The Keeper
A Novel
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4.5 • 399 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A New York Times Best Book of the Year (So Far) · A People Best Book of March
From the iconic crime writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, comes the third and final book in the million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy.
On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.
In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.
“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) crafts a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A mysterious death in an Irish village raises long-simmering local issues when an American investigator starts poking about in this moody thriller. When local sweetheart Rachel Holohan is found drowned, the entire village of Ardnakelty gets involved in figuring out if her death was an accident, suicide, or murder. Those questioning the young woman’s demise include retired American detective Cal Hooper, whose exceptional investigative skills bring to light long-buried issues that the residents of the insular Irish outpost will do anything to keep hidden. Literary thriller author Tana French slings her series’ hero, Hooper, into a hornet’s nest with this convoluted case, pitting friends (and Hooper’s fiancée) against each other as long-simmering tensions get dragged into the spotlight. Using her pitch-perfect sense of place to bring her characters and their remote village to life, French builds tension to the boiling point, leading us to question who can be trusted and who might be responsible. Brooding and atmospheric, The Keeper really got under our skin.
Customer Reviews
A thing of beauty…
The saddest, funniest book imaginable. The author’s story telling genius and her mastery of Irish style, tradition, or whatever it is made this my most enjoyable read in many years. Every time I thought I recognized a familiar twist or turn in the narrative, she surprised me with one far superior and feeling just right and honest, not at all a cheap trick despite being completely unexpected.
Tedious
A plot with few twists and an atmosphere repeated so often as to bludgeon the reader senseless.
So funny and so very very dark…
Utterly gorgeous, keening, aching prose that sings with deep pain and then soars with hilarious abandon. A novel of belonging and the ways that can comfort and ruin a body.