In A Killing in the Hills, a powerful,
intricate debut from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia
Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town
and each other before it's too late.
What's happening
in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are
gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and
seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still,
it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good
look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected
to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the
country just like Acker's Gap? Or were Dean
Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted
somehow?
One of the witnesses to the
brutal incident was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell
Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV.
Carla was shocked and horrified by what she saw, but after a
few days, she begins to recover enough to believe that she
might be uniquely placed to help her mother do her
job.
After all, what better way to repair their
fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end
up doing more harm than good—in fact, putting her own life
in danger?