting pieces of information and SO MANY characters. This book is 512 pages, but could have easily been cut down to 300 or less. I did enjoy a few of the twists at the end but ultimately I found myself just looking forward to being done.

Another long book and another 5-star review!
Please let this be what 2023 continues to bring me. 🙏🏻

Coming in at over 500 pages, this murder mystery thriller is long, twisty, and features an extensive cast of characters (seriously, pay attention as each one is introduced because they are challenging to keep straight.) The Churchers and the Lallys are friends, partners, in-laws, and neighbors. Frank and Cora Churcher are parents to Eleanor (Nell) and Dominic. Lal and Bridget Lally are parents to Rose, who is married to Dominic (see what I mean.) Switching between the 1970s, 1990s, and current days, the story unfolds of The Golden Bones, a treasure-hunting picture book game. Originally published in 1971, the book is about to have a 50th-anniversary collector’s edition released, with each book featuring an individually stamped number and a QR code to download an interactive app (compared to Pokemon Go.) While the new game allows players to collect a virtual skeleton, the original work had fans combing the countryside for hidden bone "jewels," leading to some shocking actions by Bonehunters (super fans.) From this already full storyline there are multiple others expertly woven to create a book that I could not wait to get back to every single time I set it down. There is murder, artistic conceit, betrayal, competition, and a small storyline featuring a character named Rhiannon that was the icing on the cake for me. I really couldn't count how many jaw-droppers were in this novel. I want to say to the mainstream, basic, boring, and formulaic mystery writers out there who keep giving us lazy writing and lame "twists"...take some notes, because THIS is how it's done.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was insanely slow. I feel like it never truly got to a point where I was fully invested and wanted to read more. I more so wanted to read more so I could just finish it already.

By the time I got to the end of the book I kind of hated everything (and everything that happened). The only plot point I truly cared about was the relationship and outcome of the foster situation between Nell and Billie.

I'm giving it two stars mostly because the plot was kind of interesting but I'm mostly happy I received this book for free.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Book Group for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I mainly requested this book based off the gorgeous cover and the title. I was so excited to be approved!
Filled with dysfunctional family drama, dark secrets, and a lot of unlikeable characters! Unlikeable characters are my favorite because it adds to the suspense of the book in my opinion! I also enjoyed seeing the family name, "Lally" in the book because that's my mom's maiden name.
This book alternates between three different timelines, so it was a little confusing to read and keep up. The interesting twists and overall mystery really kept me going and wanting to read more.
Highly recommend to readers who love a good mystery!