Bone on Bone

The inhabitants of the dying town of Acker’s Gap, W.Va., face only bleak prospects in Keller’s beautifully written seventh Bell Elkins novel (after 2017’s Fast Falls the Night). Adults close themselves off emotionally, clutching their despair, while young people are likely to slip into hopeless drug addiction—or dealing. Wheelchair-bound former sheriff’s deputy Jake Oakes and just-out-of-prison former prosecutor Bell, who was put behind bars after confessing to her abusive father’s murder, also appear to have no useful futures, but they get a new focus by investigating the shooting murder of banker Brett Topping. The police question Topping’s 19-year-old drug-addicted son, Tyler, but once Tyler is cleared, along with his ultraviolent dealer, Deke Foley, suspicion shifts to more seemingly wholesome members of the community. Despite the pervading melancholy, characters stubbornly struggle to rediscover purpose for their lives and to pin down responsibility for personal failures. This thoughtful, painfully empathetic story will long linger in the reader’s memory. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Aug.)