Julia Keller

The third in Julia Keller's brilliant Bell Elkins series.

Bell Elkins returns in the devastating follow-up to Pulitzer prize winner Julia Keller's highly acclaimed A KILLING IN THE HILLS. Acker's Gap, West Virginia: a high-school student - sixteen, full of promise, and pregnant - is found murdered in a car at the bottom of the Bitter River. Her death devastates the community, but one among them must be responsible. Bell Elkins, Raythune County's prosecuting attorney, is determined to bring the killer to justice. But someone else has their own agenda. Amid the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains, another act of violence is about to strike. As Bell and Sheriff Nick Fogelsong work to uncover the truth, one thing is certain: no one can truly understand Acker's Gap until they are in the thick of it. Bell returned to her hometown to make a difference. But just how much is she willing to risk?

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?

Pulitzer-prize winner, Julia Keller's first crime novel - the first in a series featuring prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins - set in the beautiful crime-ridden town of Acker's Gap. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, visitors see only its stunning natural beauty. But for those living there it's a different story. The mountain roads harbour secret places, perfect for making the prescription drugs that tempt its desperately poor. Bell Elkins left a broken teenager, savaged by a past she couldn't forget. But, as prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, Bell is back and determined to help clean up the only home she has ever known. As winter sets in and her daughter is witness to a shocking triple murder, Bell finds her family in danger. Can she uncover the truth before her world is destroyed again?

Am Anfang stand ein Foto. Das erste Foto von meinem Fasan. Ich begegnete ihm während unseres Umzugs nach Bremen. Der Einzug in unser Haus wurde von ihm genau beobachtet. Wir waren in sein Revier eingedrungen. Er musste befürchten, dass wir ihm sein Revier streitig machen würden. Könnte er sich mit uns, oder könnten wir uns mit ihm arrangieren? Gibt es jemals eine Annäherung oder würde er uns für immer als Feinde betrachten? Werde ich jemals, zumindest aus der Ferne beobachtend, Teil haben können an seinem Leben? Und dieses Tier, ein wilder Fasan, gestattete mir in sein Leben Einblick zu nehmen. Er richtete sich seine "Zeitfenster" ein um uns zu besuchen. Pünktlich jeden Morgen um halb sechs und jeden Abend zwischen sieben und acht Uhr stand er allein oder mit seinen Hennen Capucine und Cassandra bei uns auf der Terrasse. Dieses Buch schildert die Geschichte einer einzigartigen Freundschaft. Die Geschichte der Freundschaft von einem wildlebenden Fasan zu einer Fotografin.

A provocative look at the life and times of the man who created the original weapon of mass destruction Drawing on her investigative and literary talents, Julia Keller offers a riveting account of the invention of the world's first working machine gun. Through her portrait of its misunderstood creator, Richard Jordan Gatling-who naively hoped that the overwhelming effectiveness of a multiple-firing weapon would save lives by decreasing the size of armies and reducing the number of soldiers needed to fight-Keller draws profound parallels to the scientists who would unleash America's atomic arsenal half a century later. The Gatling gun, in its combination of ingenuity, idealism, and destructive power, perfectly exemplifies the paradox of America's rise in the nineteenth century to a world superpower.