Brilliant blend of past and present

Having absolutely loved Block 46 I couldn’t wait to delve into Keeper the next instalment of the Castells and Roy series. Once again Johana Gustawsson has tapped into my fascination into our gory and gruesome history, this time drawing on Jack the Ripper and oh my god did she deliver.
With complete skill we are treated to a story that takes us back to Victorian London when Jack the Ripper was rife whilst also giving us some truly horrific murders in the present. What we as readers must do is work out what the connection is between the two events or if the similarities are purely coincidental.
The book starts with the disappearance of actress Julianne Bell but then quickly becomes so much more when the mutilated body of a woman is found in Sweden. Emily Roy is called in on both cases but when similarities are found to a previously solved case that resulted in the death of Alexis Castells partner the two women find that they must work together to solve the new case whilst dealing with their own past and the possibility that the wrong person was convicted. Alongside Emily and Alexis are some of the team from Sweden that we met in Block 46 and a couple of new characters that add yet another dimension to the story. Detective Karla Hansen is determined to make sure that she is not overlooked on this case, in fact she is quite a driving force in it. Alienor Lindbergh is on temporary secondment but she has a very analytical mind partially thanks to her Asperger’s but it proves to be of great assistance to Emily as she builds up a profile of the killer.
As you travel back to Victorian times you see the impact Jack the Ripper has on the working women, torn between needing to earn a living and trying to stay safe as you follow the lives of one of the Rippers known victims and her friend Freda. It is Freda’s story that you follow during this thread of the book and as it passes through time you really get to see how these experiences shape her future and that of the people around her… and trust me it will both shock and surprise you.
Although elements of this story are gruesome and unpleasant as you would imagine, they are in no way gratuitous and I found that I couldn’t put the book down. The way in which the past and present events were interwoven with each other had me turning pages without any effort as I followed the case to its very surprising conclusion. Once again Johana Gustawsson has produced a thrilling and compelling tale that will leave you wanting more with characters that you just cant help but connect with.

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