What do you think?
Rate this book
La Chambre forte
Lauréat 2014 du Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
1998. Pendant des années, le vieil immeuble de la First Bank de Cleveland est resté abandonné, dans un parfait état de conservation, abritant ses secrets des indiscrétions du monde extérieur.
Vingt ans plus tôt, acculés par les accusations de fraude et les disparitions mystérieuses de certains de leurs employés, les investisseurs de la plus grande banque de la ville ont mis la clé sous la porte du jour au lendemain, mettant clients et salariés devant le fait accompli et coupant l'herbe sous le pied des enquêteurs fédéraux. Dans la confusion, les clés des coffres de la chambre forte se sont volatilisées.
Depuis ce jour, les riches hommes d’affaires de Cleveland maintiennent la vérité enfouie derrière les barricades de la grande bâtisse. Les bureaux saccagés et les coffres oubliés sont restés figés dans le temps, jusqu’à ce que la jeune ingénieur Iris Latch les découvre lors d’une étude de rénovation. Ce qui commence comme une parenthèse bienvenue loin de son bureau tourne à l’obsession, au fur et à mesure qu’Iris lève le voile sur le passé sordide de la banque. Au fil des révélations fascinantes, elle va suivre les fantômes menaçants du passé au plus profond de la chambre forte, et découvrir que la clé du mystère se négocie à prix d’or.
590 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2015
5006 people are currently reading
13560 people want to read
About the author
D.M. Pulley
6 books712 followersD.M. Pulley lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, her two children, and a dog named Hobo. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a Professional Engineer rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley's structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, The Dead Key, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Since then, Pulley has sold over a half a million books worldwide, and her work has been translated into eight different languages.
Pulley's historical mysteries shine a light into the darker side of life in the Midwest during the twentieth century, when cities like Detroit and Cleveland struggled to survive. Her latest novel, No One’s Home (due out September 1, 2019), unravels the disturbing history of an old mansion haunted by family secrets, financial ruin, and murder. The abandoned buildings, haunted houses, and buried past of the Rust Belt continue to inspire her work.
Pulley's historical mysteries shine a light into the darker side of life in the Midwest during the twentieth century, when cities like Detroit and Cleveland struggled to survive. Her latest novel, No One’s Home (due out September 1, 2019), unravels the disturbing history of an old mansion haunted by family secrets, financial ruin, and murder. The abandoned buildings, haunted houses, and buried past of the Rust Belt continue to inspire her work.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,501 reviews
June 21, 2017
This has garnered some mixed reviews. After much deliberation, I've concluded this was a 5★ read for me. I'm not sure how kosher some of the details of the banks security is....though, I assume the author isn't going to divulge trade secrets.
The story alternates between two time-frames: and it starts in 1978 with Beatrice Baker, who is being interviewed at the 'First Bank of Cleveland' - and subsequently ends up working on the ninth floor in the Auditing Department - despite being sixteen years old. There she meets Maxine Rae McDonnell, and the two soon become friends. Not long after starting, she's asked by Randy Halloran, if she'll do an assignment for him, which involves spying on her new friend - as he wants to know what 'special assignment' Maxine is working on: which is basically looking into thefts from abandoned safe deposit boxes; as there's been a complaint by someone who rented one. Maxine tells her about the suspected thefts, and that the bank is under investigation; for fraud, bribery. money-laundering and embezzlement, etc. The more Beatrice delves into certain things, the more dangerous it becomes working at the bank, and with each new revelation, she soon realises how dangerous it can be poking your probosis in other people's business.
The bank had the highest deposits and worked with the richest families - until it closed in 1978 - after the City of Cleveland went bankrupt. The doors were chained in the middle of the night: files, coffee mugs, pictures and furniture were left behind, perfectly preserved in time....until Iris comes along. The bank is now owned by some real estate holding company. Interestingly, the bank doesn't have a thirteenth floor; it goes from twelve to fourteen, then fifteen. Why? Bad luck. So technically, it does have a thirteenth floor.
The 1998 time-frame is where a young engineer, Iris Latch, is volunteered to do a renovation feasibility study at the bank: which was shutdown twenty years earlier - on 29th Dec 1978. The reason for the survey is: the blueprints from the original construction were damaged, when the building department left them under leaking pipes, down in archives. She reluctantly agrees to work over the weekend at the bank, which she does gratis - though, she's not too thrilled about that when she's told. On her first day, whilst down in the banks vault , she meets the (armed) security guard, Ramone, who tells her some of the history of the bank, and why ten of the banks safe deposit boxes have been drilled open, whilst the hundreds of other boxes are still locked - possibly with a fortune still inside of them: unclaimed. The first day (Saturday) she helps with the surveying of first floor with Brad, walking around with her tape measure and clipboard....probably bored. After the weekend though, she learns that she'll be staying at the bank for a lot longer; left to her own devices, more or less, which is better than being stuck in a cubicle, back at WRE (Wheeler Reese Elliot). Or is it? It starts getting more interesting, when Iris reaches the third floor: Human Resources. Whilst surveying that area, she sits at a desk, lights a cigarette....when suddenly, the four hundred receptors in her nostrils zoom in on a box of ball-point pens inside a desk drawer (I'll have those). When she picks the box up though; a bronze key falls back into the metal drawer. A key with the number #547 etched onto it. Is it the key to one of the safe deposits in the banks vault? Who does it belong to? Interestingly, she doesn't mention it to her employer or Ramone. She gets more inquisitive - and stumbles upon a mystery that's twenty years old, after she notices a discrepancy between the second and third floors: her drawing is 10 ft short. It's supposed to be 35 ft, not 25 ft. What does it mean? After a little investigation (nose) she finds a heavy bookcase, that has something behind it. What secrets is she going to find?
I really enjoyed this book. It alternates every few chapters between the two time-frames, and both Iris and Beatrice met and visited the same places and people. In 1978, Beatrice and Maxine would visit a bar called the 'Theatrical Grille' - and in 1998, Iris visited the same place....though, twenty years later it's called 'Ella's Pub.'
The characters aren't especially likable, but that didn't bother me.. The two main characters are naive, and do a lot of stupid things, but considering their age demographic, it didn't surprise me much. And both women share the same trait: they're nosy. Oh...and Iris smokes a lot. One bit of advice Iris' should have listened to: Never steal from a graveyard. You might disturb the ghosts.
In summation: a complex mystery, that had my head spinning round with each new revelation. I liked the descriptions of the bank and of the 'Old Steam Tunnels' that run underneath it for many city blocks. Very spooky. And the way both story threads linked, was intriguing. I can't believe this is a debut novel - which was inspired by the authors work as a structural engineer: whilst doing a survey of an abandoned building, she discovered a basement vault with unclaimed safe deposit boxes.
I hope there's a sequel.
The story alternates between two time-frames: and it starts in 1978 with Beatrice Baker, who is being interviewed at the 'First Bank of Cleveland' - and subsequently ends up working on the ninth floor in the Auditing Department - despite being sixteen years old. There she meets Maxine Rae McDonnell, and the two soon become friends. Not long after starting, she's asked by Randy Halloran, if she'll do an assignment for him, which involves spying on her new friend - as he wants to know what 'special assignment' Maxine is working on: which is basically looking into thefts from abandoned safe deposit boxes; as there's been a complaint by someone who rented one. Maxine tells her about the suspected thefts, and that the bank is under investigation; for fraud, bribery. money-laundering and embezzlement, etc. The more Beatrice delves into certain things, the more dangerous it becomes working at the bank, and with each new revelation, she soon realises how dangerous it can be poking your probosis in other people's business.
The bank had the highest deposits and worked with the richest families - until it closed in 1978 - after the City of Cleveland went bankrupt. The doors were chained in the middle of the night: files, coffee mugs, pictures and furniture were left behind, perfectly preserved in time....until Iris comes along. The bank is now owned by some real estate holding company. Interestingly, the bank doesn't have a thirteenth floor; it goes from twelve to fourteen, then fifteen. Why? Bad luck. So technically, it does have a thirteenth floor.
