#BlogTour #BookReview The Keeper by Johana Gustawsson. @JoGustawsson @OrendaBooks #FrenchNoir

I’m really excited to be part of the blog tour for Keeper by Johana Gustawsson. I read and loved Block 46 by the author and this is the second part of the series so I was looking forward to reading it. You can read my review of Block 46 here.

My Review:

I was really looking forward to reading Keeper by Johana Gustawsson having read and really enjoyed the first book in the series, Block 46. I adored that book on so many levels so I have to admit that I was concerned that Keeper could never live up to my high expectations

Thankfully my concern didn’t become reality, and although I didn’t find that Keeper grabbed me into the story as fast as Block 46 did, it is still a great read with plenty of twists and turns that I am sure you won’t see coming.

I really like profiler Emily Roy, she is no-nonsense and brilliant at her job, but believably brilliant. So often a profiler in a crime book comes up with amazing insight but it is based on absolutely nothing but, of course, it is completely accurate. None of that here thankfully, as Gustawsson skillfully reveals her thoughts and how she puts the pieces to the puzzle together.

There was a real ticking clock to Keeper with a character being kidnapped at the start of the book, we know that she’s in danger and that she needs to be found urgently. Will the police, assisted by Roy and Alexis Castells, find her in time? A warning for more sensitive readers, Gustawsson does not hold back when it comes to gruesome, I love it but some might struggle with the level of detail given in some cases

Once again Gustawwson weaves stories from the past into the story, sucking the reader into another world and wondering how on earth it connects to the present. I really like that the past also includes a true event, the holocaust last time and Jack The Ripper this time.

There is very little backstory in Keeper, if you have forgotten the characters from Block 46 there is little to remind you which at times I felt was frustrating, especially with Alexis who clearly made less of an impression on me. It is unusual for a book in a series not to give more reminders, and so I think that in this case the books should definitely be read in order.

Once I got into the story I really enjoyed reading Keeper, Gustawsson is a great author and I look forward to reading what she does next.

Thank you to Orenda Books for a copy of Keeper, I was under no obligation to review the book and all thoughts are my own.

Blurb:

Whitechapel, 1888: London is bowed under Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror.

London 2015: actress Julianne Bell is abducted in a case similar to the terrible Tower Hamlets murders of some 10 years earlier, and harking back to the Ripper killings of a century before.

Falkenberg, Sweden, 2015: a woman’s body is found mutilated in a forest, her wounds identical to those of the Tower Hamlets victims. With the man arrested for the Tower Hamlets crimes already locked up, do the new killings mean he has a dangerous accomplice, or is a copy-cat serial killer on the loose?

Profiler Emily Roy and true-crime writer Alexis Castells again find themselves drawn into an intriguing case, with personal links that turn their world upside down.

About The Author:

Born in 1978 in Marseille and with a degree in political science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French press and television. She married a Swede and now lives in London. She was the co-author of a bestseller, On se retrouvera, published by Fayard Noir in France, whose television adaptation drew over 7 million viewers in June 2015. She is working on the next book in the Roy & Castells series.

Keeper by Johana Gustawsson is out now and available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.