The Skeleton Key: A family reunion ends in murder; the Sunday Times top ten bestseller

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I have been reading Erin Kelly since her 2011 debut, ‘The Poison Tree’, and have always found her novels unique, fascinating reads. Her latest presents her readers with a literary puzzle. It completely wowed me from start to finish. Spanning 50 years, this really is an absolutely gifted telling of a twisted tale. I really didn’t see a lot of it coming, as I never do with Kelly’s books! The characters are mostly awful, in that brilliant way of a thriller. Snobby, rich, selfish, self-entitled. All apart from Billie, who I absolutely loved. The incident with the glass just made me love her more! 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 * Real insomnia is not just brought on by stress or alcohol abuse, says Darrieussecq. When sleepers complain that they haven’t slept all night, insomniacs feel like replying “that they haven’t slept all their life”. Darrieussecq hasn’t been able to sleep properly since she had her three children, more than twenty years ago. Since then she has tried many so-called cures – from counting sheep to a fasting cure in an old monastery – which she describes with a mixture of humour and resignation. The only thing that really works for her are sleeping pills.

Nomad Century is the much-anticipated follow-up to Vince’s award-winning book, Adventures in the Anthropocene, which explained how human impacts on Earth have created a new geological epoch. In this new work, the author makes the pessimistic, but entirely plausible, assumption that by the end of this century the Earth will be 4C warmer than during the period before industrialisation. And while this may sound like the stuff of nightmares, she also offers an optimistic vision of how humans might cope after rendering large swathes of the globe uninhabitable – through massive migration towards the poles. Frank, Lal and their families become rich through the success of the book but it comes at a cost, as the Bonehunters become obsessive about Frank’s daughter Eleanor at great personal cost. Gaia Vince’s new book should be read not just by every politician, but by every person on the planet, because it lays out, much more clearly than any existing scientific assessment, the world we are creating through global heating. Welcome to a world, where it appears nothing is sacred anymore. Misdemeanors are covered up by throwing cash at them, and families are prepared to go all in to keep reputations in place. Is this possible, the art world closing in and covering up to protect its own. Its all about the bones…. 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 *Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke in the TV version of Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike novels. Photograph: Steffan Hill/McAinsh/PA The story is perfection. Absolute perfection. It's seamless, it's flawless, and it flows like mercury. It's the first time I've ever been totally drawn in by a book. I haven't even finished it and I'm reviewing it at about 90% because I'm just so eager to let others know just how good it is. 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 *

The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. His daughter, Nell, became a recluse. I chose to read this book because, like the author, I too was fascinated by Kit William's 'Masquerade' book, although too young to do anything but marvel at the amazing pictures and read a nice but confusing story. Obsession and clues, death and mystery: all this fed into my new novel The Skeleton Key. My book-within-a‑book is called The Golden Bones: the treasure is a jewelled skeleton, scattered and buried at seven locations. Unlike Fenn, my fictional artist calls off the search when crazed fans can’t tell their fictional quest from reality and threaten his family. One golden bone – the pelvis – remains undiscovered. In the present day, the artist decides to update and reissue The Golden Bones, and reveal the treasure’s whereabouts. But human remains are uncovered instead, and dormant obsessions resurface.The picture book that Frank produces is inspired by an old English folk song and contains a treasure hunt that becomes a lifelong and sometimes dangerous obsession for some people. The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous degree. People sold their homes to travel to England and search for Elinore. Marriages broke down as the quest consumed people. A man died. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.