The 1998 time-frame is where a young engineer, Iris Latch, is volunteered to do a renovation feasibility study at the bank: which was shutdown twenty years earlier - on 29th Dec 1978. The reason for the survey is: the blueprints from the original construction were damaged, when the building department left them under leaking pipes, down in archives. She reluctantly agrees to work over the weekend at the bank, which she does gratis - though, she's not too thrilled about that when she's told. On her first day, whilst down in the banks vault , she meets the (armed) security guard, Ramone, who tells her some of the history of the bank, and why ten of the banks safe deposit boxes have been drilled open, whilst the hundreds of other boxes are still locked - possibly with a fortune still inside of them: unclaimed. The first day (Saturday) she helps with the surveying of first floor with Brad, walking around with her tape measure and clipboard....probably bored. After the weekend though, she learns that she'll be staying at the bank for a lot longer; left to her own devices, more or less, which is better than being stuck in a cubicle, back at WRE (Wheeler Reese Elliot). Or is it? It starts getting more interesting, when Iris reaches the third floor: Human Resources. Whilst surveying that area, she sits at a desk, lights a cigarette....when suddenly, the four hundred receptors in her nostrils zoom in on a box of ball-point pens inside a desk drawer (I'll have those). When she picks the box up though; a bronze key falls back into the metal drawer. A key with the number #547 etched onto it. Is it the key to one of the safe deposits in the banks vault? Who does it belong to? Interestingly, she doesn't mention it to her employer or Ramone. She gets more inquisitive - and stumbles upon a mystery that's twenty years old, after she notices a discrepancy between the second and third floors: her drawing is 10 ft short. It's supposed to be 35 ft, not 25 ft. What does it mean? After a little investigation (nose) she finds a heavy bookcase, that has something behind it. What secrets is she going to find?
I really enjoyed this book. It alternates every few chapters between the two time-frames, and both Iris and Beatrice met and visited the same places and people. In 1978, Beatrice and Maxine would visit a bar called the 'Theatrical Grille' - and in 1998, Iris visited the same place....though, twenty years later it's called 'Ella's Pub.'
The characters aren't especially likable, but that didn't bother me.. The two main characters are naive, and do a lot of stupid things, but considering their age demographic, it didn't surprise me much. And both women share the same trait: they're nosy. Oh...and Iris smokes a lot. One bit of advice Iris' should have listened to: Never steal from a graveyard. You might disturb the ghosts.
In summation: a complex mystery, that had my head spinning round with each new revelation. I liked the descriptions of the bank and of the 'Old Steam Tunnels' that run underneath it for many city blocks. Very spooky. And the way both story threads linked, was intriguing. I can't believe this is a debut novel - which was inspired by the authors work as a structural engineer: whilst doing a survey of an abandoned building, she discovered a basement vault with unclaimed safe deposit boxes.
I hope there's a sequel.
February 12, 2015
If I were rating the 1970s storyline and characters, this would have easily been 5 stars, but the 1998 portions were awful. I couldn't stand the lead character who was supposedly so smart she graduated in five years summa cum laude, but was a dumb girl who did stupid things, made awful choices and was just a generally unlikable person. There were a lot of points where I had to suspend my disbelief because my mother helped run a bank in the 70s, and things were nothing like this. I continued reading it only because I truly cared about the 16-year-old while I was happy skimming the parts about the so-called valedictorian professional who supposedly figured things out. I'm still left with questions about the entire plot. I don't think I'll be reading any more by this author.
February 10, 2015
I got the Dead Key because it was a winner in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel contest. All I can say is: there's absolutely nothing breakthrough about this - unless you consider extravagantly flowery prose to be something special. The plot is generic, there is nothing new or refreshing and worst of all the characters are all exceptionally stupid - as a few others have pointed out. What were the contest judges thinking?
From page ONE I knew the author knew nothing about her subject and that ruined it for me. Did D.M. Pulley ever set foot in a real bank? I don't think so, apparently she only uses an ATM, because nothing in this is realistic. A female bank employee hides in the restroom of her bank until everyone goes home (oh boy is that original). Does the author really think banks are also so stupid as to let people have their run of the place after hours? They have alarms, motion detectors, and things called vaults with two foot thick metal doors which they CLOSE and LOCK at night. Yet we are expected to believe this naive girl calmly hands her accomplice (never explains how he gets in!) BOTH keys to safe deposit boxes so he can pilfer them at will. Gee, I think even in 1978 banks still operated on the simple safeguard that the bank only has one of the two keys required to open the box and the box owner had the other. How does she manage to get both keys? Oh well just another stupid plot device because the author didn't know better - or was unable to actually think of something clever and breakthrough. I won't even bother to comment on the rest since others have covered those mistakes. You think this is a minor detail? Well - the entire plot of the book rests on this!
Amazon has canceled the ABNA contest and if this drivel was the result, no wonder. What a complete disappointment!
From page ONE I knew the author knew nothing about her subject and that ruined it for me. Did D.M. Pulley ever set foot in a real bank? I don't think so, apparently she only uses an ATM, because nothing in this is realistic. A female bank employee hides in the restroom of her bank until everyone goes home (oh boy is that original). Does the author really think banks are also so stupid as to let people have their run of the place after hours? They have alarms, motion detectors, and things called vaults with two foot thick metal doors which they CLOSE and LOCK at night. Yet we are expected to believe this naive girl calmly hands her accomplice (never explains how he gets in!) BOTH keys to safe deposit boxes so he can pilfer them at will. Gee, I think even in 1978 banks still operated on the simple safeguard that the bank only has one of the two keys required to open the box and the box owner had the other. How does she manage to get both keys? Oh well just another stupid plot device because the author didn't know better - or was unable to actually think of something clever and breakthrough. I won't even bother to comment on the rest since others have covered those mistakes. You think this is a minor detail? Well - the entire plot of the book rests on this!
Amazon has canceled the ABNA contest and if this drivel was the result, no wonder. What a complete disappointment!
February 16, 2015
This book is amazing. I'm not usually one for mysteries, but this book was truly riveting. I read it in less than 24 hours and that's no mean feat for someone who works more than full time.
This novel keeps you guessing right til the end. You'll wonder if the protagonist gets out of it alive. If you like tension, you'll like this book, even if mysteries aren't your thing.
I would definitely read this again in a couple of years after I've forgotten all the details.
This novel keeps you guessing right til the end. You'll wonder if the protagonist gets out of it alive. If you like tension, you'll like this book, even if mysteries aren't your thing.
I would definitely read this again in a couple of years after I've forgotten all the details.
September 8, 2016
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!
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!
March 13, 2015
Bell, Book & Candle | The Dead Key Review & Giveaway
There should really be a guidebook about how to survive in scary situations — and everyone should be required to read it. Here let me start off with an important rule:
Rule 1: Mind your own business.
Someone lied, curiosity didn't kill the cat. If you have noticed, cats are so unbothered by anyone else's agenda. Oh no, curiosity killed nosy people. For some reason certain people just have to know the answer to everything: Iris and Beatrice, the protagonists, are prime examples.
I was waiting for these women to be chopped to bits and found in an industrial sized freezer years later. Let's be honest, that would have happened in real life. At least Beatrice had the sense to be careful with her pseudo-investigation. Iris just let it all hang out figuratively speaking. I kept hitting my forehead in response to her ridiculous actions. Just the way she went about questioning people and telling everyone what she was looking into made me roll my eyes. She might as well have held a sign that read: "looking into the bank's past regarding safety deposit boxes! Please kill me if you don't want me to discover something!" She's absolutely terrible at solving a mystery without letting on about what she's up to - I suppose being a detective is not in the cards for her! Here that Iris...you're corny!!!
Other than my utter disbelief that the protagonists could unravel a mystery and still survive, I was thoroughly entertained by the novel. I loved the alternating POVs between Iris in the late-90s and Beatrice in the late-70s. It was cleverly done! The mystery and suspense had me on the edge of my seat, and had me trying to figure everything out. I'll admit that a few of the twists revealed were ones that I had already figured out. What can I say? I am the heavyweight champ of plot guessing...
It has a slow start but picks up very quickly. On a side note, the love interest factor was unnecessary, in my honest opinion. Other than that, I very much enjoyed the read.
There should really be a guidebook about how to survive in scary situations — and everyone should be required to read it. Here let me start off with an important rule:
Rule 1: Mind your own business.
