The Keepers, by Tan Van Huizen (Bookshop.org)

Black Rose Writing, 2022

ISBN: 9781684339525

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition 

The Keepers  has a frustrating ending: it becomes clear towards the end of the book that there are way too many questions to be answered in the remaining pages.  There is a sequel coming, which is a good thing, as ending the story where it is would be a crime. You’ll want to read The Keepers, and the sequel as well.

Set in a small rural town on the edge of a swamp in western Massachusetts, the Keepers are certain members of the local police force charged with upholding a pact made between the Indians who lived there in the 1600’s and the settlers that wiped them out.   The details are intentionally vague in the book, but the gist is, if anyone dishonors the Indian spirits or ancestral land, there will be hell to pay for the town, even if it’s hundreds of years in the future.  People do disappear from the town from time to time, but as for exactly why, and what that has to do with the pact…that’s for the sequel to explain.

To be clear, this isn’t a case of an author slapping together a ho-hum book and saving all the big guns for a future story: t’s a solid, exciting read by itself.  The cast of characters is fairly large, but each group connects to the plot.  For the juvenile delinquents, the father of one of them survived a disappearance incident years ago and won’t discuss it with anyone, but it has something to do with the cops.  The cops (only some of them Keepers) are supposed to maintain order, but that’s secondary to maintaining the old settlers’/Indians pact.  There’s also an investigative news crew in town, trying to solve some of the cold case disappearances.  It’s quite a few story threads, but they are slowly drawing together by the end of the book.  However, there is clearly a lot to come in terms of further plot.

Despite the lack of plot answers (for now) there’s plenty to keeps readers entertained.  High speed chases, an axe murder or two, people blowing themselves up in the swamp, some dark creature from hoodoo-land that rides the wind across the skies…you know, the usual.  The author clearly knows how to write a page turner, keeping most of the plot details vague until it’s time to reveal them.  Let’s hope that the timeframe for releasing the next book is not on a George R.R. Martin time scale!  

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson