A Killing in the Hills
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 it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the country just like Acker's Gap? Or were Dean Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted somehow?
One of the witnesses to the brutal incident was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. Carla was shocked and horrified by what she saw, but after a few days, she begins to recover enough to believe that she might be uniquely placed to help her mother do her job.
After all, what better way to repair their fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end up doing more harm than good―in fact, putting her own life in danger?
MY REVIEW: 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 reluctant and rebellious seventeen-year old daughter, Carla. Bell's old friend, Sheriff Nick Fogelsong, is pleased that she has come home, but he is perturbed by her determination to become the Prosecuting Attorney of Raythune County. While he admires her conviction and despairs of her stubbornness, Nick warns her of the drudgery and bleakness that the job entails. Undeterred, Bell wins the position and determines to clean up the drug racket which is poisoning the small community. Bell's commitment to her work does nothing to ease the tense, often hostile relationship between herself and Carla. Everything changes one day, in less than a minute, when a gunmen opens fire in the local eatery, The Salty Dawg. Killing three old men as they drink their coffee, the gunman leaves chaos and horror in his wake. As he makes a fast exit, Carla sees his face, and thus becomes a victim of another kind. Later, she realizes that she has seen the killer once before in a place she shouldn't have been, and she keeps silent so that her mother won't know where she had gone. Carla decides to investigate the killing on her own to save face, causing more harm than good. As Bell continues her quest to destroy the hold that drugs have on Raythune County, she is targeted by the drug lords, and life becomes ever more complex. In communities such as Acker's Gap where poverty is an inescapable, intricate link in the chain of life, there will always be hunters who prey on the weak and the hopeless. This is an endless cycle, as old as humanity itself. On a personal note, West Virginia is my close neighbor--my home in Virginia is just a half-hour away from the WV border. I have a deep fondness for West Virginia and its people, and I have found much there to appreciate. The mountains, while looming and silent, are also breathtakingly beautiful. Their majestic reign encompasses all, and they are sure in the knowledge that the differences each new generation will bring will be absorbed into the timeless legacy of the past.
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Reviews
“A Killing in the Hills superbly evokes the hard times and wooded beauty of a poverty-stricken county in West Virginia. . .A finely written and engrossing debut.” ―Houston Chronicle
“A Killing In The Hills is a gripping, beautifully-crafted murder mystery that shows that small-town West Virginia is no longer Mayberry. Great reading.” ―SCOTT TUROW
“Julia Keller is that rare talent who combines gripping suspense, a fabulous sense of place and nuanced characters you can't wait to come back to. A must read.” ―KARIN SLAUGHTER
“A Killing in the Hills is a remarkably written and remarkably tense debut. I loved it.” ―DENNIS LEHANE
“Julia Keller's A Killing in the Hills is a terrific debut--atmospheric, suspenseful, assured. I hope there's more to come in the story of Bell Elkins and Acker's Gap.” ―LAURA LIPPMAN
“Be careful opening this book because once you do you won't be able to close it. Instead, clear the weekend, silence the phone and settle into Acker's Gap, a place as fascinating and fraught with violence and beauty as Daniel Woodrell's Ozarks or William Gay's Tennessee. A killer novel.” ―TOM FRANKLIN
“Outstanding. . .Keller does a superb job showing both the natural beauty of Appalachia and the hopeless anger of the people trapped there in poverty. . .Unforgettable.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review, Pick of the Week)
“A page-turner with substance and depth, this is as suspenseful and entertaining as it is accomplished.” ―Booklist (starred review)
“A fictional debut for a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, born and raised in West Virginia, whose love for the state, filled with natural beauty and deep poverty, pervades a mystery that has plenty of twists and turns and a shocking conclusion.” ―Kirkus (starred review)
Book 2
Book 3
Book 3.5
Book 3.6
Book 3.7
Book 4
Book 4.5
Book 6
JULIA KELLER
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