The Skeleton Key: A family reunion ends in murder; the Sunday Times top ten bestseller

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The book follows the joint sories of the Churcher and Lally families who have been life long friends. The charcters, the way in which they merge, the simple believability. You feel like you know them, that they are almost family members of yours, such is the way that they portrayed and the depth that they have. Donnenfeld isn’t one of them. His smartphone is as essential a part of his kit as food and water, with apps replacing compass, maps and even decoding ciphers. Does that ever feel like cheating? “The apps don’t ‘recognise’ ciphers,” he says. “It’s up to the human to do that. What they can do is decode them. It allows us to translate a code in a second as opposed to hours manually.” And, he adds, it’s the connection that matters – even more than the prize money itself. “I want to find the Xavier treasure, but watching my kids finding a hidden clue in artwork or coming up with a unique way of solving – that is a wonderful experience. It’s taught them about creativity, brainstorming and teamwork.”

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. This is a wonderful twisty and twisted saga about two melded families, full of secrets, lies, deceit and maybe some things even darker. The Skeleton Key is a remarkable novel. It is the story of a treasure hunt that has become more real than real life for its dedicated players. It is not long before it ceases to be a game. The story is driven by a book, The Golden Bones, published in 1971, and the inspiration for generations of bone hunters, seeking Elinore’s bones to resurrect her skeleton. It is essentially a book of riddles and puzzles where the answers reveal the locations of the missing bones. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Skeleton Key via Netgalley for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.An intricate book within a book, a two-family saga set across different timelines, multi-layered and with subplots galore, it is imaginative, intriguing and absorbing * Choice *

Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke in the TV version of Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike novels. Photograph: Steffan Hill/McAinsh/PA Her skills for domestic tensions and elegant writing come to the fore . . . The story that is unveiled criss-crosses the years, and intricately unveils the tensions in the author's household and its terrible consequences in a slow burn of a story that grips hard with its tragic inevitability in which no one is to be trusted * Crime Time * A twisted treasure hunt with a fatal family secret at its heart. Powerful, playful and deeply disturbing. I loved it * Sarah Hilary *As a form of torture Chinese Water and Waterboarding can easily be described as being extremities of the same idea. However, you couldn’t think of anything more apt to describe just how the author holds you in this story. A drip feed that descends into a creshendo, that pulls you along and threatens to drown you. Such is the pace that it gathers. Many thanks to Net Galley, Hodder & Stoughton, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily. Nell has fifteen-year-old Billie to take into account. Billie's actually the daughter of a former boyfriend and she matters to Nell. They live on Nell's houseboat, Seren, which has to be moved regularly. It's a bit of a nuisance but it does limit the chances of Nell being found by the Bonehunters. The book made Frank (now Sir Frank) a rich man but it wasn't only Nell who suffered. Marriages broke down, homes were lost and a man was killed. Frank doesn't seem worried - in fact he craves the publicity - and hopes that it will help to sell his real work, the portraits of the women he's slept with. Some of them are far too close to home. Such a clever, intriguing read . . . There's layer upon layer of mystery in this frankly brilliant read * Belfast Telegraph *

Frank Churcher came up with the idea for a book that would make him a lot of money. This book was ''The Golden Bones''. A treasure hunt book, full of clues to find the locations of several golden bones that make up the skeleton of fictional character, Elinore. Frank and his wife Cora, even named their daughter after Elinore, although she prefers to distance herself from this by calling herself Nell. The book has drawn fans from across the globe, some more obsessed with finding the scattered bones than others, and Nell has found herself in danger on more than one occasion, but none so terrifying as when she was stabbed as a child buy a crazed 'bonehunter'.

Summary

The plot, is of similar strength and leaves just enough to the imagination, to really find yourself fully immersed in the goings on of the two families. The twists and turns, and the suffering that they are going through. I did wonder if I was going to enjoy the book: treasure quests are not really my thing but Bookbag has reviewed a few of Erin Kelly's books and some respected reviewers have been blown away. I suspected I was missing something, so I started to read about a treasure quest...