"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."

—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing

"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."

—Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"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."

—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Witches

"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."

—Ariel Levy, New York Times bestselling author of The Rules Do Not Apply

"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 Closedeserves inclusion in this exalted company. It's really that special."

—Jeff Guinn, bestselling author of Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson and The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

"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."

—Robert Kolker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road

"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."

—Paige Williams, author of The Dinosaur Artist