Intoxicating ... Shocking, surprising, slyly funny and also deadly serious ... French has remained one of the most consistently exciting mystery writers around ... The ending is immensely satisfying and deeply moving.
Bittersweet ... The truth emerges gradually and without melodrama, though The Keeper has its explosive moments. Ms. French, as always, sustains tension with unfaltering ease before releasing it with expert timing ... Ms. French conjures settings as real as Dickens’s London ... The final Cal Hooper installment is an elegy to both a lost girl and a vanishing way of life.
Solidifies this series' status as a contemporary classic ... The wonder of French's style is that her novels unfold almost exclusively through conversations in which she conveys the deeper messages lurking inside everyday speech ... The Cal Hooper books, like all great detective series, are about time and loss and the uphill struggle to repair the world. The detectives rarely succeed in any lasting way, but we readers love them because they try.