Someone lied, curiosity didn't kill the cat. If you have noticed, cats are so unbothered by anyone else's agenda. Oh no, curiosity killed nosy people. For some reason certain people just have to know the answer to everything: Iris and Beatrice, the protagonists, are prime examples.
I was waiting for these women to be chopped to bits and found in an industrial sized freezer years later. Let's be honest, that would have happened in real life. At least Beatrice had the sense to be careful with her pseudo-investigation. Iris just let it all hang out figuratively speaking. I kept hitting my forehead in response to her ridiculous actions. Just the way she went about questioning people and telling everyone what she was looking into made me roll my eyes. She might as well have held a sign that read: "looking into the bank's past regarding safety deposit boxes! Please kill me if you don't want me to discover something!" She's absolutely terrible at solving a mystery without letting on about what she's up to - I suppose being a detective is not in the cards for her! Here that Iris...you're corny!!!
Other than my utter disbelief that the protagonists could unravel a mystery and still survive, I was thoroughly entertained by the novel. I loved the alternating POVs between Iris in the late-90s and Beatrice in the late-70s. It was cleverly done! The mystery and suspense had me on the edge of my seat, and had me trying to figure everything out. I'll admit that a few of the twists revealed were ones that I had already figured out. What can I say? I am the heavyweight champ of plot guessing...
It has a slow start but picks up very quickly. On a side note, the love interest factor was unnecessary, in my honest opinion. Other than that, I very much enjoyed the read.
September 13, 2015
The Dead Key is D.M. Pulley’s first book and the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award-Grand Prize and Mystery Thriller Fiction Winner. After reading and being immersed in this mystery, I can understand the awards. I lived and worked in Downtown Cleveland during both protagonists’ time periods and find this to be an intriguing fictional history and mystery of what happened to the old bank in 1978 and 1998 at 9th and Euclid.
Two timelines and protagonists come together to solve the mystery of the bank’s safe deposit boxes. In 1978, Beatrice Baker takes a secretarial job at 16 and begins to find that there are secrets to kill for at the First Bank of Cleveland. In 1998, Iris Latch is an engineer sent to the bank to do a floor to floor survey for buyers interested in the old bank building. She finds many rooms, offices and files exactly as they were the day the bank locked its doors in 1978. Even though there is a twenty year time span, both young women become endangered as they try to understand the importance of the keys to the safe deposit boxes in the vault.
I really enjoyed the two intertwining timelines and protagonists. Beatrice was a much more sympathetic and strong character. She faces extremely difficult personal problems and dangerous situations for her young age. Iris hates her job, parties too much and is not very responsible. I feel many of us at that age can relate to boring first office jobs, wanting to get away from home and few friends which can lead to bad judgement at times. Plot twists, spooky atmosphere and an interesting mystery makes for a very happy reader. I recommend this book highly.
Two timelines and protagonists come together to solve the mystery of the bank’s safe deposit boxes. In 1978, Beatrice Baker takes a secretarial job at 16 and begins to find that there are secrets to kill for at the First Bank of Cleveland. In 1998, Iris Latch is an engineer sent to the bank to do a floor to floor survey for buyers interested in the old bank building. She finds many rooms, offices and files exactly as they were the day the bank locked its doors in 1978. Even though there is a twenty year time span, both young women become endangered as they try to understand the importance of the keys to the safe deposit boxes in the vault.
I really enjoyed the two intertwining timelines and protagonists. Beatrice was a much more sympathetic and strong character. She faces extremely difficult personal problems and dangerous situations for her young age. Iris hates her job, parties too much and is not very responsible. I feel many of us at that age can relate to boring first office jobs, wanting to get away from home and few friends which can lead to bad judgement at times. Plot twists, spooky atmosphere and an interesting mystery makes for a very happy reader. I recommend this book highly.
February 17, 2015
I really am debating between two and three stars. The book is a mystery that goes back and forth between 1978 and 1998. The 1978 side of the story is far more interesting, and the characters are reasonably more likable. Unfortunately the 1998 story is the main story, and the main character is a total loser. She is supposedly a super smart engineer that is driven to succeed, but she continually smokes, gets drunk, sleeps around, and is all around lazy. I did not sympathize with her at all. I also couldn't stand all the gratuitous profanity and sex. So while the mystery is quite interesting, I don't recommend the book. It is too long of a book to read about characters you kind of hate.
March 1, 2015
The star of this novel isn’t any of the characters—it’s the eerie, brooding presence of the First Bank of Cleveland, a looming hulk which was inexplicably abandoned twenty years before the book begins, with all its furniture and files and trappings intact—right down to the paper clips in the secretarial pool’s drawers.
Into this Flying Dutchman of a building comes recent engineering grad Iris Latch on a thankless assignment, and right away in the first chapter the author sets in motion an intriguing mystery that alternates between two protagonists in two different eras.
Everyone makes fun of Cleveland, but Pulley makes it come to life and reveals that there is a lot more to the city than anyone gives it credit for. She writes easy-to-read barebones prose that reminded me at times of the old masters like Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. She does a good job moving back and forth between two timelines in a way that doesn't confuse readers, though I thought her depiction of women's life in 1978 seemed more like the 50s than the late 70s. The pace is good at the beginning and end of the novel.
However, I thought the middle section of the book was repetitive, with all the sleuthing circling over and over around the same few clues. I figured out what was going on fairly early, including the twist about one of the character's identities. [Though the author did manage to pull a fast one with the true identify of another character.] Neither of the two female protagonists is all that appealing, especially not Iris, who is portrayed as an alcoholic loser. And the ending is unsatisfactory. I never find novels about political/financial conspiracies all that compelling or convincing; they seem melodramatic to me.
Still, I didn't put the book down until I finished it, so this is definitely a good beach or plane read.
Into this Flying Dutchman of a building comes recent engineering grad Iris Latch on a thankless assignment, and right away in the first chapter the author sets in motion an intriguing mystery that alternates between two protagonists in two different eras.
Everyone makes fun of Cleveland, but Pulley makes it come to life and reveals that there is a lot more to the city than anyone gives it credit for. She writes easy-to-read barebones prose that reminded me at times of the old masters like Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. She does a good job moving back and forth between two timelines in a way that doesn't confuse readers, though I thought her depiction of women's life in 1978 seemed more like the 50s than the late 70s. The pace is good at the beginning and end of the novel.
However, I thought the middle section of the book was repetitive, with all the sleuthing circling over and over around the same few clues. I figured out what was going on fairly early, including the twist about one of the character's identities. [Though the author did manage to pull a fast one with the true identify of another character.] Neither of the two female protagonists is all that appealing, especially not Iris, who is portrayed as an alcoholic loser. And the ending is unsatisfactory. I never find novels about political/financial conspiracies all that compelling or convincing; they seem melodramatic to me.
Still, I didn't put the book down until I finished it, so this is definitely a good beach or plane read.
February 5, 2018
Iris Latch is unhappy in her new job at a Cleveland engineering firm. She's always been a bit lazy, a bit lackluster.....and now that she's graduated from college and has student loans to pay, she isn't enjoying her adult life at all. She gets handed grunt work to do....and hates it. Then, out of nowhere, she is asked to complete a special project. She is to draw floor plans for the First Bank of Cleveland building. The bank closed 20 years before in 1978 after a scandal of some sort involving safe deposit boxes and incomplete banking records. Iris has no idea when she enters the dusty time capsule of dusty marble and gold trim that a young bank employee stumbled on a crime so big that it imploded some of the wealthiest families in Cleveland and ruined The First Bank of Cleveland. A crime so big that it is still very dangerous to go poking around the dark, closed building. Beatrice in 1978 and Iris in 1998 will share in the fear very, very soon, even if they are 20 years apart in time.
This is such a suspenseful and interesting story!! I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith, and the details are so vivid that I could imagine being in that dusty, dark creepy bank building. I don't usually like stories that jump back and forth in time, but both main characters and the storylines are so well crafted that it was seamless. The time jumps just heightened the suspense, rather than making the plot confusing. I felt sorry for both women and could imagine how scary both situations would be. The suspense and mystery build until the very last page of this story! Best suspense story I have come across in a long time! The story kept my attention to the very end. Loved it!
