Hollow Bones by Erica Wright

Erica Wright’s Hollow Bones may be a crime novel set in West Virginia but it is inspired by Shakespear’s Measure for Measure. No knowledge of the original tale is needed to enjoy this complex, character-driven story.

The cold open of Hollow Bones introduces readers to Father Micah, a preacher who has taken over a church in Vintera, West Virginia, where worship involves poisonous serpents (not snakes). This is a week before a fire that destroys the church building. The fire is blamed on Clyde, one of the two children of the former pastor who, along with his wife, died from snakebite. The other child, Essa, lives in the old rectory and has drawn the attention of Father Micah and who offers her a Mephistophelian deal.

The narrative of Hollow Bones focusses on three very different women. Eighteen-year-old Essa, Juliet – Clyde’s pregnant girlfriend and town psychic – and Merrit, an ambitious news reporter who has her own suspicions about Father Micah. And then there is Micah himself, a man who has the ability to exploit the weaknesses in others and who finds himself obsessed with Essa.

It is Essa’s story in particular where Wright has drawn her inspiration from Shakespeare. In Measure for Measure the corrupt priest (Angelo) sentences the young man (Claudio) to death but falls in love with the man’s sister (Isabella) when she comes to beg for her brother’s life. The deal that Angelo offers to Isabella is the same as Micah offers to Essa, as is the way the two young women respond.

But this is still also a well-constructed crime story, with more crimes following the destruction of the church, including a murder, and builds to an unexpected resolution. In doing so Wright also delves into one of the more bizarre subbranches of American Christianity (a group which also features in Christian White’s debut The Nowhere Child). Wright has successfully threaded a needle here in delivering this melange of crime fiction inspired by Shakespearean characters and situations successfully delivered in a modern, West Virginian setting .

Hollow Bones by Erica Wright

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8.0/10