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The Keeper
The Keeper
The Keeper
Audiobook17 hours

The Keeper

Written by Luke Delaney

Narrated by Steve West

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

A damp, dark cellar holds two cages. And for the women behind the bars, their worst nightmares are about to come true . . .

When Louise Russell goes missing from her home, D.I. Sean Corrigan from South London's Murder Investigation Unit immediately senses foul play. For Corrigan's own dark childhood has given him the ability not only to recognize evil in those who prey upon the innocent, but also to see a crime scene from the eyes of the perpetrator.

Though Corrigan has no doubts that Louise was taken against her will, he believes she's still alive. But time is running out, especially when a body is found dumped in the woods—a woman who's a dead ringer for Louise. How long before Louise's captor gets tired of her and replaces her with another lookalike? How long before they find Louise's corpse next?

Now, in order to track a psychopath, Corrigan must place himself in the mind of a killer. For it is only there that the twisted secrets of a murderer lie.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateJul 29, 2014
ISBN9780062309082
The Keeper
Author

Luke Delaney

Luke Delaney joined the Metropolitan Police Service in the late 1980s and his first posting was to an inner-city area of South East London notorious for high levels of crime and extreme violence. He later joined CID where he investigated murders ranging from those committed by fledgling serial killers to gangland assassinations. He is the author of the D. I. Corrigan series and The Rule of Fear is his fifth novel.