The audiobook is just under 14 hours long. It took me several days to listen to the entire story because I didn't want to miss anything! Emily Sutton-Smith read at a nice even pace, and her voice was perfect! I have hearing loss, and sometimes female voices are difficult for me to understand. But I had no problem hearing and understanding this audiobook.
Awesome story!! I am definitely going to read more by D.M. Pulley!
This is such a suspenseful and interesting story!! I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith, and the details are so vivid that I could imagine being in that dusty, dark creepy bank building. I don't usually like stories that jump back and forth in time, but both main characters and the storylines are so well crafted that it was seamless. The time jumps just heightened the suspense, rather than making the plot confusing. I felt sorry for both women and could imagine how scary both situations would be. The suspense and mystery build until the very last page of this story! Best suspense story I have come across in a long time! The story kept my attention to the very end. Loved it!
The audiobook is just under 14 hours long. It took me several days to listen to the entire story because I didn't want to miss anything! Emily Sutton-Smith read at a nice even pace, and her voice was perfect! I have hearing loss, and sometimes female voices are difficult for me to understand. But I had no problem hearing and understanding this audiobook.
Awesome story!! I am definitely going to read more by D.M. Pulley!
March 31, 2015
"The evening sun hung over the eastern sky like an orange heat lamp". Wow. Just...wow.
We'll see if I can make it thru this one..
"Memories of turkey and bacon wafting through the air". This is painful. Is there an editor in the house? I love the visual of the floating turkey, oh, and bacon too...can't forget the floating bacon!!
How did this book win an award? The valedictorian protagonist is a dolt, the action tedious, and darn it, it's just not very well written.
We'll see if I can make it thru this one..
"Memories of turkey and bacon wafting through the air". This is painful. Is there an editor in the house? I love the visual of the floating turkey, oh, and bacon too...can't forget the floating bacon!!
How did this book win an award? The valedictorian protagonist is a dolt, the action tedious, and darn it, it's just not very well written.
January 31, 2015
D.M. Pulley’s phenomenal genre-bending debut novel The Dead Key is an engrossing read that is set in Cleveland during two periods, 1978 and 1998. It is a story that will take the reader back and forth between two eras and two distinctly different women who are caught up in the same mystery though their stories unfold twenty years apart.
One thread of the story is set in 1998 and follows a twenty-three years old civil engineer Iris Latch, who is assigned to survey an abandoned bank building. Delighted to leave her boring workspace, Iris soon finds herself caught up in an abandoned building, which formerly housed the First Bank of Cleveland. Interestingly, nothing seems to have been touched since that December night twenty years ago when the bank was shut. When Iris found the key to the safe-deposit box number 547, she unwittingly stumbled on a web of deceit and horrendous crime putting her life in mortal danger. The parallel story follows sixteen-year-old Beatrice Baker, a secretary who works there in 1978 when the bank closes. Both Iris and Beatrice find themselves caught up in the same mystery.
The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley is an engaging and superbly paced mystery about an abandoned bank building with a dangerous secret. It is as much a story of greed as it is about deception and betrayal. While D.M. Pulley as a first-time author is not without her shortcomings as the story seems to lack pace and depth at times, she has managed to pull off a coup of sort by bringing the story to a satisfying end.
By the way, D.M. Pulley is a pseudonym assumed by the author to protect her family's privacy. It would be interesting to watch how her true identity unfolds.
One thread of the story is set in 1998 and follows a twenty-three years old civil engineer Iris Latch, who is assigned to survey an abandoned bank building. Delighted to leave her boring workspace, Iris soon finds herself caught up in an abandoned building, which formerly housed the First Bank of Cleveland. Interestingly, nothing seems to have been touched since that December night twenty years ago when the bank was shut. When Iris found the key to the safe-deposit box number 547, she unwittingly stumbled on a web of deceit and horrendous crime putting her life in mortal danger. The parallel story follows sixteen-year-old Beatrice Baker, a secretary who works there in 1978 when the bank closes. Both Iris and Beatrice find themselves caught up in the same mystery.
The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley is an engaging and superbly paced mystery about an abandoned bank building with a dangerous secret. It is as much a story of greed as it is about deception and betrayal. While D.M. Pulley as a first-time author is not without her shortcomings as the story seems to lack pace and depth at times, she has managed to pull off a coup of sort by bringing the story to a satisfying end.
By the way, D.M. Pulley is a pseudonym assumed by the author to protect her family's privacy. It would be interesting to watch how her true identity unfolds.
March 27, 2019
2.5 stars rounded up for The Land.
Last weekend my husband and I made the wise decision to drive to North Carolina for a wedding. And I mean that in all seriousness. It was less expensive than flying, and just seven hours with stops, and the scenery was gorgeous, and we only bickered about my driving once (okay, twice). The Dead Key was our in-drive entertainment. And while it did offer many entertaining and gripping and clever moments, it also provided frustrating and inconsistent and boring ones.
Although I very much enjoy watching mysteries - I'm not ashamed to admit that I live for PBS' Masterpiece Mystery - I don't read them quite as often. As a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, the book's setting attracted me. That said, I didn't recognize many of the author's descriptions of a Cleveland resembling a third-world country. But I acknowledge that we have come a long way from the 1970s, when the river kinda sorta caught on fire and the city kinda sorta went bankrupt, and the 1990s, when the city was still combating corruption and poverty and perpetual sports losses.
The premise of The Dead Key is intriguing. In alternating timelines 20 years apart, two female protagonists are working and trying to solve a mystery in the same building. In 1998, Iris is an engineer surveying an ornate abandoned bank that mysteriously and abruptly closed two decades earlier. In 1978, Beatrice begins working in that very bank's auditing department. Both soon realize that all is not as it seems at the bank, and past ghosts manifest as present dangers.
Many reviews note that Iris wasn't likable, and she wasn't. I couldn't reconcile the high school valedictorian and summa cum laude engineering graduate with the alcoholic, filthy, chain-smoking, perpetually late MESS. She moved into a sparkling clean, brand spanking new apartment and had rats within days due to her inability to use a garbage can. Beatrice was more likable, but not by much. She was a teenager, and teenagers aren't exactly known for their savvy decision-making skills. Although both ladies displayed smarts and guts at times, I had no real emotional investment in their characters.
While I don't want to spoil anything, I was somewhat dissatisfied with the resolution of the mystery. Loose ends are left untied. Good guys get hurt. Some of the bad guys don't. I wanted more answers, more closure, more justice. And I didn't get it. But in many respects, that parallels real life. While I was able to live with the lack of clarity and closure, it wouldn't have been my preferred course. The book would also have benefited from 50 (at least) less pages. There were unnecessary and extraneous details that slowed the story significantly.
Despite my dissatisfaction, I felt that The Dead Key had good bones, and the moments of promise and brilliance convinced me to try another of the author's stories. Because, again, The Land.
Last weekend my husband and I made the wise decision to drive to North Carolina for a wedding. And I mean that in all seriousness. It was less expensive than flying, and just seven hours with stops, and the scenery was gorgeous, and we only bickered about my driving once (okay, twice). The Dead Key was our in-drive entertainment. And while it did offer many entertaining and gripping and clever moments, it also provided frustrating and inconsistent and boring ones.
Although I very much enjoy watching mysteries - I'm not ashamed to admit that I live for PBS' Masterpiece Mystery - I don't read them quite as often. As a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, the book's setting attracted me. That said, I didn't recognize many of the author's descriptions of a Cleveland resembling a third-world country. But I acknowledge that we have come a long way from the 1970s, when the river kinda sorta caught on fire and the city kinda sorta went bankrupt, and the 1990s, when the city was still combating corruption and poverty and perpetual sports losses.
The premise of The Dead Key is intriguing. In alternating timelines 20 years apart, two female protagonists are working and trying to solve a mystery in the same building. In 1998, Iris is an engineer surveying an ornate abandoned bank that mysteriously and abruptly closed two decades earlier. In 1978, Beatrice begins working in that very bank's auditing department. Both soon realize that all is not as it seems at the bank, and past ghosts manifest as present dangers.
