(2014) KIRKUS REVIEWPulley's debut is a story of theft, seduction and greed in a stately bank building.In 1998, 20 years after the doors of the First Bank of Cleveland were mysteriously chained shut, 23-year-old civil engineer Iris Latch is put on an assignment of a ?sensitive nature.? Happy to be out of her cubicle, she has to spend her days in the abandoned building doing a ?renovation feasibility study? for an anonymous buyer. With free reign to explore, Iris discovers offices that were left preserved almost exactly as they were on the day the bank closed. When she finds that several safe-deposit boxes still have items of value inside them and stumbles on key No. 547 in a desk drawer, Iris is determined to return the key to its rightful owner, leading her down a rabbit hole of scandal, theft and murder. Interwoven with Iris' investigation is the story of Beatrice Baker, a 16-year-old secretary who worked in the bank in 1978 and stumbled on the same mystery of key No. 547 as it was unfolding. Reading clues written in shorthand by a friend who has disappeared, Beatrice discovered that the contents of more than 100 safe-deposit boxes were officially missing. The two storylines converge nicely, leading both characters into the same intricate web of secrets and betrayals. The author imbues the bank with great physical presence, its architecture, floor plans and structure all meticulously described, creating a setting that feels alive and haunted, but the convoluted plot, great length and uneven pacing become a bit cumbersome. While the two heroines are engaging, the mystery might not move quickly enough for many readers.For readers who do make it to the end, there is genuine suspense with satisfying surprises.Pub Date: March 1st, 2015ISBN: 978-1-4778-2087-2Page count: 504ppPublisher: Thomas & MercerReview Posted Online: Dec. 22nd, 2014Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1st, 2015

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!

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

This book had the misfortune of being the first one I listened to after the Nexxus trilogy, which was truly outstanding in all respects. Here's what I liked about the Dead Key: It was reasonably entertaining. The storyline --- set in an abandoned bank --- was novel. I liked how the story took place in two time periods and how some of the characters intersected both parts of the story. I liked Max and Beatrice. Here's what I didn't like: Iris. She really annoyed me, her motivation was never clear, and her behavior was often contradictory. This a problem, since she's one of the two main protagonists. I also found the writing to be competent but a bit stiff and uninspiring. And the male/female interactions, particularly in the more recent story line, were extremely cliched. Overall it was fine, but forgettable. ( )

Fantastic! I enjoyed the double timeline, the mystery, the characters and the situation. Perhaps most of all, I enjoyed the setting. Having been in that vault and seen the safe deposit boxes, having walked down short Vincent, haunted that corner a few times this past decade, walked Murray Hill and Random Road: all of these gave me a greater appreciation for the setting that DM has spun for us to read. ( )

I found it amazing that you could just shut down a bank and leave everything as it is for twenty years. That was a very interesting idea for a book. We get to follow Iris in the present time as she tries to unravel the bank's past and we also get to know Beatrice that worked at the bank in 1978, the year that the bank closed down. Slowly the mystery starts to unravel....

I liked the book, but I also find it sometimes a bit slow paced, not that it became boring. But it never really got me totally engrossed into the story. It was more my own willpower to read than the story that sometimes kept me going.

But still, it was interesting. I wanted to know how it all came to be that the bank closed down. But I had some problems with the main characters. I just couldn't connect to either of them. Sometimes you like one character better when it is two different storylines, but in this case, I just felt that both just didn't get to me. Frankly, the character that was most interesting was Maxine, Beatrice's friend.

It got a bit exciting towards the end when everything came together, but I was a bit disappointed about the ending. I turned the last page and that was it and I felt a bit let down.

But all and all it was a good read, the book was well written and the concept felt new.

I received this copy from the publisher through Netgalley and from TLC Book Tours in return for an honest review! ( )