Kindle British Mystery Book Club discussion

I’m about a third the way into this one. Shifting time frame and number of characters is a bit confusing but the family tree is a useful reference and this is one of my favourite settings. With Erin Kelly as author, one might suspect characters who aren’t who they appear.

Good to know, Bill. I was going to listen to this one on audible, as have the other pick for this month on my kindle. But I find it hard to follow time shifts on audible.

So I will be late contributing on this one!

I really must apologise for nominating this this one. My previous experience with Erin Kelly has been quite mixed. He Said/She Said taught me more about solar eclipses than I ever wanted to know, The Poison Tree was ruined by an ignoramus American editor, but I quite liked Watch Her Fall and thought The Burning Air an excellent school revenge story. The Skeleton Key features a literal golden key and a literal human skeleton, as well as a jumbled artistic clan composed of an alcoholic Irish ex-priest and a paedophile Englishman perhaps modelled on Augustus John or Eric Gill, who got rich by creating a puzzle book like Kit Williams’s Masquerade but featuring a princess rather than a hare. As the story flashes back and forth from the 1970s to 2021 with many characters, the reader is apt to find it hard to follow. But the worst parts are narrated in first person by Nell, the daugher of one of the artists. She is supposed to be creating stained glass artwork, but unfortunately her vocabulary is mostly limited to expletives. Typical examples:
 ‘The plate of shit her wants Frank to enact is a dish best served cold.’
'Oh, this is fucked. This is fucked up.’
 ‘The online shit-stirring wold have been harmless if the jewel had been left in the tree. . . . Taking the jewels would have been harmless . . . without the online shit-stirring . . .’
'This is shitty, trying to guilt trip me.'
  'Shitting hell. This is the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever heard.’
'And what's Rose's hot take on it all? 'Eleanor, please don't be snotty,' says Cora. 'Fuck off, Cora.'
The book is followed by seven pages of acknowledgements thanking others responsible for this production, including the author’s children. Then we have ‘Reading Group Questions,’ including ‘Who is your favourite/least favourite character and how true did each of them feel?’ I fear there are too many candidates for the former.

No worries Bill. So sorry that this was a such disappointment.

I have started reading this one and I am just wishing I had followed Bills advice

I find the time shifts, which seems to be a popular writing style these days, confusing I can’t identify with the whole
Concept of the quest to find bones and non le of the characters appear to be very likeable

And at chapter 25 i am still waiting for a mystery!