Incredibly compelling family-secrets story, with the premise of a book like Masquerade by Kit Williams that made it's creator's family rich, and also targets.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily. I worried that a reissued book wouldn’t catch fire now in the same way – remember, when Masquerade was published we only had three television channels and the pubs shut for the afternoon – but Barbarisi argues that much of the allure of these books comes from “connecting to a world long vanished. A treasure map is more romantic and mysterious – and uncertain – than a set of GPS coordinates on a Geocaching hunt. These books represent a time when information was genuinely hard to come by.There are those who miss that feeling of not knowing, of the difficulty of discovery and the triumph of hard-won knowledge.” In the late 18th century, Joseph Johnson was arguably the first modern publisher, working with some of the most famous names of the day: William Blake was his chief engraver. Johnson also enjoyed profound personal relationships with some of his authors, most notably Mary Wollstonecraft and Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. Hay’s meticulously researched biography, rich in period and personal detail, sheds light on both Johnson the man and the vibrant cultural world he inhabited. 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. Now the book is being republished….with extra clues as to the final set of bones…. BookTrail Travel to the locations in The Skeleton KeyIt's very difficult to review such a multi-layered, well-plotted mystery without giving anything away, Let’s just say that it’s a story about fame, greed and family secrets. A LOT of dark family secrets. As an added bonus, the book also contained two of my favourite themes: a story based on an old legend, plus a “book within a book”. Whilst the story started out revolving around Frank Churcher’s famous book The Golden Bones, which has led to his fame and wealth but also to the formation of a worldwide fan base of “bone hunters” who have put his own daughter at risk (you will have to read it to find out why), it soon became more character driven, exploring the intertwined relationships of the Churcher and Lally families. As dark secrets were revealed, and family dynamics became more and more dysfunctional, my fascination with these characters made me loath to put the book down. There were quite a few “aha!” moments when pieces of the puzzle fell into place and revealed cleverly plotted twists. Kelly is a talented writer who not only knows how to utterly enthral her readers, but also to weave magic into the multiple threads that form her stories. What drew me in to The Skeleton Key were a) the cover of the book, which seemed to promise both magic and ordinary life and b) the fact that it was built around a book. In this case, a treasure hunt book that's now 50 years old, involves a quest to re-assemble a skeleton, has a world-wide, obsessive fan base, and has shaped the lives of two close families—one the author/illustrator's, the other his best friend's. While the mystery is great, it's the characters that make this book. Actions that start out with good intentions become derailed and disastrous making it an unpredictable and rewarding read. The story inside is every bit as stunning, intricate and enticing as the cover art. But Sir Frank has reunited the Churchers for a very particular reason. The book is being reissued, along with a new treasure hunt and a documentary crew are charting the anniversary. Nell is appalled, and fearful. During the filming, Frank finally reveals the whereabouts of the missing golden bone. And then all hell breaks loose.

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. An intricately plotted thriller, full of detail and invention, with impeccably realised settings and characters as monstrous as they are believable. Above all it is a completely addictive story of two families destroyed by success. Erin Kelly is a genius’ JANE CASEY Overall, The Skeleton Key is another sophisticated, vivid, creepy tale by Kelly that does a fantastic job of delving into all the complex, dysfunctional dynamics that can occur between family members and reminds us just how toxic and evil, and yet somehow still loyal some of these relationships can truly be. When Bran begins to escape into a world of brainy misfits, the book improves dramatically. Her best friend, Jay, is devoted to the art of flamenco but his teacher is almost completely blind, and thus can’t help him with the fact that his dancing is an embarrassing mess. This may sound like an unconvincing sitcom premise, but in Zink’s hands, it becomes a serious examination of the nature of art. Even better is Bran’s infatuation with the hyper-erudite Peter, who spellbinds her with references to Arthurian legend and French theory, and becomes her informal life coach and almost-boyfriend. These characters are maddeningly predictable and frighteningly unpredictable in the way of real people.Not sleeping, writes French novelist Marie Darrieussecq, is like “wandering around without a shadow”. In 2017, Darrieussecq began writing a monthly magazine column about insomnia which continued for two years. Her editor jokingly referred to it as “the one thousand and one nights of insomnia”. Except, as Darrieussecq so eloquently shows, insomnia is no joke. 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. Nomad Century is the much-anticipated follow-up to Vince’s award-winning book, Adventures in the Anthropocene, which explained how human impacts on Earth have created a new geological epoch. In this new work, the author makes the pessimistic, but entirely plausible, assumption that by the end of this century the Earth will be 4C warmer than during the period before industrialisation. And while this may sound like the stuff of nightmares, she also offers an optimistic vision of how humans might cope after rendering large swathes of the globe uninhabitable – through massive migration towards the poles.

MY THOUGHTS: I became fully immersed in the story of the Churcher and Lally families to the detriment of everything else I was currently reading. The extended family dynamics enthralled me. I became obsessed by their machinations, and their relationships, which are almost incestuous. Since finishing this book I've been thinking how to voice my admiration for the author. I don't like rehashing the story because that's what blurbs are for, but I really do want to write down how this book made me feel after finishing it. Scary, moving and compelling: a beautifully-plotted, gorgeously-written triumph of a thriller’ NICCI FRENCH Eleanor doesn’t want to get involved in Golden Bones business, rejecting the money her family can provide her, turning into a recluse, reluctantly joining the family gathering with her 15 years adopted daughter. But she sees Stuart lurking around, a mysterious person starts dropping clues on fan boards about her secrets. And it seems like there are serious problems about application’s lunching. Eleanor/ Nell has every right to get frighten because all hell breaks loose and things get out of control!

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.

One book has influenced these families’ lives in more ways than one. It brought them fame and money. But it also brought them stalkers, nutters and a whole lot of pain. Especially for Nell, who is an obsession for a whole community of people who are enthralled with treasure hunts. Nell isn’t like the other family members. She made a choice to try and distance herself from the lot of them, and leads a very different life. From the very beginning, I struggled to understand why she would have anything to do with these celebrations. Her father’s book, ‘The Golden Bones‘, pretty much ruined her life. If that had been me, I wouldn’t have come anywhere near this anniversary.Obsession and clues, death and mystery: all this fed into my new novel The Skeleton Key. My book-within-a‑book is called The Golden Bones: the treasure is a jewelled skeleton, scattered and buried at seven locations. Unlike Fenn, my fictional artist calls off the search when crazed fans can’t tell their fictional quest from reality and threaten his family. One golden bone – the pelvis – remains undiscovered. In the present day, the artist decides to update and reissue The Golden Bones, and reveal the treasure’s whereabouts. But human remains are uncovered instead, and dormant obsessions resurface. You both did brilliantly,' says Bridget. She puts one hand to my forehead and the other to my wrist.