Janet Dawson’s The Things We Keep is the kind of private investigator novel I’m always hoping to read. I don’t know why I missed the first in the series, Kindred Crimes, when it came out in 1990. It won the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America best first PI contest, and was nominated for three other awards for Best First Novel. Jeri Howard, the PI, reminds me of Marcia Muller’s early Sharon McCone. Instead of San Francisco, Dawson takes readers to Oakland and Alameda, California. The Things We Keep is the fourteenth in the series, but I didn’t have any problem starting with this one. I am going back, though, to read earlier books.
Jeri Howard and her fiance, Dan, are helping friends inventory a Victorian house in Alameda. It belongs to Noel Benjamin’s great-aunt, Gloria, who recently moved out and into senior living. Noel’s wife, Lakshmi Srinivasan, isn’t fond of Gloria, but Gloria refers to Noel as her favorite nephew, and he’s willing to step in to help. When Jeri discovers an old Navy locker with two sets on bones in it, she doesn’t know if it’s really going to help Gloria or not.
Although the police take an interest in the fifty-year-old bones, Lakshmi pushes Noel to hire Jeri, despite Gloria’s objections. Jeri and Lakshmi both suspect there’s something behind Gloria’s abrupt move to senior living. All of her tenants left within three months, and Gloria doesn’t want to sell her house through a realtor. She insists she has a buyer, but Jeri finds it suspicious that other houses on the same street have sold signs as well. When Jeri visits Gloria, the wily woman only wants to tell stories of her days as a hippie in a band in the Haight neighborhood of San Francisco. It’s those stories, though, that lead Jeri to accounts of two missing people, a couple Gloria once knew.
As Jeri digs into the past, her case takes her back to 1969, the height of popular rock bands in San Francisco, and into the stories of the Zodiac Killer. Two young people who disappeared in late 1969, suspected of being victims of the Zodiac Killer, were associated with the Naval Air Station in Alameda. Now, Jeri has stories of two young couples who disappeared in late 1969. Whose bones were in the Navy locker in Gloria’s house?
The Things We Keep is an absorbing story, a complex PI novel. Jeri Howard is a well-connected PI, with sources she can call on, and a working relationship with local police. It’s not often I stumble on a PI series that doesn’t feature an investigator who goes rogue. I respected Jeri as a PI, and I’m hoping to read of her earlier cases. The Things We Keep sold me on this compelling series with a mature private investigator.
Jeri Howard’s website is https://www.janetdawson.com/
The Things We Keep by Janet Dawson. Bodie Blue Books, 2023. ISBN 9781944153267 (paperback), 212p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Well, I can’t remember if the author or the publicist sent a copy of the book. But, I made no promises for a positive review, or any review at all.
I read all of the early ones and then it seemed like the series ended. There was about a 10 year gap – Because I read them in the 90’s I may just start over. I remember really enjoying these books. This one sounds interesting – so maybe I will catch up with Jeri soon.
I looked on StopYoureKillingMe, Jeannette, and she did have gaps in the series. I’m really enjoying the ones I’m reading.
My library doesn’t have this but it had another book with the same title that sounds interesting.
That’s funny, Sandy. I hope you enjoy the other book!
Surprising that I haven’t come across this author before! Although I haven’t lived in the Bay Area for years, I grew up there and still have relatives living there. And looking at Janet Dawson’s website I see she’s included some of my favorite locations east of the Sierra also. I’ll definitely add this to my list.
Thanks
This series is set mostly in Oakland and Alameda, MM. You’ll probably recognize locations!
I did read the first one – KINDRED CRIMES, was it? – but for whatever reason, never read another. Occasionally I’d read a first PI novel back then and hate it (I’m looking at you, Karen Kijewski’s Kat Colorado), or just not like the character much (as in Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon), but that wasn’t the case here, so I don’t know why I didn’t read the others. And now I see book 13 is set in New Orleans, so that is where I should go next. But I am also interested in her historical California Zephyr series.
Jeff, I actually had some of the historical California Zephyr books and gave them to my sister who really enjoyed them. I never read them. I’m really liking this series, though. Loved your comment about the Kat Colorado series. Never read that one either. I don’t know what the heck I was doing in that period of time. I read the early Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton & Sara Paretsky books. I also read a number of Nevada Barr’s books, although you’re right. I never warmed up to Anna Pigeon.