Throwback Thursday Book Review:

Monday, May 18, 2015

Book Review - The Dead Key - D M Pulley

Title:  The Dead Key

Author: D M Pulley

Review:  A brilliant story about a bank that has been closed for twenty years. Although closed it still has a security guard employed. The bank closed overnight and is finally being considered for selling. The vault containing the safety deposit boxes is there with the boxes unopened and there the real story begins. It is actually two stories being told, one taking place currently and the other just prior to the banks closing. What is contained within the safety deposit boxes? Why are all of the bank keys to open the boxes missing? What is a dead key and how is it used? A story involving intrigue, death, assault, and hidden treasure all of the elements of a good mystery.

I rated this book 5 star. But I would also rate it as a page turner. A page turner is a book that you do not want to put down even though you know you should be doing something else like turn the light off and go to sleep.

I received this book from Net Galley as an ARC.

Thanks Frank for this review.

Synopsis: 

2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner

It’s 1998, and for years the old First Bank of Cleveland has sat abandoned, perfectly preserved, its secrets only speculated on by the outside world.

Twenty years before, amid strange staff disappearances and allegations of fraud, panicked investors sold Cleveland’s largest bank in the middle of the night, locking out customers and employees, and thwarting a looming federal investigation. In the confusion that followed, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost.

In the years since, Cleveland’s wealthy businessmen kept the truth buried in the abandoned high-rise. The ransacked offices and forgotten safe-deposit boxes remain locked in time, until young engineer Iris Latch stumbles upon them during a renovation survey. What begins as a welcome break from her cubicle becomes an obsession as Iris unravels the bank’s sordid past. With each haunting revelation, Iris follows the looming shadow of the past deeper into the vault—and soon realizes that the key to the mystery comes at an astonishing price.

Kindle Edition, 477 pages

Published March 1st 2015 by Thomas & Mercer

Author Information:  D. M. Pulley's first novel, The Dead Key, was inspired by her work as a structural engineer in Cleveland, Ohio. During a survey of an abandoned building, she discovered a basement vault  full of unclaimed safe deposit boxes. The mystery behind the vault haunted her for years, until she put down her calculator and started writing. The Dead Key was the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award grand prize winner. Pulley continues to work as a private consultant and forensic engineer, investigating building failures and designing renovations. She lives in northeast Ohio with her husband and two children, and she is currently at work on her second novel.