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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 1 September 2017
Book Review: Julia Keller tackles heroin utes. Here, a cop really

in 24-hour crisis can quickly make it across
town.
A Pulitzer Prize winning jour-
By OLINE H. COGDILL brings more overdoses. different reasons, have nalist, Keller again perfect-
Associated Press The situation also brings a chosen to live in the area. ly captures a community
An ongoing theme in Ju- moral conundrum — how to Bell’s sense of justice and that, despite its struggles,
lia Keller’s superior series treat addicts for whom few desire to make her home- will survive.q
about Raythune County have sympathy. “They’ve town a better place pro-
prosecutor Bell Elkins is done it to themselves,” be- pels her daily, both profes-
how these West Virginia comes a constant refrain. sionally and personally.
residents maneuver when But nothing happens in a Bell’s strident personality This cover image re-
jobs are scarce but drugs vacuum as the problem can be off-putting to her leased by Minotaur
have overrun the area. seeps throughout the com- co-workers, but her inten- shows “Fast Falls the
Hope, though often in short munity. tions are pure. “Fast Falls Night,” a novel by Julia
Keller.
supply, is the only thing to Keller’s challenge, which the Night” finds her mak- Associated Press
which they can cling. she rises to beautifully, is ing some tough choices
Hope seems elusive in “Fast making the reader care that will affect her future.
Falls the Night,” Keller’s and understand why these Jake came to police work
excellent sixth novel that people turned to drugs, almost accidently, but he
takes place during 24 without sanctioning their shares Bell’s quest. His de-
hours, mainly in the town of actions. “Fast Falls the velopment as an incisive
Acker’s Gap. By the end of Night” is less a tale about detective and his personal
the horrific day, 33 people drug overdoses and more growth throughout “Fast
will have overdosed from about compassion and Falls the Night” is a revela-
tainted heroin, three will complex characters. Con- tion.
have died from the drugs nections run deep in this The 24-hour timeframe im-
and two other deaths are multi-generational area bues a sense of urgency
directly related to the hero- with its decades of secrets, to the plot as Keller shows
in that has been laced with stymieing the investigation the day’s events through
an elephant tranquilizer. to find the local dealer. various points of views.
The epidemic stretches thin The balance in “Fast Falls Keller also avoids the pit-
the prosecutor’s office, the the Night” comes from Bell falls of the TV drama “24,”
police, paramedics and and Sheriff’s Deputy Jake in which Jack Bauer raced
hospital staff as each hour Oakes, both of whom, for across Los Angeles in min-