{"id":9266,"date":"2022-08-02T18:14:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T22:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9266"},"modified":"2022-08-02T18:14:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T22:14:22","slug":"book-review-the-keepers-by-tan-van-huizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-keepers-by-tan-van-huizen\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Keepers by Tan Van Huizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Keepers, <\/i><\/span>by Tan Van Huizen (Bookshop.org)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Black Rose Writing, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781684339525<\/span><\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Keepers <\/i><\/span>\u00a0has 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. \u00a0There 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 <\/span>The Keepers<\/i><\/span>, and the sequel as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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. \u00a0\u00a0The 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. \u00a0People do disappear from the town from time to time, but as for exactly why, and what that has to do with the pact\u2026that’s for the sequel to explain.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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. \u00a0The cast of characters is fairly large, but each group connects to the plot. \u00a0For 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. \u00a0The cops (only some of them Keepers) are supposed to maintain order, but that’s secondary to maintaining the old settlers’\/Indians pact. \u00a0There’s also an investigative news crew in town, trying to solve some of the cold case disappearances. \u00a0It’s quite a few story threads, but they are slowly drawing together by the end of the book.\u00a0 However, there is clearly a lot to come in terms of further plot.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite the lack of plot answers (for now) there’s plenty to keeps readers entertained. \u00a0High 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\u2026you know, the usual. \u00a0The author clearly knows how to write a page turner, keeping most of the plot details vague until it’s time to reveal them. \u00a0Let’s hope that the timeframe for releasing the next book is not on a George R.R. Martin time scale! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Keepers, by Tan Van Huizen (Bookshop.org) Black Rose Writing, 2022 ISBN: 9781684339525 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition\u00a0   The Keepers \u00a0has 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. \u00a0There is a sequel coming, which is a<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5175,5174,83,5173],"class_list":["post-9266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-burial-grounds","tag-hauntings","tag-horror-fiction","tag-sins-of-the-fathers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9272,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions\/9272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}