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92nd out of 119 books
—
315 voters
A Killing in the Hills (Bell Elkins #1)
by
Julia Keller
InA Killing in the Hills, apowerful, intricate debut from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late.
What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia?Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it...more
What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia?Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it...more
Hardcover, 371 pages
Published
August 21st 2012
by Minotaur Books
(first published August 1st 2012)
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Rating: 3.5* of five
The Book Description: In this powerful, intricate debut from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late.
What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was i...more
The Book Description: In this powerful, intricate debut from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late.
What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was i...more
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A Pulitzer prize-winning journalist writes a first novel about a murder of three elderly men in the West Virginia hill country. The possibilities intrigued me from the first few pages, and I expected a well-written piece of work--no fluff, no sloppiness, clean editing, and mature, solid plot and theme structure. A good journalist is experienced in the weight of a word, the sharpness of a sentence. Unfortunately, this debut novel turned out to be derivative and prosaic, with minimal tension and a...more
9 likes · like · see review
My sincere thanks to Alison Fisher, Library Marketing Coordinator, Adult Trade of Macmillan for getting the e-galley to me at my request. A Killing in the Hills will be published August 21st.
The highest compliment I can give Julia Keller's debut novel is that I'd like to read another featuring prosecutor, Belfa Elkins; Bell for short. I'm not a fan of series fiction as a whole, but I say, bring on the next one!
The story starts out with a bang, literally. "Pock, Pock Pock." The gunman enters Th...more
The highest compliment I can give Julia Keller's debut novel is that I'd like to read another featuring prosecutor, Belfa Elkins; Bell for short. I'm not a fan of series fiction as a whole, but I say, bring on the next one!
The story starts out with a bang, literally. "Pock, Pock Pock." The gunman enters Th...more
6 likes · like · see review
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Winter of Secrets, by Vicky Delany, b-plus, Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie, Produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
Sometimes the smallest towns have the darkest secrets.Siblings Wendy and Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and their friends are in British Columbia, enjoying a two-week
vacation. Tragedy strikes the group of privileged students when two of them crash through the ice into the frozen river.It's Christmas Eve and the snowstorm
of the decade has settled over the peaceful Canadian...more
Sometimes the smallest towns have the darkest secrets.Siblings Wendy and Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and their friends are in British Columbia, enjoying a two-week
vacation. Tragedy strikes the group of privileged students when two of them crash through the ice into the frozen river.It's Christmas Eve and the snowstorm
of the decade has settled over the peaceful Canadian...more
A Killing in the Hills is set deep in the mountains of West Virginia, and the place is as important to the story as any of the characters. Keller's lyrical descriptions of the setting makes the mountain and the surrounding woods and towns and roads and houses and shacks and abandoned mines come alive. At times when reading I had to consciously pull myself out of the setting--I felt like I too lived in this town and saw these places.
There's also a good mix of interesting characters and a solid my...more
There's also a good mix of interesting characters and a solid my...more
Bell Elkins grew up in Acker's Gap, West Virginia. After a tragic upbringing that includes a fire and the death of her father, she then goes from foster home to foster home. She goes away to college, gets married and has a child. She feels drawn to return to Acker's Gap to make a difference. Her marriage falls apart and she takes her daughter home to West Virginia. She runs and is elected prosecuting attorney for Raythune County. The county has a serious drug problem and Bell is determined to cl...more
The murder of three elderly gentlemen in a burger joint quickly grabs your interest. The door opens, in walks a gunman, he takes aim at the men and within seconds all are dead. With several customers at the time no one is able to give a description of the killer to the police. However, one teen not only saw him but knows who he is, she met him at a party once where illicit drugs were being used and doesn't want her mother to know. She doesn't know his name or where he lives though and sets out o...more
Death in Appalachia. Acker’s Gap is a small West Virginia town. A rural area that is both beautiful and grotesque. Rampart drug use and incessant poverty are the reasons for the latter, issues that currently plague many areas across America.
One Saturday morning, three old man, longtime friends, are having coffee at a local diner. They are brutally gunned down by a lone assailant, who quickly flees. Bell Elkins, the county prosecutor, is called in to investigate. Her teenage daughter witnessed t...more
One Saturday morning, three old man, longtime friends, are having coffee at a local diner. They are brutally gunned down by a lone assailant, who quickly flees. Bell Elkins, the county prosecutor, is called in to investigate. Her teenage daughter witnessed t...more
Set in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains, this debut mystery by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller is both atmospheric and fast-paced. The story centers around Belfa Elkins, a prosecuting attorney, who is strong, independent and doggedly determined to rid her community of the drug dealers who are dragging it's people further into the depths of despair and poverty. Little does Belfa know that her anti-drug crusade will bring death to her town and danger to her family. The plot...more
1 like · like · see review
I don't get the buzz on this book. It was a real disappointment. There are a number of aspects about it to criticize:
1. The book really needed an editor. It's incredibly repetitious; there are descriptions of people that are repeated and ideas that are re-stated numerous time.
