Skeleton Key - Erin Kelly

Well, I can't dispute the fact that The Skeleton Key lives up to its title and the premise that is imprinted on the front cover as "One book. Two families. A Lifetime of Obsession". That comes through abundantly clearly in Erin Kelly's writing and its focus on Eleanor, the young woman caught up in a very unusual family situation. Fifty years ago, her artist father Frank Churcher hit upon an idea of creating a kind of treasure hunt puzzle in a children's book, 'The Golden Bones'. He had no idea of how it would capture the imagination of treasure seekers all over the world, and indeed cause no small amount of disruption to the lives of his and his friend Lal's family. The game, the wealth and the honours that came with it were welcome, but some controversy as well and even some deaths as the final key to the puzzle has remained undiscovered for decades.

For Frank's daughter, Eleanor, it was a much more serious matter. Her name is close to her namesake in the puzzlebook, Elinore, who according to folk legend has been murdered and her bones scattered across the countryside. The bones of a little golden skeleton have likewise been placed in hidden places, with cryptic clues pointing to their location. The game has gone on for decades with only one missing piece of the skeleton remaining. Over the years it has attracted a fanatical following of collectors and 'Bonehunters', who speculate not only on the clues making wild connections, but delve intrusively into the families lives on social media. Eleanor attracts more attention - or crazies - than most, and has long ago kept her distance from the family and their fortune. Unfortunately she has little say in the matter, and with a new game due to be launched, the dangers have resurfaced.

"The problem with growing up in a house where conventional morals were dismissed as bourgeois and suburban is that you have to make your own", is how Eleanor sees her position, and indeed, the Churcher and Lally families are far from conventional. The Skeleton Key is then very much a family novel in how Eleanor struggles to keep her own independence and integrity as a person within and outside the confines of her unconventional upbringing. With the whole Golden Bones element however comes an air of unsolved mystery, and not just in relation to the last missing piece or the rumours surrounding it, but to other family secrets, or shall we say, skeletons in the attic.

The shifts in time periods over the decades, Eleanor's backstory and that of her parents, and the whole present situation where everything is brought out, gives the book a curious structure or symmetry. Each part seems to have its own central trouble or problem to be resolved, and even those stretch across a number of time lines. What is unexpected - and I'll keep this as spoiler free as possible - is that much relates back to one pivotal event, and that is the opening of Frank Churcher's controversial 'Intimacies' exhibition of paintings in 1997. There Frank attempts to re-establish his credentials as a serious artist while flirting with disaster at the cost of discord between the Churcher and Lally families. That is covered in detail in Part III and it's a fascinating gathering where emotions run high, and shame, jealousy and all kinds of tensions are brought to the surface.

"The Golden Bones, it gets under people's skin, it drives them mad" is another observation made, and it's a strange one that I didn't find relatable, credible or as fascinating as the author does. There is another way of looking at the subject however and it's hinted at in a number of ways. Social media makes people behave strangely, and it can work up a frenzy when things go viral. It's also the only means of contact for many people with the outside world, so it does generate an intensity of its own unrelated to the real world. Interestingly, Erin Kelly isn't afraid of also mentioning the Covid epidemic and mask wearing, and that can also relate to how people's fears can be exaggerated and exploited. There are a number of ways of looking at it, but primarily The Skeleton Key is indeed about family, about how easy it is to mess people up, and all the ways you can do it. Billie is an example of that as well as Nell, but there are others. 

I didn't find The Skeleton Key as easy to enjoy or as gripping as other Erin Kelly books I have read (He Said/She Said, Stone Mothers/We Know You Know. This one takes a bit of work, but it is ultimately worth the effort to explore in some depth how different people function, what drives them, and the pitfalls that can bring it all crashing down. There is plenty to think about as you go along, there are inevitably plenty of secrets and revelations, and by the time we get to the pivotal Part III of the book, you can see how well the author manages to bring it all together for a pay-off that makes this a worthwhile read.

Reading notes: The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 1st September 2022. I received a paperback proof from the publisher.