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Tombs Rising #1

The Remnant Keeper

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When the dead can testify, their killers resort to desperate measures
The Remnant Keepers are a loathed group of telepaths, paid to read the last memories of the recently murdered. Jack Winston is one of the best and hates it. Under the scrutiny of the world's most powerful corporation, Jack is as much a prisoner as those he helps send behind bars.
But when his latest case arrives, Jack's world shatters as his wife is brutally murdered. Fuelled by vengeance, Jack vows to catch the murderer, but as the bodies pile up, Jack realises he's made a terrible mistake; he was never the hunter, only the hunted.
The Remnant Keeper is the first book of Tombs Rising, part of The Tombs Legacy. If you're a fan of Torchwood, Stephen King, or The X-Files, then you'll love a series that combines all of their best traits in a fast-paced, captivating, thrilling adventure.
Buy THE REMNANT KEEPER and take your first steps into a universe of darkness created by author Robert Scott-Norton.

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 28, 2015

802 people are currently reading
1052 people want to read

About the author

Robert Scott-Norton

21 books23 followers
Robert Scott-Norton writes to thrill, entertain, and keep people reading until the last page. Raised in Southport, he’s lived there most of his life and has concluded that this ordinary seaside town is the perfect setting for all the horrors he can throw at it.

www.robertscottnorton.net

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5 stars
113 (17%)
4 stars
234 (37%)
3 stars
192 (30%)
2 stars
73 (11%)
1 star
19 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
Profile Image for Montzalee Wittmann.
5,212 reviews2,339 followers
June 3, 2021
An interesting futuristic mystery

The Remnant Keeper
By Robert Scott-Norton
Remnant keepers are telepathic people that have been given implants to help with the retrieval of last memories from dead people's eyes. They take out a murdered persons eye and place in their eye spot. From there they can "see" what happened at the end.
This is a story about a guy how is a remnant keeper and the murder of his wife. He was also working on a special case at the time when it happened. She was in the media and received sensitive information that morning. Several people around all of these cases are in danger. Finding out what the bad guys are really after is the mystery. Who are they? They destroyed the victims eyes to avoid detection.
Very entertaining!
Profile Image for Jim Wicks.
24 reviews
May 13, 2018
No Excuse for the Sloppy Writing

These are the kinds of inconsistencies that drive me nuts:

At the first of the book, Jack gets attacked by an intruder. Barely escapes. Everyone else murdered. The police arrive. He’s allowed to change clothes. Actual excerpt: “They’d given him the courtesy to get changed, then Jack realised as his clothes were sealed into evidence bags it hadn’t been done out of kindness.”

He doesn’t get his clothes back.

He leaves with company rep. Stays at her place. The following day: “...Jack froze, then hurried back up to his bedroom, looking for the trousers he’d worn when he’d been attacked by the intruder. After a quick search, he found them kicked under his bed. He dug his hand into a pocket...”

HE DOESN’T HAVE THE CLOTHES HE WORE WHEN HE WAS ATTACKED.

There’s no excuse for this inconsistency. It’s jarring. And I’m just in the first part of the book. Now, it’s going to bug me because he searches the pockets of the clothes he no longer has and finds a huge clue he got from the intruder/killer that was never mentioned when he fought with the intruder!!!

This is sloppy and inexcusable—and this is just one example. Grrrrrr! Makes no sense!
Profile Image for Elaine.
151 reviews43 followers
August 14, 2018
I read this because I was away with no books and found it on the kindle app of my phone . It sounded interesting being based on the thought that our last memories are stored in our eyes and therefore if someone can" read" the eyes of murder victims it will help catch the murderer.
It was a quick and easy read and quite enjoyable. The writing was just about adequate , definitely good enough to keep me reading but with some consistency errors that a good editor could have picked up on . The use of metaphors was a bit overdone and there was no real depth or development to the characters.
I will probably read the next one in the series .
Profile Image for Michelle Bacon.
455 reviews37 followers
May 30, 2019
This book is set in the not-too-distant future where telepathic people walk amongst us and inserting a dead person's eye into a Remnant Keeper's head is how crimes are solved.
Jack is a keeper who's wife Keeley is murdered. While the police think that Jack killed his wife, Jack is trying to find the person who did it.
It starts off weak and even a bit confusing but gets more interesting the deeper you get into the story. I wanted to give up on this story at first, but glad I pushed through.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
101 reviews2 followers
September 6, 2017
This book is basically about sci-fi necromancy as a method of solving crimes. I've seen the whole "crime solving because a necromancer saw the dead person's memories/ asked the dead person" thing before, but never in a sci-fi setting so that was cool.

Un-put-down-able, a great read. Written very well for the most part, a few little mistakes like the wrong character's name being used and a couple of clumsy word choices, but on the other hand, great similies/metaphors and evocative sensory descriptions. The plot was perfectly balanced between too complex to follow and so simple as to be patronising with a stunning firing of Chekov's gun at the end.