Many reviews note that Iris wasn't likable, and she wasn't. I couldn't reconcile the high school valedictorian and summa cum laude engineering graduate with the alcoholic, filthy, chain-smoking, perpetually late MESS. She moved into a sparkling clean, brand spanking new apartment and had rats within days due to her inability to use a garbage can. Beatrice was more likable, but not by much. She was a teenager, and teenagers aren't exactly known for their savvy decision-making skills. Although both ladies displayed smarts and guts at times, I had no real emotional investment in their characters.
While I don't want to spoil anything, I was somewhat dissatisfied with the resolution of the mystery. Loose ends are left untied. Good guys get hurt. Some of the bad guys don't. I wanted more answers, more closure, more justice. And I didn't get it. But in many respects, that parallels real life. While I was able to live with the lack of clarity and closure, it wouldn't have been my preferred course. The book would also have benefited from 50 (at least) less pages. There were unnecessary and extraneous details that slowed the story significantly.
Despite my dissatisfaction, I felt that The Dead Key had good bones, and the moments of promise and brilliance convinced me to try another of the author's stories. Because, again, The Land.
March 17, 2018
My Opinion:
I really enjoyed this audiobook. I found that I liked being immersed into Iris's life and Beatrice's. This book goes back and forth between the two women's lives. One from 1978 and the other from 1998. We learn about Beatrice and how her life is being intertwined to 1998 and Iris's. We slowly see what is happening in 1978 with Beatrice and her Aunt Doris and Max. I find myself enthralled with the Mystery of this story.
Then you get transported to 1998 and Iris trying to figure out the mystery of why all this was left unsolved years ago.
Iris is sent out as a engineer to help her company make blueprints for The First Bank of Cleveland and discovers there is more than blueprints to be found. Iris is trying to piece clues from the past and put them together and make some sort of sense of all that happened. Which intertwines with Beatrice's life back in the 70s. I find myself captivated by this.
What was this bank hiding and why where they hiding it?
I really enjoyed the story and felt the narrator did a good job with the narration. She was able to get me to laugh at some of Iris's monologue to herself. Iris was down to earth and a realist and didn't understand her own need to figure this mystery out. The narrator with some of the accents that she did were good and made me smile. I felt immersed in Beatrice's life because she was so young and trying to figure out the mystery in her own time. I really enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book and found that I really enjoyed this mystery of it all. I was a little sad at the end. I would have liked that one detail they didn't technically answer. I mean it was but it wasn't and that left me a bit sad. Overall, I enjoyed the book and the narration!
One of my favorite lines in the audiobook - "A bank is only as good as its records."
I give this story 4.5 of 5 stars!
I really enjoyed this audiobook. I found that I liked being immersed into Iris's life and Beatrice's. This book goes back and forth between the two women's lives. One from 1978 and the other from 1998. We learn about Beatrice and how her life is being intertwined to 1998 and Iris's. We slowly see what is happening in 1978 with Beatrice and her Aunt Doris and Max. I find myself enthralled with the Mystery of this story.
Then you get transported to 1998 and Iris trying to figure out the mystery of why all this was left unsolved years ago.
Iris is sent out as a engineer to help her company make blueprints for The First Bank of Cleveland and discovers there is more than blueprints to be found. Iris is trying to piece clues from the past and put them together and make some sort of sense of all that happened. Which intertwines with Beatrice's life back in the 70s. I find myself captivated by this.
What was this bank hiding and why where they hiding it?
I really enjoyed the story and felt the narrator did a good job with the narration. She was able to get me to laugh at some of Iris's monologue to herself. Iris was down to earth and a realist and didn't understand her own need to figure this mystery out. The narrator with some of the accents that she did were good and made me smile. I felt immersed in Beatrice's life because she was so young and trying to figure out the mystery in her own time. I really enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book and found that I really enjoyed this mystery of it all. I was a little sad at the end. I would have liked that one detail they didn't technically answer. I mean it was but it wasn't and that left me a bit sad. Overall, I enjoyed the book and the narration!
One of my favorite lines in the audiobook - "A bank is only as good as its records."
I give this story 4.5 of 5 stars!
February 17, 2018
Listen to the audio.
The Dead Key was a pretty good book. I was interested and hooked from the start. I just wanted to know how everything tied Beatrice to Iris within this book. Plus, this whole mysterious dead key was highly interesting.
I couldn't tell you if I like Iris more than Beatrice or vice versa. Both women are completely different and I loved them both equally. I loved how the writing would go to the past and then the future. I think that D.M. Pulley did a really good job tying up loose ends and making everything flow throughout the book.
I guess the one thing I didn't like about this book was the ending. WHY did someone I like have to just die? UGH! Then the whole finding out what happened to Max and Beatrice took forever. THEN the whole are they dead or are they living somewhere really cool took forever to find out as well. I just wanted to know!!
Other than that it was honestly a pretty interesting book. I was instantly sold on the whole kindle free part and that it had an audio. Boy do I love my freaking audio books at work!
I can't wait to find another book by this author to dive into!
The Dead Key was a pretty good book. I was interested and hooked from the start. I just wanted to know how everything tied Beatrice to Iris within this book. Plus, this whole mysterious dead key was highly interesting.
I couldn't tell you if I like Iris more than Beatrice or vice versa. Both women are completely different and I loved them both equally. I loved how the writing would go to the past and then the future. I think that D.M. Pulley did a really good job tying up loose ends and making everything flow throughout the book.
I guess the one thing I didn't like about this book was the ending. WHY did someone I like have to just die? UGH! Then the whole finding out what happened to Max and Beatrice took forever. THEN the whole are they dead or are they living somewhere really cool took forever to find out as well. I just wanted to know!!
Other than that it was honestly a pretty interesting book. I was instantly sold on the whole kindle free part and that it had an audio. Boy do I love my freaking audio books at work!
I can't wait to find another book by this author to dive into!
January 30, 2015
REVIEW: THE DEAD KEY
This totally riveting debut novel postulates an unusual but endearing protagonist, a not-so-routine locale, and a double-era multilayered mystery. THE DEAD KEY is already on my Best of 2015 list. D. M. Pulley rocks this one, and I surely hope this will be a series.
In 1998, young Iris Latch, engineering graduate, commences her first-and unexciting-job in a structural engineering firm. After three months of yeoman work, Iris is assigned a field job: measuring and mapping the building which formerly housed First Bank of Cleveland, the institution which had held much of the city s debt, before Cleveland's 1978 default.
Problems: the original 1903 blueprints allegedly succumbed to water damage; First Bank closed without notice one December night in 1978: rampant corruption was the bank's foundation, and still maintains a stranglehold on the building; Iris has no idea what a Pandora' s box she's about to open--but she will, oh yes, she will. Turn off your phone and tv and settle in for an engrossing read.
This totally riveting debut novel postulates an unusual but endearing protagonist, a not-so-routine locale, and a double-era multilayered mystery. THE DEAD KEY is already on my Best of 2015 list. D. M. Pulley rocks this one, and I surely hope this will be a series.
In 1998, young Iris Latch, engineering graduate, commences her first-and unexciting-job in a structural engineering firm. After three months of yeoman work, Iris is assigned a field job: measuring and mapping the building which formerly housed First Bank of Cleveland, the institution which had held much of the city s debt, before Cleveland's 1978 default.
Problems: the original 1903 blueprints allegedly succumbed to water damage; First Bank closed without notice one December night in 1978: rampant corruption was the bank's foundation, and still maintains a stranglehold on the building; Iris has no idea what a Pandora' s box she's about to open--but she will, oh yes, she will. Turn off your phone and tv and settle in for an engrossing read.
February 22, 2015
Good but...
The storyline was great. As I was in banking for a long time it intrigued me. As I read I felt at times the writer kept circling around & the story was being drawn out to create a longer book. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened to Max and Beatrice. I was much more interested in the 70's version of the story as the 90's version was disjointed & quite frankly Iris was annoying. It was unbeliveable to me that a person as smart as she was (valedictorian of her class) would be such a mess and it was hard to care for her. She was just a mess lol. I loved Beatrice & Max. I felt confused at times because of all the twists & turns but again the book was good enough to keep me going. I refuse to finish a book anymore if it cannot hold my attention. Too many books to read for that!! For a first novel I would say this was a big success.
