Review: 'We Keep the Dead Close' by Becky Cooper

A mysterious and unsolved murder of an archaeology student at Harvard in the late 1960s captures the mind of a current Harvard student. Unable to let it go, Becky Cooper's life begins to intertwine with that of Jane Britton as the former tries to solve the latter's murder. I mean, how could I pass on this? It has everything one could ask for from the hallowed halls of Harvard to the dusty dig sites of Iran, from elitist departments to sexist professors, from suspicions of a cover-up to alleged affairs. But at its core, We Keep the Dead Close is a deeply tragic story about potential wasted and death leaving a gaping wound. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Pub. Date: 10/11/2020
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

You have to remember, he reminded me, that Harvard is older than the U.S. government. You have to remember because Harvard doesn't let you forget.

1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard University would begin the tumultuous process of merging with Radcliffe, its all-female sister school; and the year that Jane Britton, an ambitious twenty-three-year-old graduate student in Harvard's Anthropology Department and daughter of Radcliffe Vice President J. Boyd Britton, would be found bludgeoned to death in her Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment.   Forty years later, Becky Cooper a curious undergrad, will hear the first whispers of the story. In the first telling the body was nameless. The story was this: a Harvard student had had an affair with her professor, and the professor had murdered her in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology because she'd threatened to talk about the affair. Though the rumor proves false, the story that unfolds, one that Cooper will follow for ten years, is even more complex: a tale of gender inequality in academia, a 'cowboy culture' among empowered male elites, the silencing effect of institutions, and our compulsion to rewrite the stories of female victims. We Keep the Dead Close is a memoir of mirrors, misogyny, and murder. It is at once a rumination on the violence and oppression that rules our revered institutions, a ghost story reflecting one young woman's past onto another's present, and a love story for a girl who was lost to history.

I would like to say I have always been interested in true crime, but really I spent most of my early teenage years with my head still solidly stuck inside fantasy books. It was only during my early twenties, I would say, that my True Crime interest became a thing. Upon entering the real world I found that it wasn't quite as magical or wholesome or even beneficial, as I had originally hoped. True Crime was a way of engaging with the darkness at the core of our human world, a way of looking those things in the eye and not denying them. By acknowledging it, I am also able to acknowledge the truly beautiful things, and together it makes up a balance I can live with. But there are certain True Crime stories that capture you and are harder to look in the eye, and Jane Britton's story in We Keep the Dead Close did so. The reason for that may be that I, like Becky Cooper,  found myself relating to Jane. 

In We Keep the Dead Close Becky Cooper takes us on a journey. While a student at Harvard, she is told the story of a young graduate student, murdered by the professor she was having an affair with. While the student is nameless, the professor is very much named. Rumours swirl around him, but Becky is focused on the female student. Once she finds her name, Becky is on a mission to find out everything she can about Jane Britton and, if possible, solve her murder. The book moved back and forth in time, with our focus point being the days shortly before and after Jane's murder being solved. We get to dig deep into Jane's past, the Archaeology department at Harvard, the people she knew and the wider circles of people who may or may not be linked to her death. Through this wide range Cooper shows how many lives a single human touches, but she also demonstrates how a tale like this can echo down the generations. While We Keep the Dead Close is a deeply insightful book about the lives of two women, it is also a book about stories. How does a story like Jane's evolve? Who benefits from the different versions? Can the villain of one story be the suffering hero of another?

Although every True Crime reader is, at least ever so slightly, in it for the thrills and chills, many of us also look for a sympathetic portrait of human fears and joys. We don't need to be told murder is wrong, we know that. We want to be told who this person was, what was lost. Perhaps there is something life-affirming in this, knowing that if we were to die we would also be missed. But these concentric circles, like a pebble dropped into a pond, of a life taken, that is what is fascinating. Cooper herself becomes one of these concentric circles in We Keep the Dead Close, drawn tightly into Jane's group of friends and acquaintances. With other authors I may have found this strong authorial presence a distraction, but I found myself equally fascinated with her story and her perceptions. She grows immeasurably during the years she follows Jane's story and it is only by seeing the effect it has upon Cooper that you understand how profoundly powerful these stories can be. 

I found We Keep the Dead Close utterly engrossing. I had an essay due and yet I couldn't help but go back to Cooper every few hours for another chapter of three. Her writing is honest and direct, with the occasional flights of fancy we are all due to have when we find ourselves in the middle of something interesting and exciting. With this book she has written a True Crime whodunnit, a coming-of-age story, an investigation of sexism and misogyny at universities, an ode to the joys and disappointments of archaeology, and a touching portrait of two women,  different yet alike. How Cooper managed to do all of this without losing her reader, I have no idea. Cooper's writing also takes you places. Whether she is describing a dig in Iran, a trek through Canada, or accommodation at Harvard, you can picture it. We Keep the Dead Close will transport you and make you question yourself on the stories you keep close and why.

I give this book...

5 Universes!

We Keep the Dead Close held me captive for days. Wide-reaching and well-researched, written with a lot of pathos, it is a fascinating read that far extends its 'True Crime' label. Whether you have an interest in archaeology, women's rights or true crime, I would heartily recommend Cooper's book to everyone.