My main reason for not rating 5 is that there wasn't (to my eyes at least, maybe I was missing something) much philosophical depth to it, no big themes. Secondary to that, Jack wasn't a very likeable protagonist. He just kept going off and doing his own thing, and was really aggressive. I get that that was necessary to drive the plot but that's even worse - it made him seem like a plot device rather than a person.

Still would recommend though.
19 reviews
August 8, 2017
An interesting cross of fantasy and science fiction. The central theme is based on the ancient myth that the eyes of a murder victim retain the image of their murderer. This has been expanded with the idea that a 'relic' (part of the body of a person) will provide a spiritual link to that person. In this story the relics are called remnants and they are always eyes. A surgically modified telepath can replace one of their own eyes by a remnant in order to read the story of a murder victim's last hours from it. These telepaths are called remnant keepers and this is the story of one of them whose wife, a journalist who has uncovered a story that others wish to remain buried, is murdered while he is in the process of reading a remnant. .

When the remnant keeper becomes a suspect in the murder of his wife other telepaths are brought in with interesting results. However, the remnant keeper is eventually cleared and the crime solved by good, old fashioned police work. Consequently, I ended up wondering why the fantasy element was introduced into a crime story.

I have given a four star rating despite my issues with the ideas. This is because the author has written a really good crime story based around a fantasy idea. He has also integrated real sci-fi elements into the background that ground the storyline in a reality that is credible. This is clever work and Robert Scott-Norton deserves applause for his accomplishment in creating this original and gripping tale.
Profile Image for Annette.
84 reviews2 followers
July 10, 2017
It is the future and telepaths, although not liked or trusted, are a part of society. Clearly labeled with a tattoo on their forehead, they have found their place working with the police and for a corporation that controlled the majority of them. This corporation, OsMiTech, has devised a method to remove a victim's eye and insert it into the socket of a surgically adapted telepath to 'read' their final memories. Unfortunately, the criminals have come up with a tool that will destroy the eyes.

When Jack's wife, Keeley, the equivalent of a news reporter, obtains a list of clients for a plastic surgeon doing procedures off the books, it is all in the course of her routine business. But there is information that her husband, 'a reader' must know. And he needs to know it as soon as possible. Keeley never has the chance to tell him.

What do the deaths of a government worker and his wife have to do with the death of Jack's wife. Why were their eyes left unharmed and his wife's were not. Who is the man that kills with efficiency and why does he want the eye of the government worker's wife.
12 reviews
September 29, 2017
Nice Surprise!

What a pleasant surprise. I'd not heard of the author and grabbed the book as a free offering. Greatly enjoyed it.

A crime noire with a slight Blade Runner/Neuromancer vibe. Well written, character centered and with a nice degree of world building in the background that's well done, interesting and relative to the story.

Telepathy is integral to the story and in SF this is often only used as a foul or written in a juvenile manner as a superpower. Here it is toned down and given a fascinating and unique detail that makes it just another believable part of the story.

The characters are interesting and likeable.

Only a minor typo or two noticed, great dialogue and I read it in one sitting. Bought the full (and reasonably priced) trilogy before I was done.

Is was also wonderful to read a story written for adults instead of being just another hackneyed hero youth tale.

As a critique, the story could have been a little longer with a more detailing of the various characters but this doesn't take away from the employability of the fast paced mystery of the story.

Well worth the price.

Profile Image for Denise.
7,492 reviews136 followers
June 6, 2018
Jack Winston is a remnant keeper, a telepath able to read a dead person's last memories from their eyes - and normally, that's where his involvement with recent murder victims ends. Then his wife is brutally killed, her eyes burned out so no remnant keeper can access her memories, and Jack is determined to hunt down the killer himself. But the bodies keep piling up, and he's getting no closer to the answers he seeks.

Pretty cool idea in general, but somewhat half-baked in the execution. Glaring inconcistencies in the story (such as Jack finding an important clue in a pair of pants he no longer has because they were confiscated as evidence), an unsympathetic protagonist (for the largest part of the story, he doesn't exhibit the slightest feeling of sadness or grief over his wife's death, he mostly just comes across as annoyed at the inconvenience all this causes for him) and the fact that, if you think about it, the whole premise of the remnant keepers reading thoughts from eyes of all things doesn't actually make a lot of sense kept me from finding this more than mildly entertaining.
Profile Image for Robert Lovell.
72 reviews
January 12, 2018
I picked up this ebook for free at BN. I was intrigued by the concept. A little futuristic scifi, telepathic investigations... Sounded like an interesting story. However, I was gravely disappointed.
The basic gist of the story is that Jack Winston is a "remnant keeper". In some futuristic earth setting, he is a telepath who has been surgically altered to accept the eye of a recently deceased person. The idea is that he can see the last few hours, it seems, of the persons life including their death. So he can then help solve their murder if that is how they died. Intriguing.
The execution of the story falls very very short. The character development is sketchy at best. The dialogue and writing style is clumsy and burdensome. Reading this book was kind of like streaming a movie that has the dialogue dubbed over and is constantly buffering.
I cannot in good conscience recommend this book and will avoid the subsequent books.
Profile Image for K.C. Nicola.
Author 3 books27 followers
November 20, 2017
"Does it not bother you that you work for OsMiTech? Or that you're reading the eyes from dead people?"