The storyline was great. As I was in banking for a long time it intrigued me. As I read I felt at times the writer kept circling around & the story was being drawn out to create a longer book. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened to Max and Beatrice. I was much more interested in the 70's version of the story as the 90's version was disjointed & quite frankly Iris was annoying. It was unbeliveable to me that a person as smart as she was (valedictorian of her class) would be such a mess and it was hard to care for her. She was just a mess lol. I loved Beatrice & Max. I felt confused at times because of all the twists & turns but again the book was good enough to keep me going. I refuse to finish a book anymore if it cannot hold my attention. Too many books to read for that!! For a first novel I would say this was a big success.
January 20, 2018
thank you Kindle unlimited.... this has been on my tbr list for ages. really enjoyed this story of a bank that locked its doors 20 years earlier and the secrets that it holds
November 8, 2015
A must-read for any native NE Ohio mystery lover and a great read or any fan of the genre.
I gave it a fifth star because Pulley set a couple scenes in the legendary Theatrical bar. I always love revisiting that place.
As a structure nut, I loved the way she wove two parallel stories (one in the past, one in the near present) together to tell a single mystery. And the ending is courageous.
I gave it a fifth star because Pulley set a couple scenes in the legendary Theatrical bar. I always love revisiting that place.
As a structure nut, I loved the way she wove two parallel stories (one in the past, one in the near present) together to tell a single mystery. And the ending is courageous.
February 16, 2015
Intriguing and enjoyable
This book kept me on edge. It was like a modern day treasure hunt combined with murder and intrigue. There were so many plot twists, you never could fully guess what was next. The book kept me wanting more. The author did an excellent job tying it together in the end. I knew nothing of safety deposit boxes before this book, so it was all the more fascinating. Excellent job to a new author. Fantastic story.
This book kept me on edge. It was like a modern day treasure hunt combined with murder and intrigue. There were so many plot twists, you never could fully guess what was next. The book kept me wanting more. The author did an excellent job tying it together in the end. I knew nothing of safety deposit boxes before this book, so it was all the more fascinating. Excellent job to a new author. Fantastic story.
August 21, 2019
As a former bank manager and regional marketing manager overseeing 30 bank offices from 1979-1994, I am always captivated by these types of stories. Mysterious THE DEAD KEY, is a fascinating and complex debut suspense thriller, by D. M. Pulley involving the banking world, fraud, murder, affairs, conspiracy, and its mysterious lock boxes.
The book flashes back and forth from 1978 to 1998, where readers learn of the mysterious First Bank of Cleveland, an old abandoned building with a guard 24/7. It is the holder of dark hidden secrets, and a place for the homeless to sneak in through its tunnels.
Some odd twenty years prior, there were all sorts of disappearances, allegations of fraud, unhappy customers, and investors --- Cleveland’s largest bank was sold in the middle of the night. No customers, employees, or customers were allowed with a federal investigation. For some odd reason, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost. Was someone stealing from the lock boxes or safety deposit boxes?
In 1998, we have a young bright and eager young engineer, Iris Latch who stumbles upon an astonishing clue which may be connected to the mystery, during a renovation review of the property. She becomes obsessed with the mystery of the keys, the boxes, and the lives of those connected to the bank’s past. However, the more she digs, she puts herself in harms way. Someone is lurking in the shadows.
Needless to say the historical part was much more interesting than the latter more present day. I liked the characters from the earlier days, as more intriguing. As author takes us back and forth between the two eras, we meet two different women, caught up in the same mystery as the pieces unravel.
1998-Iris Latch 23-years old, assigned to work off-site, as a civil engineer, to view the architecture of the abandoned bank building with another fellow employee. She of course is thrilled to leave her cubicle for some adventure. She finds it rather strange nothing has been touched for the twenty years when the bank was shut down. She finds a key to the safe deposit box #547 and slowly stumbles upon a web of deceit and lies and a crime of the past. She now is in danger, and someone has put the secrets to bed, and the most curious of all why the guard around the clock?
1978-Beatrice Banker is a sixteen year old who works at the bank in the secretarial pool. Her aunt helped her get the job as she was really not old enough. A fast-paced suspense which had me glued to my iPod to find out how these stories connect. There is a mystery surrounding her aunt. She does not trust anyone. Beatrice escaped a bad home life and stayed with her aunt. She also met Max, another secretary, who became involved as well as other women and the bank manager.
The narrator, Emily Sutton-Smith delivers an intense performance, combined with the dialogue and connection of two different stories, for an engaging debut!
We all know this is fiction as banks are all about dual control when it comes to the vault and compliance. However, this is not to say, banks, employees, officers, or investors, cannot get involved in politics, wire and bank fraud, as plenty of it happening in today’s world of conspiracy and greed.
#JDCMustReadBooks
The book flashes back and forth from 1978 to 1998, where readers learn of the mysterious First Bank of Cleveland, an old abandoned building with a guard 24/7. It is the holder of dark hidden secrets, and a place for the homeless to sneak in through its tunnels.
Some odd twenty years prior, there were all sorts of disappearances, allegations of fraud, unhappy customers, and investors --- Cleveland’s largest bank was sold in the middle of the night. No customers, employees, or customers were allowed with a federal investigation. For some odd reason, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost. Was someone stealing from the lock boxes or safety deposit boxes?
In 1998, we have a young bright and eager young engineer, Iris Latch who stumbles upon an astonishing clue which may be connected to the mystery, during a renovation review of the property. She becomes obsessed with the mystery of the keys, the boxes, and the lives of those connected to the bank’s past. However, the more she digs, she puts herself in harms way. Someone is lurking in the shadows.
Needless to say the historical part was much more interesting than the latter more present day. I liked the characters from the earlier days, as more intriguing. As author takes us back and forth between the two eras, we meet two different women, caught up in the same mystery as the pieces unravel.
1998-Iris Latch 23-years old, assigned to work off-site, as a civil engineer, to view the architecture of the abandoned bank building with another fellow employee. She of course is thrilled to leave her cubicle for some adventure. She finds it rather strange nothing has been touched for the twenty years when the bank was shut down. She finds a key to the safe deposit box #547 and slowly stumbles upon a web of deceit and lies and a crime of the past. She now is in danger, and someone has put the secrets to bed, and the most curious of all why the guard around the clock?
1978-Beatrice Banker is a sixteen year old who works at the bank in the secretarial pool. Her aunt helped her get the job as she was really not old enough. A fast-paced suspense which had me glued to my iPod to find out how these stories connect. There is a mystery surrounding her aunt. She does not trust anyone. Beatrice escaped a bad home life and stayed with her aunt. She also met Max, another secretary, who became involved as well as other women and the bank manager.
The narrator, Emily Sutton-Smith delivers an intense performance, combined with the dialogue and connection of two different stories, for an engaging debut!
We all know this is fiction as banks are all about dual control when it comes to the vault and compliance. However, this is not to say, banks, employees, officers, or investors, cannot get involved in politics, wire and bank fraud, as plenty of it happening in today’s world of conspiracy and greed.
#JDCMustReadBooks
August 1, 2021
5 out 5 stars
After reading D.M. Pulley's newest book I decided to read this one again. This time I listened to the audio version and I enjoyed the novel even more the second time around!
This is a really hard book to actually describe, that being said it was a really fantastic! There is a mystery that jumps back and forth from 1978 to 1998. I thought the tone of each decade and the main character completely represented the year they were in. The mystery was a good one and I liked the paranoia and creep factor through out the whole story. This was a bit longer than I expected but it was a quality story so I enjoyed each and every moment that I spent reading it. I did find myself looking forward to coming back to the characters each day.
After reading D.M. Pulley's newest book I decided to read this one again. This time I listened to the audio version and I enjoyed the novel even more the second time around!
This is a really hard book to actually describe, that being said it was a really fantastic! There is a mystery that jumps back and forth from 1978 to 1998. I thought the tone of each decade and the main character completely represented the year they were in. The mystery was a good one and I liked the paranoia and creep factor through out the whole story. This was a bit longer than I expected but it was a quality story so I enjoyed each and every moment that I spent reading it. I did find myself looking forward to coming back to the characters each day.
