We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence

A literary true-crime book about the 1969 case involving Jane Britton, an ambitious 23-year-old graduate student in Harvard’s Archaeology Department, who was found bludgeoned to death in her Harvard University apartment.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

‘Brilliant and extraordinary’ Philippe Sands

‘Astonishing … Cooper is one hell of a detective’ Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body

‘Seductive … Haunting’ Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply

In 1969, Jane Britton, an ambitious graduate student at Harvard, was found bludgeoned to death in her apartment. A whisper network kept Jane’s story alive- a rumour of an affair with a professor that ended in tragedy when Britton threatened to expose him.

Forty years later, when curious undergrad Becky Cooper first heard the story, she felt compelled to find out more. We Keep the Dead Close is an account of her complex and fascinating investigation spanning a decade.