I am a fan of true crime. I did feel that possibly this book was a bit too long. It is so well written and very informative.
A good read

A true crime book that explores the murder of a Harvard student, Jane Britton. Incredibly well researched and captivating

I don't have the words to describe how much I loved this book. The sheer amount of research and work that must've gone into bringing this story to life is just incredible. Never have I read a 'true crime' book that focused so deeply on the victim, and avoided the clichès such as 'she lit up the room' but gave the reader a real look at the brilliant, witty, troubled and fierce woman that Jane was to all who knew her. I will rave about this book to anyone who will listen!

Unfortunately I ended up DNFing this book at 30%. It’s sad because I hate doing it to non-fiction but this was so rambling I couldn't make sense of it.

This book was not for me but I hope other people enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I write true crime myself, so this book appealed to me. Written as a part memoir it captivated me from the start. Well written and very thought-provoking. Recommended.

This is not a traditional true crime book. It centres Jane and the mystery of Cooper's investigation. The murderer becomes a footnote.. Definitely worth a read.

Devoured this. I spent a long time after searching for further information about the case but didn't find much. This book was clearly essential writing, especially in light of MeToo and the contemporary abuses against women by men that we see in the news. Essential reading.

This is a great read and i would recommend you read this! This was a really fun read which I read so so quickly. I was kindly gifted an e-book in return a honest review.

Compelling And Unsettling…
1969. Harvard. The bludgeoning to death of a gifted and ambitious student, Jane Britton. The tale that has been kept alive for forty years when Becky Cooper, then an undergraduate, decides that the case should be investigated further. This is that account. Well written and impeccably researched. A compelling and unsettling true crime narrative which simultaneously paints a picture of the Harvard of the 1960’s.

DNF. There were lots of errors in text (repeated paragraphs and sentences) which meant I did not finish this book.

#WeKeepTheDeadClose is true crime, memoir, elegy, academic indictment and an investigation of the relationship between narrative and truth. It's the culmination of the author's decade-long preoccupation with a cold case.

It begins with the author hearing a myth that swirls around Harvard, concerning one of the professors. Legend stated he murdered a female student but was protected and promoted by the institution. Whilst her name was lost in the mists of time, his was known and he continued to lecture at the university.

The whispers are a cautionary tale about power imbalance and misogyny. It's no coincidence that the woman's name is often forgotten in the retellings. Similar to many women at Harvard, she became a footnote in a male's mystique.
Becky Cooper's book wrestles her - Jane Britton - from obscurity and whilst doing so unearths and elevates the stories of the many women Harvard consigned to the margins.

Cooper sees parallels between herself and Jane. As the book progresses and suspects are considered, acquaintances of Jane provide different perspectives. We follow the author down path after path. The spectre of the closure of the case never haunts Cooper's earlier preconceptions. This determination to list every twist and turn will either intrigue or frustrate you. If Cooper has any unease about potentially smearing innocent living people, it's not apparent.

This is a book packed with detail and with no obvious signifiers of which facts are important. We share Cooper's confusion and realise like archaeologists and writers, we are trying to impose stories and narrative structures that simply do not exist.

This is not a traditional true crime book. It centres Jane and the mystery of Cooper's investigation. The murderer becomes a footnote.

The resolution of the case may disappoint but the ruminations on misogyny and the nature of narrative will niggle. And the memory of Jane- passionate, clever, adventurous - will remain. The author has reclaimed her from nameless victim, from an every woman cautionary tale into a person who was loved, who wrote, who skated, who smoked and who brimmed with potential.

In 2009 Harvard student Becky Cooper is told the surreal story of a Professor who had murdered one of his students in 1969 and not only got away with it but was still teaching at Harvard 40 years later. Seemingly there was a file circulating with evidence compiled by students that had been passed down through the decades. That was the first Becky had heard of the murder of anthropology student Jane Britton ,something would turn into an obsession and nearly a decade of trying to find the truth.
What follows is a painstaking investigation as Becky tries to do what the police failed so miserably to do at the time,the original investigation was so mind-blowingly inept and slipshod that there were suggestions of a cover up.
What follows is a very long journey into the past with different people having different memories of events and people and real life following the finest crime fiction tradition or throwing up not one but several people who circumstantial evidence suggested were very strong candidates for Jane's killer. As each new candidate appeared, circumstantially, to be "the real murderer" I couldn't help thinking of people like Barry George and Stefan Klitscho who were both wrongly convicted on similar "evidence" that proved totally false.
As well as the murder the book reveals the appalling reality of life at Harvard for young women in the 60's with sexual harassment and abuse the norm and one of America's finest educational establishments being a law unto itself.
This is a fascinating book,and very well-written. Without Becky Cooper's efforts the truth of who killed Jane Britton would never have been known, the path to finding that truth is indeed a twisty and bumpy one.