This haunting, thought-provoking story proves Keller is one of a kind. Readers of Julia Spencer-Fleming’s mysteries of communities torn apart by crime may also want to try.” – Library Journal (starred review)
“This thoughtful, painfully empathetic story will long linger in the reader’s memory.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Keller can spin a mystery plot with the best of them, but it’s her full-bodied characters and the regard they have for one another that really sets her crime fiction apart: a bride’s back-of-the-hand caress of her new husband’s cheek, and his response, is a moment that will linger in memory long after the crime is solved.” – Booklist (starred review)
“A native West Virginian and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize while at the Chicago Tribune, Keller, with a winning blend of lyrical prose and realistic storytelling, again offers readers exceptional crime fiction and a harrowing portrait of the Mountain State. Adrift in poverty, anger and despair and awash in opiates, West Virginia casts a bleak shadow. But in Keller’s adroit, unblinking and humane approach, its profound humanity also shines through.” – Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
“Compulsively readable and rich with psychological and social insight… Keller emphatically captures a community beset by hardship and caught in a downward spiral that she is determined to break.” – National Book Review
