Keep The Dead Close

Becky Cooper’s WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE is the latest book in my favorite genre of nonfiction-that-reads-like-fiction. It’s an incredibly detailed, nail-biting account of the murder of a Harvard grad student in 1969. After hearing the campus folklore around the murder while she was a Harvard undergraduate, Cooper became obsessed with the tale: An archaeology grad student was bludgeoned to death by the professor she was having an affair with. He decorated her corpse with red powder and jewelry, mimicking an ancient burial rite. But as Cooper began to dive into the mystery headfirst, she discovered that nothing from the urban legend was quite as it seemed… and that the most guilty party may actually have been the university itself. Even for readers who don’t love true crime, this is a fantastic exploration of how institutions suppress their darkest secrets. 

—Julia Hammer, Creative Exec