2. Too often, Keller strives for the memorable sentence, but usually just falls flat and sounds self-consciously literary.
3. The characters are two-dimensional, not at all subtle.
4. This is supposed to be a suspense novel,...more
1. The book really needed an editor. It's incredibly repetitious; there are descriptions of people that are repeated and ideas that are re-stated numerous time.
2. Too often, Keller strives for the memorable sentence, but usually just falls flat and sounds self-consciously literary.
3. The characters are two-dimensional, not at all subtle.
4. This is supposed to be a suspense novel,...more
Pretty good mystery. Not great. I read it in one day, skimming a lot. Bell (Belfa) Elkins is the prosecuting attorney is a small county in West Virginia. Her daughter Carla (16?) is a witness to the killing of three older men in a diner in town. A lot of the book centers on the "drug problem" that Keller talks about over and over again, so it's no surprise when the killer turns out to be involved with drugs. But who is his boss?
Several other story lines weave through the novel. Some things irri...more
Several other story lines weave through the novel. Some things irri...more
Readers who fail to spot the bad guys early should have their mystery licenses revoked. But this is, nevertheless, a great read because it’s so totally earnest. Bell Elkins is a prosecutor is a small West Virginia town. Her daughter is a witness when a gunman shoots three men. Bell's life is consumed with this and other cases that arise out of the fabric of this tight-knit community. Bell is All In every minute, and readers will be too because commitment like this can't be faked. (On sale 8/21)
I don’t often stop while reading a mystery to re-read a sentence or paragraph because it is so beautifully written and so descriptive that I want to remember it. But, I found myself doing that quite frequently while reading A Killing in the Hills. On top of being beautifully written, it is a tension filled suspense novel and murder mystery with characters so well developed I felt like I really knew them and the sense of place so vivid I felt like I had been there.
Imagine sitting in a local dinner with your life long friends for 20 plus years having your morning coffee as usual on a Saturday morning when out of now where "BANG, BANG, BANG" your all dead.
This is what happens in a poverity stricken, drugged raged town of Acker's Gap West Virginia.
It is up to the county prosector, Bell Elkins to get down and investigate, the big kicker. HER DAUGHTER, Carla, WAS THERE AT THE DINNER AND WITNESS THE WHOLE THING!.
Carla is 17 and has a rough relationship with he...more
This is what happens in a poverity stricken, drugged raged town of Acker's Gap West Virginia.
It is up to the county prosector, Bell Elkins to get down and investigate, the big kicker. HER DAUGHTER, Carla, WAS THERE AT THE DINNER AND WITNESS THE WHOLE THING!.
Carla is 17 and has a rough relationship with he...more
I know this sounds pretentious, but this book was my first ever mystery thriller. I'm not a literary snob (well, perhaps I am) because I can't read anything that is not well-written. I just don't enjoy it, don't wish to invest the time.
This novel is wonderful and Keller is a first-rate writer. I loved the powerful West Virginia setting, both the beauty and the hardship vividly drawn--Keller knows this place as one would know a person whom one loves and grieves for. The mother-daughter drama is c...more
This novel is wonderful and Keller is a first-rate writer. I loved the powerful West Virginia setting, both the beauty and the hardship vividly drawn--Keller knows this place as one would know a person whom one loves and grieves for. The mother-daughter drama is c...more
Predictable plot with a cliched cast of characters. I do not understand the praise for this book.
Acker's Gap, West Virginia could literally be any small town within the United States. The problems found there are found elsewhere. And the growing problem faced in many small towns is a problem with drugs (meth as well as prescription drug abuse). Prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins is working hard to see that Acker's Gap doesn't become tainted by the ever-increasing drug problems.
A native West Virginia, Bell has seen plenty of trouble in her life and was able to succeed despite the rough start....more
A native West Virginia, Bell has seen plenty of trouble in her life and was able to succeed despite the rough start....more
This book took me a little time to "get into" it, but once the story was going, I found it difficult to put down. The scene is a very small community in the hills of West Virginia, but could have taken place in so many other small towns across this country. Three old men, sitting around a table and drinking coffee, as has been their custom for many years, are suddenly gunned down by a young man who enters the door and efficiently shoots them each in the head. Nobody seems to know who he is. Who...more
I am not going to write a full review of this book because I am hoping that it will be re-edited before publication in August. It has a lot of potential.
