The Skeleton Key

Critics Review

• An intricately plotted thriller, full of detail and invention, with impeccably realised settings and characters as monstrous as they are believable. Above all it is a completely addictive story of two families destroyed by success. Erin Kelly is a genius

  Jane Casey

• Moody, propulsive, and one of the most intriguing set ups I’ve read in years. Erin Kelly doesn’t put a foot wrong in this atmospheric, original thriller

  Gillian McAllister

• A feat of real ambition and imagination – original, suspenseful, and with complex characters that spring irresistibly to life on the page, this is Erin Kelly at her finest

  Louise Candlish

• Erin Kelly excels at twisted family dynamics and toxic, compelling characters, and this glorious slice of bohemian gothic showcases all her strengths

  Ruth Ware

• Scary, eerie, moving and compelling: a beautifully-plotted, gorgeously-written triumph of a thriller

  Nicci French

• A twisted treasure hunt with a fatal family secret at its heart. Powerful, playful and deeply disturbing. I loved it

  Sarah Hilary

• A blisteringly good read. I simply couldn’t put it down

  Lucy Dawson

• A unique storyteller; impossible to predict, impossible to put down

  John Mars

• Such a clever, intriguing read . . . There’s layer upon layer of mystery in this frankly brilliant read

  Belfast Telegraph

• Gloriously gothic – a richly layered, utterly compulsive read. I completely lost myself to this book for a few days. This is Erin Kelly at the height of her powers

  Lucy Foley

• I adored this novel. Treasure hunts, an old book, puzzles & clues, and bone hunters. What more could you want? Gothic, complex, character-driven, addictive and intense. The PERFECT bookclub thriller for 2022

  Will Dean

• A highly imaginative time-slip novel about vanity, arrogance, murder and deceit . . . Highly entertaining, in spite of the vividly described distress of many of the characters, this is an excellent psychological thriller

  Literary Review

• Like all Kelly’s novels, it’s pacy, brilliantly plotted, and full of complex characters and relationships . . . One of my favourite writers is back with a gripping thriller about two families connected by a devastating secret

  Good Housekeeping

• Although this is the kind of dark and twisted thriller we’ve come to expect from Erin Kelly, The Skeleton Key is also a delicious deep dive into the secrets and grievances of one of the most dysfunctional families you’re ever likely to meet

  Red Online

• A richly imagined, multi-layered story, asking some though-provoking questions about family, art and privilege along the way

  Irish Independent

• Fascinatingly original

  Peterborough Telegraph

• Spearheading a new wave of Succession-esque fractured family tales . . . Erin Kelly’s The Skeleton Key is the ultimate entertaining thriller

  Evening Standard

• Kelly’s deftly etched depiction of human relations shows how our nearest and dearest often spark in us the most intense of emotions

  The Times, Thriller on the Month

• Every autumn needs a gothic mystery and this one is a twisty turny treat. Right up there with Kelly’s bestselling debut The Poison Tree

  The Shift

• By turns a dysfunctional family drama and a deliciously sinister thriller

  i

• Kelly’s realisation of periods stretching back to the 1960s is flawless, and her saga of sex, art, fame, money, egos and damaged children is intriguing, but it’s the psychological thriller strand centred on Frank’s daughter Nell that makes it moreish

  The Sunday Times

• A rich and fascinating puzzle

  Mail on Sunday

• Stands head and shoulders above the rest, for its originality, its ingenuity and its sumptuous realisation of an intensely problematic family . . . A gorgeously intricate puzzle of a book

  Observer

• An intricate book within a book, a two-family saga set across different timelines, multi-layered and with subplots galore, it is imaginative, intriguing and absorbing

  Choice

• Imaginative, vivid, TOTALLY engrossing . . . I couldn’t put it down

  Marian Keyes

• A dark treasure hunt, family secrets and plot twists . . . An excellent reminder of why we love reading

  Stylist Online

• Her skills for domestic tensions and elegant writing come to the fore . . . The story that is unveiled criss-crosses the years, and intricately unveils the tensions in the author’s household and its terrible consequences in a slow burn of a story that grips hard with its tragic inevitability in which no one is to be trusted

  Crime Time

• A deliciously involving page turner about art, ambition, toxic families and the perils of success, with meaty characters and long-kept secrets galore

  Guardian

• Erin Kelly is a key practitioner of rigorous psychological crime, and The Skeleton Key is well up to par . . . Kelly’s customary aptitude with different time frames adds finesse to a forceful scenario

  Financial Times

• This imaginative novel is a gripping read, full of gothic suspense

  MyWeekly.co.uk

• A delight, particularly the descriptions of Nell’s eccentric and utterly dysfunctional family

  Irish Times

• Finely crafted . . . Moving and moreish

  The Sunday Times

• A twisty, inventive psychological crime novel

  Literary Review

• a compelling story of fame, toxic families and the enduring power of love

  Daily mail