We Keep the Dead Close

"We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper is a brilliantly idiosyncratic variant of generic true crime, rather more a memoir than a conventional work of reportage, so structured that the revelation of the murderer is not the conclusion or even the most important feature of the book. . . [A] beautifully composed elegy."

"As an undergraduate at Harvard, Cooper became obsessed with the unsolved murder of Jane Britton, an anthropology student there, in 1969. As Cooper was digging, new D.N.A. analysis eventually identified a suspect, but the real thrills of the story are the twists and turns that kept the killing a mystery for decades."

“Becky Cooper’s WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE is an impressively granular investigation of this shocking and perplexing case…Cooper should be lauded for her investigative abilities — there is no question that she has earned her spot among the ranks of detectives and reporters who have spent decades obsessed with the Britton case…It’s in discussing the misogyny of academia and the politics of Harvard that Cooper shines the brightest…[WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE is] a meditation on academia, womanhood and the power of storytelling.”

"While projecting her own life onto Britton’s, Cooper weighs the responsibility to accurately narrate the past: 'Is it ever justifiable, I wondered, to trap someone in a story that robs them of their truth, but voices someone else’s?'"

“[WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE] offers a vivid profile of one of the most prominent villains of this piece — one that to a degree still remains at large. That would be the sexist culture of academia, particularly at its most elite levels…Cooper's resolve to excavate the truth about Britton's murder will keep a reader engaged enough to want to follow this case to its unexpected conclusion.”

"Searching, atmospheric and ultimately entrancing, We Keep the Dead Close is a vivid account of a notorious murder at Harvard that had remained unsolved for fifty years, and a meditation on the stories that we tell ourselves about violence. Cooper is a methodical, obsessive and very companionable sleuth, who ushers us through the many twists and turns in her own investigation until she arrives at a solution. In a deft touch, she interrogates not just the evidence, witnesses and suspects, but her own biases and assumptions, as well."

"I defy any reader to resist the hypnotic power of this Harvard whodunit. In a tour de force of investigative reporting, Becky Cooper guides us through a maze of academic politics and personal intrigue, her sleuthing laced with uncommon sensitivity and insight. Even as it engages us emotionally, this stirring narrative, with its heart-stopping finale, forces us to ponder the very nature of historical truth. A stunning achievement."

"Meticulously reported and sensitively written, WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE is top-of-the-line true crime, fortified with shrewd intellectual rigor and acute moral clarity. This case became Becky Cooper's obsession, and before long, you'll be obsessed, too."

"A brilliantly constructed, wholly captivating investigation of an unsolved 1969 murder. We Keep The Dead Close has it all: Cats, capes, Ivy League politics, archeological excavation, an ax in the turtle tank. Best of all it has at its center a subtle, stubborn sleuth who reminds us not to confuse our facts with our stories. Stories are dangerous, Becky Cooper warns us, as well she should: This one is going to cost you at least one night's sleep."

"One difficult truth of our era’s fascination with all things true crime is how the personhood of a “victim” can get lost amid endless details of sleuthing, records and police procedural. Becky Cooper’s gripping literary nonfiction debut, We Keep the Dead Close, admirably avoids this mistake and never lets us forget the lived experience of Jane Britton, a promising anthropology grad student at Harvard, whose terrifying and unexplained 1969 murder at age 23 went unsolved for decades."

“We Keep the Dead Close chronicles an amateur sleuth’s investigation into a long-unsolved murder case, but this book is more ambitious than the run-of-the-mill true crime narrative seen so frequently these days. . .Cooper is a stylish and fearless writer, relentlessly self-interrogating."

"[T]his book succeeds as both a true-crime story and a powerful portrait of a young woman's remarkable quest for justice . . . An intricately crafted and suspenseful book sure to please any fan of true crime-and plenty of readers beyond."

"Mesmerizing debut...In addition to presenting a tense narrative, [Becky Cooper] delves into the phenomenon and morality of true crime fandom. This twist-filled whodunit is a nonfiction page-turner."

"Cooper's suspenseful, intensely intimate work casts a critical lens on institutional misogyny. Sure to appeal to true crime readers, especially fans of Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark."

