The Keeper, French - B+

          This novel is extraordinary. The author's ability to use dialogue is so authentic that you feel as if you're sitting in a pub in a small western Ireland farm town. Much more importantly, she plumbs the depths of the community's closeness and the extraordinary cliquishness of the rural Irish. She attributes the people's inability to tackle personal issues directly and their tendency to do things indirectly as a consequence of being oppressed and occupied by the English for centuries. But more than anything else, French tells a tale that strikes fear in you as you watch the powerful oppress, threaten, and intimidate the ordinary folks of Ardnakelty.

        The plot features Cal Hooper, a retired cop from Chicago, Lena, young Trey Reddy, Mart, Noreen, and the characters introduced in the previous two books. A young woman dies in a coroner-ruled suicide after she felt threatened by the local laird, Tommy Moynihan. The town falls apart before truth pulls it back onto its foundation. A must-read