Title:	The Dead Key
	Author:	D.M. Pulley
	Published:	2015, Thomas and Mercer
	No. of Pages:	470
	Cover Price:	$15.95 Paperback, $4.99

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D.M. Pulley's first novel, The Dead Key tells the story of two women, Iris Latch (in 1998) and Beatrice Baker (in 1978), working in the same building 20 years apart. The building previously housed The First Bank of Cleveland, which closed in 1978 under suspicious circumstances. Iris, who is a newly hired structural engineer is preparing drawings for use in a renovation feasibility study as preparations are made to sell the building. As she prepares the drawings and spends time in the building, she discovers secrets that have been covered up for years, and finds that by exposing her findings, she may be in eminent danger.

Pulley is able to make both time periods real, and connect them in such a way that readers will be fascinated and won't be able to put the book down, especially readers who lived during both the 70s and the 90s. There is something inherently intriguing about past happenings with dark secrets affecting the future, especially when laced with suspense, criminal activity, and murder. There are a few adult situations in the book that could easily have been skipped, making the novel more suitable for all ages, but they were not graphic or over-the top, and tended to expand the reader's understanding of some of the characters.

Rarely does a book by a first-time author come along that is as professionally written and spellbinding as The Dead Key. It is no surprise that it has received several prestigious awards, including the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award - Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner. Hopefully, Pulley has more books in the works because this book will leave readers begging for more.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion of the book was solicited by the author or publisher.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
The Dead Key, paperback
The Dead Key, kindle