The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley is her debut novel. I became a fan with her other books, The Buried Book and No One’s Home. Her stories are a bit spooky, quite mysterious, and completely attention consuming!

The Dead Key is set in Cleveland, Ohio in a downtown bank. There are two story lines, 20 years apart. In 1998, we meet Iris, an engineer assigned to survey the abandoned First Bank of Cleveland for a potential renovation. As Iris begins exploring the abandoned bank, she immediately observes that the building has been frozen in time. Iris does exactly what I would do if I were in her shoes, she gets distracted and noses in desk drawers and filing cabinets. Only, Iris doesn’t have any idea how dangerous this behavior is for her job and her safety.

In 1978, we meet Beatrice, a 16-year-old living with her aunt Doris as an escape from her nightmare of a family. Doris coaches Beatrice on getting a job at the First Bank of Cleveland, by lying about her age. Beatrice struggles to adapt to her new job. Thankfully, Iris is befriended by Maxine who educates her on clothing, going out on the town, and invites Beatrice to Thanksgiving dinner with her family. Life for Beatrice and Maxine turns upside down in a split second. All sorts of shady activity at the bank begins to reveal itself.

Iris and Beatrice are vastly different characters. Iris is completely irresponsible and drinks way too much. Iris lacks confidence and works extremely hard to prove herself so that she can be independent. Both woman lack the love and care they deserve, are risk takers, and will sacrifice themselves for justice.

Every few chapters, the story line switches between 1998 and 1978, building the suspense. I love stories that are told with this strategy. D.M. Pulley knows exactly when to change to the alternate time period. As I frantically raced to the end of the book, I was afraid all of my questions weren’t going to be answered. They were and they weren’t. The story had a solid, satisfying conclusion. The book did not explain every detail and put the pieces of the puzzle together for me. This story is written to allow the reader an opportunity to marinade on the entire book so the connections come together. This is a book that stays with me. Even as I write this review, I have moments of “Oh! So and so character did that!”

I loved the setting of an abandoned bank. (I have a strong curiosity for abandoned places.) I liked the main characters. (Even though, I really wanted Iris to stop drinking.) The story had the perfect recipe of sadness, grief, and hope.

I borrowed The Dead Key from Amazon Prime Reading for free, thanks to my Amazon Prime Membership. I enjoyed reading a few pages on my Kindle at night in bed before falling asleep. Many times I dreamt about the characters and often woke up thinking about what I read the night before. Thanks to this book, I did much better with going to bed on time!

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