February 6, 2015
.Great read
Keeps you riveted to the story. Strong characters you can easily relate to and D.M.Pulley has written a story that will keep readers coming back for more. I don't recommend this writer or this book to Christian readers, as Christ's name is used as slang, and I almost stopped reading for this reason. I would have given 5 star rating if not for this. I will not read this author again for this reason.1
Keeps you riveted to the story. Strong characters you can easily relate to and D.M.Pulley has written a story that will keep readers coming back for more. I don't recommend this writer or this book to Christian readers, as Christ's name is used as slang, and I almost stopped reading for this reason. I would have given 5 star rating if not for this. I will not read this author again for this reason.1
February 23, 2015
Just finished this on my Kindle and couldn't put it down until I finished at 2:00 a.m.
Is there a sequel in the works? Would like to see what happened to Iris, Ramone and other characters after.
Is there a sequel in the works? Would like to see what happened to Iris, Ramone and other characters after.
February 21, 2015
I was underwhelmed..
The plot seemed interesting. An old abandoned bank, a storyline spanning decades.
Iris, the main character from 1998, a structural engineer, is working alone at the bank. Everything was left there when it closed; personnel records, personal items, files, keys, etc. it was closed 20 years ago, yet when Iris finds a curious file and takes it home to read she is constantly worried that it's stealing. Why? It's abandoned junk. Why would anyone care about miscellaneous trash left in an abandoned building 20 years? Well, the author explains why, but it's basically a plot device that's so convoluted and far fetched that it's unbelievable.
And Iris is whiny, boring, and just plain dumb. Yeah, I said it.
Beatrice, the main character from 1978, is more likable, but she's only 16. And the story goes back even farther, if you haven't completely lost interest by now.
I won't spoil the ending, as such, by telling any more details, but it was unbelievable. And I don't mean that in a good way. (I kept hoping that someone would go ahead and shoot Iris, to put her out of my misery.) And who was whispering?
Results: it started out well, but unlikeable characters and a convoluted plot made it dull. I wouldn't recommend.
The plot seemed interesting. An old abandoned bank, a storyline spanning decades.
Iris, the main character from 1998, a structural engineer, is working alone at the bank. Everything was left there when it closed; personnel records, personal items, files, keys, etc. it was closed 20 years ago, yet when Iris finds a curious file and takes it home to read she is constantly worried that it's stealing. Why? It's abandoned junk. Why would anyone care about miscellaneous trash left in an abandoned building 20 years? Well, the author explains why, but it's basically a plot device that's so convoluted and far fetched that it's unbelievable.
And Iris is whiny, boring, and just plain dumb. Yeah, I said it.
Beatrice, the main character from 1978, is more likable, but she's only 16. And the story goes back even farther, if you haven't completely lost interest by now.
I won't spoil the ending, as such, by telling any more details, but it was unbelievable. And I don't mean that in a good way. (I kept hoping that someone would go ahead and shoot Iris, to put her out of my misery.) And who was whispering?
Results: it started out well, but unlikeable characters and a convoluted plot made it dull. I wouldn't recommend.
February 23, 2015
Don't bother
I tried. I really tried. But if this is the quality of work that is awarded a best new book or author or whatever it was named I cannot imagine what novels lost out on the honor! The book reads like something written by a school girl.
The language and descriptions sound as if they came from a comic book. The narrative is impossible to follow and it isn't helped by the fact that the reader is expected to make sense of two story lines neither of which is coherent. The two "heroines" are not at all believable.
Oh, why go on? I only read half of the book and I'm not sure why I stayed with it that long. I suppose that I hoped that the book might improve. It didn't.
I tried. I really tried. But if this is the quality of work that is awarded a best new book or author or whatever it was named I cannot imagine what novels lost out on the honor! The book reads like something written by a school girl.
The language and descriptions sound as if they came from a comic book. The narrative is impossible to follow and it isn't helped by the fact that the reader is expected to make sense of two story lines neither of which is coherent. The two "heroines" are not at all believable.
Oh, why go on? I only read half of the book and I'm not sure why I stayed with it that long. I suppose that I hoped that the book might improve. It didn't.
August 22, 2016
Three factors enticed me to read this novel. The first was the fact that it won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and the second was that my first career consisted of ten years working at a bank. The third and decisive factor was that the fictional story was based on fact. It’s always nice to learn a little when you read…
I love to try out debut novelists and this time I wasn’t disappointed. The story is told via dual narratives twenty years apart. Beatrice Davies, the heroine of the story – and Iris Latch the second protagonist whose character is needed to move Beatrice’s story along.
The protagonist of the 1978 story is sixteen-year-old Beatrice, a sympathetic character, who in an attempt to escape from an appalling past, has come to Cleveland to live with her Aunt Doris. Doris advises her to go to work for the First Bank of Cleveland and shows her how to dupe her employers into thinking she is old enough and smart enough to fill a secretarial position. Little does she know that Doris herself once worked for the bank and she has ties to it still… Once working at the bank, Beatrice befriends Max, an attractive girl not much older than herself who has been investigating some suspicious activity within the bank. The events in Beatrice’s story take place just weeks before the city of Cleveland defaulted on over thirty millions of dollars owing to financial institutions.
Next we skip ahead twenty years and meet Iris Latch. Iris is a rookie engineer who hates her office job and is unhappy with life in general. Twenty-three years old, Iris drinks too much, smokes too much, and lets her libido rule her brain more than she should. Iris is not all that likeable a character, but her story is interesting all the same. Given the opportunity to escape her ‘cubicle’ she is given a field assignment to map out a blueprint for an old bank which has recently been sold. The bank has been closed up for twenty years, but has a full-time security guard who lives on site. That is strange in itself, but even stranger is the fact that many things have not been disturbed in all of those twenty years. It is as though the bank is in a time warp. The cafeteria still has coffee in the machine. Personnel files were still in the filing cabinets. Desks still have contents and photos displayed. Very eerie!
Over time Iris comes to realize that the bank holds many questions begging to be asked. She finds a key in a desk drawer and realizes it may be one of the many keys that were claimed to have been lost. The vault has 1300 safety deposit boxes and they are probably still full! How can that be? Why would a real estate investment firm buy the building after all those years? What will happen to the contents of the bank?
The dead key of the title? When a safety deposit box is dormant for many years, the bank considers it ‘dead’. It then has to be cleaned out and readied for another customer. At that time the box will have to be drilled open and then replaced with a new door and mechanism. Years ago the banks used a ‘dead key’. This key opened all of the boxes. Dead keys are now illegal – and with good reason!
A story of political corruption, greed and manipulation, “The Dead Key” is a well written debut novel. How the stories of the two girls intersect is interesting and suspenseful. Although Iris was not a very likable character, she was engaging. The plot was weak in places. I thought it inconceivable that a well-educated engineer would not know about the practice of renaming the 13th floor of buildings. It was highly unlikely that bank safety deposit boxes would be abandoned containing the important documents and valuables of hundreds of people… Though to be fair, there have been many cases of thefts from safety deposit boxes.
The mystery of the First Bank of Cleveland was enthralling. My main disappointment in the novel was that there was little satisfactory closure for the characters. So if you like an ending where everything is tied up neatly – you’ll likely be disappointed.
“The Dead Key” was an entertaining read for those readers who like suspense and are not too concerned with plausibility.
I love to try out debut novelists and this time I wasn’t disappointed. The story is told via dual narratives twenty years apart. Beatrice Davies, the heroine of the story – and Iris Latch the second protagonist whose character is needed to move Beatrice’s story along.
The protagonist of the 1978 story is sixteen-year-old Beatrice, a sympathetic character, who in an attempt to escape from an appalling past, has come to Cleveland to live with her Aunt Doris. Doris advises her to go to work for the First Bank of Cleveland and shows her how to dupe her employers into thinking she is old enough and smart enough to fill a secretarial position. Little does she know that Doris herself once worked for the bank and she has ties to it still… Once working at the bank, Beatrice befriends Max, an attractive girl not much older than herself who has been investigating some suspicious activity within the bank. The events in Beatrice’s story take place just weeks before the city of Cleveland defaulted on over thirty millions of dollars owing to financial institutions.