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Reviews for The Keeper

Rating: 3.7142857 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

42 ratings17 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very spooky
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I came across a recommendation for The Keeper here on LibraryThing in one of the groups. It sounded interesting, so I picked it up. The first few chapters were slow going, and I almost put it down. Boy, am I glad I didn't. Things pick up and get pretty creepy about 1/3 of the way through and keep going until literally the last sentence. The Keeper is the story of the death of a town. Not just any town, but an old factory town with a history of abuse and downright evil. And the end isn't easy, by any stretch. The story centers around an inverse sin-eater theme, where the evil that is done in the town builds and builds until it can't be contained anymore. Once it's out, it's not going back into the bottle.The book suffers from a few first-time author flaws. The writing is a bit uneven, and the characters take a bit to get going. The plot needs juicing in a couple of spots. But in general, I recommend it as worth the time spent.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had heard good things about Sarah Langan, so I was glad to finally read her novel. Overall, I found out it to be pretty creepy with some good horror elements. It's definitely worth checking out. The writing was high quality and story was well plotted. I found it a little hard to get behind some of the characters and the ending of the novel was a bit depressing. All in all, a good read. Give it a try.Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I'm really wondering what this was all about. The storyline was pretty boring, weird things were happening without reason (giant spider ... really) and I couldn't make heads or tails about anything. Than came the "explaining part" which wasn't any better and didn't help explaining much... I wouldn't recommanded it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've always been a fan of small-town apocalypse novels (think Stephen King's "Needful Things" or "Storm of the Century," Phil Rickman's "Crybbe," or Bentley Little's "The Store"). If you are too, you can add another one to your list. "The Keeper" is a real page turner, and Langan has the most crucial quality of a good true horror writer--she never looks away. There's nothing subtle here except perhaps the psychology of the characters. Don't get me wrong. I love a good creeping atmospheric ghost story or a clever, sophisticated mystery, but if you're going to write horror, you can't cheat. Horror should be horrifying, and "The Keeper" is. That's not to say the book is anywhere near perfect. When things really start rolling, Langan loses it a little--as if she can't really keep up with her own pace. Her desperate attempts to explain what's happening when everything is happening at once slow down what would be a breakneck pace if she could follow it herself. But keep in mind, this is a debut novel. The tough stuff, Langan has down pat. She's already better at characterization and psychology than Dean Koontz will ever be; her style and poetry leave Bentley Little in the dust; and she's braver and more disturbing than Peter Straub. If she can get control of her pacing and learn a few things about literary depth, she could be a Stephen King in the making. Definitely one to watch.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bedford's always been one of those towns that people struggle to get out of, but never quite do. It is a town haunted. Haunted by its past, in the form of a paper mill that has leached toxic elements into the surrounding town, haunted by its present in the person of Susan, the strange woman that wanders the streets. The one that people cross the street to get away from, even her own mother. But once the mill (full of barrels of sulfuric acid, no less) closes, and the yearly rains begin, the town seems even more haunted, more full of death, and much of it seems centered around Susan's sister Liz.Good and pretty creepy, especially when the whole town starts dreaming about Susan.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    VERY depressing! I could easily have been hooked by the tale of a disconnected and disowned young woman wandering her hometown and appearing in people's dreams, but the more I read, the less I understood, the more depressed I felt and come the end I was just glad it was all over. I don't understand how the mill in the town, the owner from generations before and the main characters from the Marley family connect. I don't understand Susan's grievance with either the townsfolk, or in fact her sister who she loved and protected in life. Actually I just don't understand. Not a clue what was going on at the end, none of it made sense, so not only unsatisfying, but left me feeling like an outsider with absolutely no empathy for the characters, so come the end, I really didn't care what happened to them.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Oppressive story of a declining town with hidden secrets and a crazy young woman who takes those secrets into a dark place within her. This story was unrelentingly bleak and had no humor or hope to counterbalance the horror. I thought the writing was good, but the story itself didn't leave me rooting for anyone to make it through the crisis in the town. All the characters were so flawed that you kind of hoped that town would be wiped off the map.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The Keeper is horror in the vein of Straub, where a community succumbs to a threat from a malevolent entity. The supernatural is well hidden, hinted at more that directly portrayed in an effort to maintain some suspense. Although the approach is fresh, the lack of any likeable characters creates a lacklustre story. There is a score of characters and only the two central protagonists offer any positive attributes, however with so many characters the key players receive little time, except to propel the story. The Keeper is short enough to be a simple time-killer but it's lack of emotional hold means you'll have soon forgotten it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not what I expected...guess I'm just not into this genre.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Ugh...two sisters...one is the town "weirdo" and tramp, the other is the good girl, but no one wants to deal with her anyway. A large cast of characters that don't really have too much to do with each. The whole book was very scattered and hard to read. I am not sure if the town was haunted because of the evil mill or if the girl was schizophrenic after being raped by her father...I don't know...just too scattered and too confusing. Plus, it took way too long for anything to even happen...I would skip it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An inspirational story of overcoming adversity to become one of the best in his sport.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a good old fashioned creepy story that I really enjoyed. The charactor descriptions gave the story a little meat as the plot itself was rather weak and thin. All in all I think this was a good light read if you like a bit of scary and creepy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Keeper is one of those novels that is hard to put down although there were a few times when I wanted to set the book aside. Why you ask? Well, it was so well written and certainly had a tremendous creep value. Of course, serial killers are always creepy but this one, to me, was one of the creepiest that I have read in a while. This man abducts women right from their homes, cages them, rapes them and ultimately murders them. He is looking for that elusive woman that he can keep for his own.The case is investigated by DI Sean Corrigan, who is able somehow to step into the killers mind and from the clues he imagines, is able to hunt down and capture the killer. Sean always gets 150% involved in his cases, to the consternation of his wife, who understands that Sean has to do what he needs to do. If that means not being home for the duration of the case, that is what it will take. I highly recommend this read for anyone who loves the thriller genre.I love reading thrillers and I have read his previous novel, Cold Killing and after this one, I have found another author that I will put on my favorite list and eagerly await his next novel.A copy of the book was provided for my honest review and I was not monetarily compensated for said review.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I raced through this fat book. My advanced reader's copy is 553 pages and I read it in a very short time because I couldn't stand not knowing what would happen next. I was so scared for the victims. You know from the beginning that a man with a psychosis of some sort is keeping two women in cages in a cellar. He seems to be fixated on women who have a similar appearance and he keeps calling the current favorite Sam. When she tries to tell him that isn't her name, he gets enraged and takes it out on the other one. When he takes a woman he is armed with a stun gun and chloroform, so she's aware she is being kidnapped but unable to do anything about it. Can you imagine how terrifying that is?The cop heading the investigation is D.I. Sean Corrigan from the Murder Investigation Unit in South London. His own past history gives him intuitive insight into the motives of psychotic murderers. He is quite a strange investigator as he tries to get into the mind of such people to solve the case and catch the killer. Thankfully he is married to a doctor who loves him enough to bear with him during his cases, keep up with her own job, and care for their three children. His family is what saves him from going off the deep end himself.Ordinarily a story featuring a mentally ill villain is tough for me to read, but I was so caught up in this one that I just couldn't put it aside without finishing it. If you read this one, and I encourage you to do so, brace yourself for a tense time. You might also want to lock your doors.Highly recommendedSource: HarperCollins
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked up this book because it was one in the genre that I really liked. I did not know that this was book two in a series. Not that it mattered. This book may be the second one featuring D.I. Sean Corrigan but it can be read as a stand alone novel. This book brings me back to why I love this genre. It is dark, the mystery is high, good investigative research work, a menacing serial killer, and a good ending. Even though the identity of the killer was known right in the beginning of the story, what he did to Louise and his motive was what kept my attention. Than there was Corrigan. He is a complex character. What he brings to the story with his abilities is great. The fact that the author has experience with what he is writing helps to really leads to him and gives the author a upper hand. He made the story come alive. I was right with Corrigan and Louise the whole way until the end. This book is a "Keeper".
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant Crime NovelThe Keeper is an excellent crime novel from the pen of Luke Delaney a former Metropolitan Police Detective in London, who has dealt with a wide range of crimes including murders and gangland assassinations. This novel feels like he has brought some of his experiences to bear especially in the descriptions of the victims and their families as well as with how officers approach and live each case. It is as if the hard learnt experience is laid out for the reader, rather than someone doing research into the police procedures then writing about them.Detective Inspector Sean Callaghan is the lead of the Murder Investigation Team for the South London division of the Metropolitan Police, experienced dealing with the human detritus and sorting the wheat from the chaff and achieving a successful conviction and another murderer off the streets. His Superintendent gives Callaghan and his team an unusual missing persons’ case to investigate. Women of a certain height and look are being taken in broad daylight but it is not till the dead bodies’ start turning up that they realise they are racing against the clock.We are introduced Thomas Keller at the beginning of the book as he is looking for someone in particular and knows South London well. He has nobody to call a friend, not at work where he is hated or at home, but he is used to that as his life has always been about being different to others and alone. He knows what he wants knows how and where to get it and has the means and location to suit, but will DI Callaghan be able to find him in time?This crime story is a compelling read as it unfolds as we get the back story to the main characters as well as what they look and how they feel about life. Delaney is good at getting inside the head of the criminal and the chasing detective. We are not bogged down with irrelevant details but feel as if we are part of the investigation team and under the same pressure as the police. You are able to feel the desperation of the hunt and the exhilaration of discovery from both criminal and police.This is a fantastic novel a great read and feels like you are part of an authentic Murder Investigation Team. To use the oldest cliché of the lot it really is a page turner with a chilling dash of reality. The race is on who will achieve their end game Thomas Keller or Sean Callaghan, the only way to find out is to read the book and enjoy the race to the end.