Title: Keeper
Author: Jessica Moor
Published: March 19th 2020, Viking
Status: March 2020 courtesy Penguin UK/Netgalley
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My Thoughts:
When a young woman’s drowned body is discovered, a lack of markings leads the police to believe their investigation will show she died by suicide. However Detective Whitworth’s curiosity is piqued when he first learns Katie Straw worked at a women’s refuge, and then that her name is an alias.
Keeper unfolds over two timelines, ‘Now’ – which follows the police investigation and in doing so explores the lives of the women in the refuge, and ‘Then’ – which reveals Katie’s history. The latter is an emotionally harrowing tale of a young woman drawn into a relationship with a frighteningly manipulative man.
Keeper centers around a very important topic – that of domestic/intimate partner violence in its many forms. I thought Moor’s portrayal of the issue’s complexity was nuanced and thought-provoking, and her diverse characters, including the detective, represent a spectrum of related perspectives and experiences.
Unfortunately though I didn’t find the execution compelling. The pace is slow, the tension is slight, and I really wasn’t surprised by the final twist designed to shock (though I think it’s likely I’ll be in the minority there). It’s also bleak, which is probably how it earned the literary tag.
In the end I’m a little torn, while I think Keeper is a socially valuable, and even interesting read, I just didn’t find entertaining.
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Available from Penguin Books UK
Or from your preferred retailer via Booko I Book Depository I Indiebound
Mar 22, 2020 @ 12:37:15
Ah, sorry to see you didn’t love this one! I was so drawn to the themes and premise of this book and was hoping the mystery would be worth the read as well. I might still pick it up, but I’ll be lowering my expectations. Great review. 🙂
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