Next we skip ahead twenty years and meet Iris Latch. Iris is a rookie engineer who hates her office job and is unhappy with life in general. Twenty-three years old, Iris drinks too much, smokes too much, and lets her libido rule her brain more than she should. Iris is not all that likeable a character, but her story is interesting all the same. Given the opportunity to escape her ‘cubicle’ she is given a field assignment to map out a blueprint for an old bank which has recently been sold. The bank has been closed up for twenty years, but has a full-time security guard who lives on site. That is strange in itself, but even stranger is the fact that many things have not been disturbed in all of those twenty years. It is as though the bank is in a time warp. The cafeteria still has coffee in the machine. Personnel files were still in the filing cabinets. Desks still have contents and photos displayed. Very eerie!
Over time Iris comes to realize that the bank holds many questions begging to be asked. She finds a key in a desk drawer and realizes it may be one of the many keys that were claimed to have been lost. The vault has 1300 safety deposit boxes and they are probably still full! How can that be? Why would a real estate investment firm buy the building after all those years? What will happen to the contents of the bank?
The dead key of the title? When a safety deposit box is dormant for many years, the bank considers it ‘dead’. It then has to be cleaned out and readied for another customer. At that time the box will have to be drilled open and then replaced with a new door and mechanism. Years ago the banks used a ‘dead key’. This key opened all of the boxes. Dead keys are now illegal – and with good reason!
A story of political corruption, greed and manipulation, “The Dead Key” is a well written debut novel. How the stories of the two girls intersect is interesting and suspenseful. Although Iris was not a very likable character, she was engaging. The plot was weak in places. I thought it inconceivable that a well-educated engineer would not know about the practice of renaming the 13th floor of buildings. It was highly unlikely that bank safety deposit boxes would be abandoned containing the important documents and valuables of hundreds of people… Though to be fair, there have been many cases of thefts from safety deposit boxes.
The mystery of the First Bank of Cleveland was enthralling. My main disappointment in the novel was that there was little satisfactory closure for the characters. So if you like an ending where everything is tied up neatly – you’ll likely be disappointed.
“The Dead Key” was an entertaining read for those readers who like suspense and are not too concerned with plausibility.
September 1, 2015
2.5 stars
The premise grabbed me so I nabbed this when it was offered. Sadly, it didn't meet my expectations.
The story was inspired by real events and those were the best part of the story. I wish that had been the focus. The story we got was a mess. It was a fascinating look at banking procedures though other reviews I've read faulted it for accuracy. I got confused at times, keeping everything straight with events and people, and the constant POV jumping was frustrating.
There are two stories interwoven here. In the 70s, we have young Beatrice, whose back story is vague, and her current circumstances are difficult. Then in the late 90s we have Iris, a supposedly bright young woman who behaves quite stupidly most of the time. I liked Beatrice and I felt sorry for her. She was a little naive, hard working, loyal, and while she made some bad decisions, she was usually well intentioned.
Iris, oy Iris. Nosy, (Okay, Beatrice could be too), impulsive, not hard working, and prone to stupid judgments, lots of them. There's a mystery, both current and from the 70s; the latter, of course, involves Beatrice. Beatrice got caught up in events, based on real happenings, and those reverberate into the 90s where Iris gets involved. It was never actually clear to me why Iris was involved other than being nosy and really bad at her paying job.
The mysteries were okay, there was a semi decent conspiracy story but overall, the story was meh. There's not a lot of happy in the story: most of the men are jerks, Beatrice has a rough life without a definitive HEA, Iris has a sort of HEA; most of the mysteries are answered, but there are a lot of loose ends and not a lot of likable people. While one of the bad guys was obvious, another took me by surprise, and the pacing was uneven. I think you could easily skip this one, even if it did win awards.
The premise grabbed me so I nabbed this when it was offered. Sadly, it didn't meet my expectations.
The story was inspired by real events and those were the best part of the story. I wish that had been the focus. The story we got was a mess. It was a fascinating look at banking procedures though other reviews I've read faulted it for accuracy. I got confused at times, keeping everything straight with events and people, and the constant POV jumping was frustrating.
There are two stories interwoven here. In the 70s, we have young Beatrice, whose back story is vague, and her current circumstances are difficult. Then in the late 90s we have Iris, a supposedly bright young woman who behaves quite stupidly most of the time. I liked Beatrice and I felt sorry for her. She was a little naive, hard working, loyal, and while she made some bad decisions, she was usually well intentioned.
Iris, oy Iris. Nosy, (Okay, Beatrice could be too), impulsive, not hard working, and prone to stupid judgments, lots of them. There's a mystery, both current and from the 70s; the latter, of course, involves Beatrice. Beatrice got caught up in events, based on real happenings, and those reverberate into the 90s where Iris gets involved. It was never actually clear to me why Iris was involved other than being nosy and really bad at her paying job.
The mysteries were okay, there was a semi decent conspiracy story but overall, the story was meh. There's not a lot of happy in the story: most of the men are jerks, Beatrice has a rough life without a definitive HEA, Iris has a sort of HEA; most of the mysteries are answered, but there are a lot of loose ends and not a lot of likable people. While one of the bad guys was obvious, another took me by surprise, and the pacing was uneven. I think you could easily skip this one, even if it did win awards.
July 21, 2015
Dead Key is a great title and story. Especially for a debut novel. I loved the idea of traveling back and forth between 20 years and a bank crime involving deposit boxes. It was an exceptionally creative idea for a story. The characters are believable, but for one.
I did not particularly like Iris Latch, the present time (1998) engineer who tries to solve the mystery of the bank crime 20 years ago. How could she possibly have gotten an engineering degree with all her issues. She was too young, a drunk, a slut and extremely ignorant. Maxine, the past time (1978) prostitute, turned audit secretary of the bank was more believable. I really enjoyed Beatrice. Her character and background was astoundingly unique! Lots of secrets unraveling through to the end! Brilliant!
A suspenseful story, but not a big thriller. I think the writer should have consulted with a seasoned author, like Stephen King or Dean Koontz or even Greg Iles to get the story really hopping in a eerie thrilling way.
All in all, I am giving this novel a 4 star rating because it was so different from the ordinary ‘crime mystery’ and so much that I couldn't put the book down.
I was anxious to find out what happened to everyone involved. Unfortunately, there is a slight cliffhanger and I am hoping it comes with a second novel. If not, then I’m sorely disappointed. The story was not wrapped up real tight and some questions have gone unanswered. Oh poo!
I did not particularly like Iris Latch, the present time (1998) engineer who tries to solve the mystery of the bank crime 20 years ago. How could she possibly have gotten an engineering degree with all her issues. She was too young, a drunk, a slut and extremely ignorant. Maxine, the past time (1978) prostitute, turned audit secretary of the bank was more believable. I really enjoyed Beatrice. Her character and background was astoundingly unique! Lots of secrets unraveling through to the end! Brilliant!
A suspenseful story, but not a big thriller. I think the writer should have consulted with a seasoned author, like Stephen King or Dean Koontz or even Greg Iles to get the story really hopping in a eerie thrilling way.
All in all, I am giving this novel a 4 star rating because it was so different from the ordinary ‘crime mystery’ and so much that I couldn't put the book down.
I was anxious to find out what happened to everyone involved. Unfortunately, there is a slight cliffhanger and I am hoping it comes with a second novel. If not, then I’m sorely disappointed. The story was not wrapped up real tight and some questions have gone unanswered. Oh poo!
May 22, 2015
This is a puzzle mystery, flipping back in forth in time between two points of view. Iris Latch is an engineer in 1998, and Beatrice Baker is a young bank secretary in 1978. Each is one side of time in a complicated conspiracy involving an old bank in Cleveland. D.M. Pulley is in my Sisters in Crime group, and I remember when she came to her first meeting, this book was going through the rounds for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. We were all thrilled when it won. Pulley is a gifted storyteller, and I can definitely see why this book won the award. My only critical thought was that it was a bit long - over 400 pages. The mystery is complex, but not so much that I thought it could be edited down. I felt like I had to tease the pieces of it out of the dense text like taffy. But it was an enjoyable experience, and I am eager to see what Pulley comes up with next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,501 reviews