Erin Kelly shot to the top of the bestseller charts 11 years ago, when her debut psychological thriller, The Poison Tree, was highlighted by Richard and Judy’s book club. She has since written seven more thrillers, of which the seventh, The Skeleton Key (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99) stands head and shoulders above the rest, for its originality, its ingenuity and its sumptuous realisation of an intensely problematic family. Inspired by one of Kelly’s favourite books from her childhood, Kit Williams’s Masquerade, The Skeleton Key centres on a similar treasure hunt picture book, The Golden Bones, although this is a much darker tale than Williams’s. Telling of a murdered woman, Elinore, whose skeleton was scattered over England, it gives clues to locations around England where tiny golden bones have been hidden.
Since artist Frank Churcher published The Golden Bones 50 years ago, it has given rise to a group of treasure seekers calling themselves the Bonehunters – “there is a certain kind of mind to which a riddle like this is catnip” – and every bone but Elinore’s pelvis has been found. Now, to mark the 50th anniversary, a documentary is being made and a new treasure hunt launched and Frank’s daughter, Nell, a target for obsessive fans, has come back to the family home by Hampstead Heath. Nell is – rightly – terrified of the Bonehunters and their obsessions are about to be woken again by a man who has always, always wanted all eyes on him. A gorgeously intricate puzzle of a book.
