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The Keepersby Jeffrey B. Burton eARC, 288 pg. Read: June 17-19, 2021 |
What’s The Keepers About?
While at a police station wrapping up a case he’d helped Chicago Police to wrap up, Mace and his golden retriever, Vira, are brought along on an urgent call, the man in charge of the State Attorney’s Special Prosecution Office went missing at a park around midnight.
It doesn’t take long for Vira to find his body. Not long after that, while Mace is waiting to be sent home, Vira’s almost impossible/might-as-well-be-supernatural abilities give Mace a reason to believe that he knows the Attorney’s killer.
And Mace regrets that instantly—the man responsible isn’t anyone Mace, or his police friends, want to cross. But they have no choice—which leads to them being on the run, fighting some of the more powerful men in Chicago just to survive, much less get anywhere to finding his killer.
Returning Characters
In The Finders, there were two uniformed officers and two police detectives involved with Mace and the investigation. This time out, it’s pretty much just the two uniformed officers—Kippy Gimm and her partner Dave Wabiszewski. It’s not often (at least not often enough) that non-detective officers get the focus, and it’s a refreshing change of pace.
Also, while readers had enough exposure to all the police characters to be satisfied, it’s nicer this time to not have your attention split and the reader can really get to know these characters better and form a closer emotional bond. If memory serves, we met Kippy before we met Mace last year, but we didn’t get that much time with Wabs. It’s good to have that changed.
Ohh, a New Dog
Mace has added another dog to his pack, a three-month-old bloodhound named Billie Joe. Billie Joe isn’t good for much more than comic relief at the moment, but I’m sure within a book or two, Mace’ll have him trained enough that he can carry his own weight. In the meantime, he’s fun to chuckle at.
There’s an extended comedic break at the beginning of Chapter 21 that is great on its own—but it comes at just the right time in the book to give a little breather as the tension mounts and just before it shifts into a new gear. It’s just Mace talking to his dogs, pretty much the same way that anyone with pets has done regularly. I could rea 3-4 more of those each book and it wouldn’t get tired.
In the meantime, I’ll just reread that scene occasionally.
The Killer
That’s not really the best heading for this section, because there are a few killers running through these pages—and as some are acting on orders from others, who really gets that label? Anyway, I wanted to say a little about the individual who is immediately responsible for most of the deaths in the book—this isn’t a spoiler really, we meet him in Chapter 1.
He is large, frightening, brutal, and efficient. He’s also a very chatty guy who has a lot to say about the English language. This side of Justified‘s Boyd Crowder, you’re not going to find a criminal as chatty as this guy. I enjoyed his little talks about English idioms more than I should have. If this guy isn’t one of your favorite baddies of the year, you should rethink things.
Best of all? He’s not a serial killer. I was a little afraid that after The FInders this series would be Mace and His Dogs vs. Various Serial Killers. Now that it’s clear that Mace and the dogs will be dealing with a variety of criminals, I’m a bit more positive about the series as a whole.
So, what did I think about The Keepers?
At the same time I was reading this, I was listening to an audiobook (nonfiction) about Capone and Ness during Prohibition. Listening to a thoroughly researched account of corruption in Chicago politics while reading a novel about corrupt Chicago officials, really makes the fictional feel more reality-based. I’m not saying everyone needs to go out and grab a book about Capone and Ness to fully appreciate this, I’m just saying being reminded that things may not have changed that much in almost a century adds a little something to the experience.
I loved this, I really did. I remembered liking last year’s debut, I remembered most of the bigger plot points, the dogs, and so on—and remembered really enjoying the book. In less than one chapter of Mace’s first-person narration, I remembered just how much I like him and his voice. I kicked myself for forgetting that part—Mace is a great protagonist for this alone.
When I wrote about The Finders last year, I said:
It’s possible that I’m rating this a little higher than it deserves. If I was being entirely objective, I’d probably take off a half or maybe a full star from my rating. But this isn’t an objective piece, or an objective rating—this is about how much I enjoyed this, how it appealed to me, entertained me and made me want to read on. For that, it scored really high for me.
I’m not saying that this year—this is a superior novel that I enjoyed as much, if not more—I was again entertained and couldn’t wait to find out what happened. I’m giving this the same rating without apology or disclaimer.
It was tense, it was funny, it was horrifying (on a couple of occasions), and my jaw hit the floor a few times. I still can’t believe a few of the choices that Burton made, even with a few days’ worth of thought. He does some risky things, swinging for the fences with this—and they absolutely worked.
You don’t need to have read The Finders to appreciate The Keepers for what it is—great Crime Fiction with a strong central protagonist, some great supporting characters, and a fantastic opponent. Oh, yeah, and a bunch of great dogs. More than enough reasons to take this recommendation and run to your nearest library/bookseller with it.
Disclaimer: I received this eARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.
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