This mystery pulls readers in from first pages--3 old men are murdered in cold blood in a diner--and then we meet the denizens of this West Virginia town: Attorney and divorced Mom Bell Elkins, her daughter Carla who witnessed the shooting and may have recognized the shooter, and more. Well-drawn characters, multiple points of view, and multiple cases to distract Bell from finding the drug kingpin who paid for the murder until it's almost too late. Suspenseful, intense, complex, issue-oriented,...more
A Killing in the Hills is the debut novel by journalist Julia Keller. It is set in West Virginia with beautiful descriptions of the landscape which contrast starkly with the rampant poverty. Like many small towns in North America, a local restaurant is the meeting spot for older men who catch up on the gossip while enjoying a cup of coffee. For three of these men, it will be their last visit to anywhere as they are shot down in their seats. The crime is so unexpected in this small town that no o...more
In her first novel, Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Keller describes the small town of Acker's Gap, West Virginia as:
"It was a beautiful place, especially in the late spring and throughout the long summer, when the hawks wrote slow, wordless stories across the pale blue parchment of the sky, when the tree-lined valleys exploded in a green so vivid and yet so predicitable that it was like a hallelujah shout at a tent revival. You always knew it was coming, but it could still knock you clean off your...more
"It was a beautiful place, especially in the late spring and throughout the long summer, when the hawks wrote slow, wordless stories across the pale blue parchment of the sky, when the tree-lined valleys exploded in a green so vivid and yet so predicitable that it was like a hallelujah shout at a tent revival. You always knew it was coming, but it could still knock you clean off your...more
A woman returns to the place where a family tragedy took place years ago. Everyone else is gone. She decides there is nothing here for her, either.
That woman is the prosecuting attorney of Raythune County, West Virginia. Bell Elkins has brought her teenage daughter, Carla, back to her hometown when her husband wanted a high-flying career that didn't seem to include them. But home hasn't been a sanctuary. Carla is in full teenage-rebel mode. She also could have been hurt the day a gunman walked i...more
That woman is the prosecuting attorney of Raythune County, West Virginia. Bell Elkins has brought her teenage daughter, Carla, back to her hometown when her husband wanted a high-flying career that didn't seem to include them. But home hasn't been a sanctuary. Carla is in full teenage-rebel mode. She also could have been hurt the day a gunman walked i...more
Set up to be beginning of a series. Still not so set up it was bad.
A mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it is too late. What is happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas...more
A mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it is too late. What is happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas...more
The debut novel for Julia Keller, "A Killing in the Hills" is a very good mystery & hopefully the beginning of a promising series/career. The story opens with a killing of 3 men in a restaurant in fictional Acker's Gap, WV which is a sleepy hamlet in West Virginia that has as of late become infiltrated by the drug trade. The county prosecutor's daughter, Carly, is a witness to the crime & she herself (Bell Elkins) is thrust into following evidence provided in order to prosecute the crime...more
A Killing in the Hills seemed like a good literary mystery novel, something I would enjoy. While I would still go with the assessment that it's more of a literary novel, I have to say I didn't enjoy it. It was very wordy and full long, windy descriptive phrases that distracted me from the story itself. Here's one: "Bell Elkins tore through the tape as if it were tinsel on last year's Christmas tree--as it were, that is, superfluous, out of place, and certainly nothing that ought, under the prese...more
Author Julia Keller steps away from a Pulitzer Prize-Winning journalism career to tell this richly-characterized, memorable tale of crime and punishment in a small rural town in West Virginia. As a young woman, Bell Elkins left behind Acker's Gap, WV, hoping to close the door on a troubled childhood and start a new life in Washington, DC. Marriage, a law career, and a child could not fit together for Bell and her husband, and after their divorce, she returned to Acker's Gap, bringing along her r...more
Classified as a mystery, this nevertheless has a healthy dose of suspense built in. Debut mystery by a veteran Pulitzer prize winning author. Can see how this could become a series though it is not clear yet if it will be.
Author has made a point to reveal the extreme poverty of Appalachia and how this can lead to child/sex abuse, broken homes, and low educational levels. She also shows how some kids break out of these conditions. A related theme is how decent adults might break the law when face...more
Author has made a point to reveal the extreme poverty of Appalachia and how this can lead to child/sex abuse, broken homes, and low educational levels. She also shows how some kids break out of these conditions. A related theme is how decent adults might break the law when face...more
A Killing in the Hills has a number of strengths: a strong and vivid sense of place; good contextualisation with respect to society in West Virginia and the problem of prescription drugs addiction; and an interesting pair of lead characters in Bell and Nick. These are countered by some notable weaknesses: a tendency to melodrama, often too much tell rather than show, and credibility with respect to the main plotline. With respect to the latter, I just simply didn’t believe certain elements of th...more
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| The Indie Exchang...: Win an ARC of A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller | 1 | 5 | Aug 20, 2012 10:11am | |
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| Book Bloggers Ano...: Win an ARC of A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller | 1 | 1 | Aug 20, 2012 10:09am | |
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Julia was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. She graduated from Marshall University, then later earned a doctoral degree in English Literature at Ohio State University.
She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has taught at Princeton and Ohio State Universities, and the University of Notre Dame. She is an essayist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. In 2005, she won the Pul...more
More about Julia Keller...
She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has taught at Princeton and Ohio State Universities, and the University of Notre Dame. She is an essayist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. In 2005, she won the Pul...more
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