"This is an astonishing book: circuitous yet taut with suspense, layered yet gripping. Cooper is one hell of a detective, chasing a long-buried murder mystery not only to the victim and her killer, but to the very core of how we understand one another. Most remarkable is how contemporary and vital every bit of questioning Cooper does here feels. Jane Britton died decades ago, but in Cooper's hands, Britton's tragic murder teaches us about ourselves and the dangers of the institutions we uphold."

"For decades, the acknowledged Big Three among True Crime books have been In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. Now it's the Big Four, because Becky Cooper's We Keep the Dead Close deserves inclusion in this exalted company. It's really that special."

“[We Keep the Dead Close is] fascinating in its careful examination of both the crime…and of the way that crime reverberated — in the Harvard anthropology department and in the world at large, which tends to have a fascination with the deaths of pretty young white women while simultaneously silencing their stories.”

"In her work of excavation, Cooper seeks ideas of power and truth, and the outer limits of our human desire to be present, somehow, in the past."

“This gripping excavation of what really happened also offers an insider's view of the barriers women face in academia.”

"This book is as exhilarating and seductive as Harvard itself once seemed to Becky Cooper. Her examination-of a fifty-year-old unsolved murder, of her own obsession with it, and of the way our ideas about gender shape both academia and storytelling-is haunting, fascinating, and surprising. Cooper will keep you riveted."

"Becky Cooper rediscovered a baffling cold case, examined the evidence in exquisite detail, and forced new information into the light-ultimately yielding a book that is a stunning blend of academics, archaeology, eccentricity, memoir, and murder. I read this book in astonishment, grateful for fly-on-the-wall access to Cooper's narrative quest to document what happened to Jane Britton. This vivid, graceful story is as much about obsession and a search for belonging as it is about the romance of exploration, the unglamorous logistics of scientific fieldwork, the secretiveness of clans, the cruelty of chance, and the doggedness inherent to the best narrative journalism. Cooper's determination to chase every angle, track every fact, thrills and inspires me. She pursued this story with the kind of reportorial care and relentlessness that should drive all such work. Cooper reminds us that this isn't television: homicide cases involve real victims, real suffering. In pushing for clarity, she challenges powerful players-and returns, to a brilliant young woman, her voice."

"We Keep the Dead Close is part true crime, part memoir, part re-creation of the vast, compelling, disappointing investigative process... While the book is wide-ranging, there are no purposeless tangents. Instead, we are given a portrait of the kind of world Jane lived and died in, granting us both an understanding of Jane and the myths that her murder created."

"At once a mystery, a memoir, and a look at women's experiences in hallowed halls and seems poised to become required reading in Cambridge and far beyond."

"We Keep the Dead Close is the most amazing true crime book I have read where the identity of the person responsible was not revealed until the end. It's the true crime story everyone will be talking about next year."

"[A] fascinating, haunting book, which Cooper has been working toward writing for the last 10 years, sifting through old documents, debunking baseless rumors, and compiling a picture of an academic world that is ruled by an archaic and highly gendered code of conduct, one that prioritizes ambitious men, and punishes similar women."

"A mournful and philosophical dive into a university culture that set the stage for a heinous crime, and a lyrical entry in the new subgenre of victim-focused true crime."

"As a Harvard College undergraduate, Cooper heard rumors of the murder of an outspoken anthropology student, Jane Britton, four decades earlier, and her obsessive curiosity and pursuit of justice resulted in this compulsively readable true-crime story, enriched by Cooper’s personal introspection and perceptive insights into the mysteries of the era and particulars of the rarefied milieu."

“An obsessive researcher, Cooper digs past the urban legend and Ivy League pomp to make WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE a thoughtful, detailed page-turner.”

“Hugely readable and exhaustively researched."

“[Becky Cooper’s] book is at once a mystery, a memoir, and a look at women's experiences in hallowed halls and seems poised to become required reading in Cambridge and far beyond.”

“[D]eeply reported book that's as much about sexism in academia, the silencing of women, and the stories we tell to navigate a brutal world as it is about Jane Britton's death. Compulsively readable like the most addictive true crime, but generous, honest, and emotional to a degree that most of the genre isn't.”