In the 22nd century, telepaths known as "remnant keepers" are commissioned to read the final memories of the deceased. However, even their ability doesn't keep them safe, and this is especially the case for Jack Winston - one of the best of the group - when his wife, Keeley, is murdered. Now fueled by the desire to avenge her death, he swears to uncover the truth - but it will not be what he expects.

I enjoyed The Remnant Keeper a good bit - 3 out of 5 stars for me - and while I would not personally call it a thriller, it was full of twists, turns, and elements of misdirection. If anything, though, the world could have used some more building; there were also a few noticeable typos in the text that at times distracted me.
33 reviews4 followers
July 17, 2017
Could have been so much more!Interesting storyline about Telepaths in a future society. One of their functions being to read the eyes of the recently deceased. While this assisted police the public at large feared them. So part SciFi part crime thriller. A combination which intrigued me. unfortunately there was too much repetition in this novel that it distracted me from enjoying it. It was fast paced but what I anticipated is more than the content as such. it is the first of 3 books in the Tombs Rising series. I will probably read the other 2 books but have no great longing to do so at the moment.
Profile Image for IRIFF.
110 reviews
July 26, 2017
This book was a page turner! Set in 2115, the main character is a telepath assigned to read the final memories of murder victims. Already that's a cool foundation for a story, but add in the murder of his wife with precious little evidence left behind, and no way to read her memory, and you have a snappy crime mystery. It's not quite thrilling enough to be a thriller, but there are plenty of elements to misdirect you and the twist is not obvious. While the book does not end on a cliffhanger, being the first in a series there are some questions left unanswered. I would continue with the series.
Profile Image for Jon Grafton.
Author 7 books11 followers
August 8, 2018
This is a great mystery novel that draws on aspects of Minority Report, and reads like a fast-paced thriller/detective book. You feel like you're in a movie. That probably has a lot to do with the protagonist being a detective. A detective with the ability to put a dead person's eye in his head and see their final memories; quite handy in solving futuristic murders. And the primary mystery this detective is trying to solve is the murder of his own wife. I didn't know what to expect going in, but I kept reading and enjoyed it more and more the further I got. A very unique tale for the mystery and sci-fi lover alike!
Profile Image for Richard Burke.
Author 11 books22 followers
March 30, 2020
Jack Winston has developed telepathic abilities and has been trained to apply his skills to extracting the last few memories of murder victims. The process involves temporarily replacing his own eye with the deceased's.
But in his latest case, somebody is desperate to prevent him from reading the victim's last few seconds. Jack's wife is murdered and the body count rises as he attempts to track down the culprits.
The premise is novel and made for an interesting read, but there were a few inconsistencies and I found the science all a bit too far-fetched.
An entertaining read if you can suspend your disbelief.
106 reviews1 follower
May 10, 2018
A strange and creepy future world

The Remnant Keeper is a convoluted mystery involving the ability to see the last moments of a person's life and ostensibly aiding in the quick detection of whoever committed a murder. This is a fast paced and high body count style mystery with plenty of action and twists and turns that the hero, Jack, must navigate through. The setting is a plausible 100 years or so future in London where the invasion of one's privacy is pretty much accepted.
700 reviews2 followers
August 7, 2017
An interesting concept and a good read - nothing especially insightful or new and the writing is good but not to the level of many authors I've been reading lately. The character of Anna develops much more possibilities at the end, and having more of her and her abilities would have helped this first volume - she's being kept on tap for the next story probably, but I'm not sure I'll continue with so many other choices to read.
Profile Image for Ashlea.
12 reviews1 follower
September 16, 2017
The concept was promising but I never figured out how eyes store memories/thoughts and how many. It was supposed to hold just before a victim died but there were times when the memories went further back. Maybe I missed how eyes function as a brain? I understand being able to recall final images but thoughts and sound? Nope. Don't buy it. I shouldn't have to wait the entire book to never have this answered. It's the main premise of the book.
1 review
October 5, 2017
Interesting premise, needs more filling

The story is great and like most good mysteries it keeps the reader entertained and guessing. I like that there was a conclusion and left the story open for more. Despite being part of a large world, it felt somewhat limited. I think I wanted more from the world descriptions, especially regarding the telepathic powers. Overall, it's an interesting read and I look forward to the next books.
Profile Image for Linda.
15 reviews
May 22, 2018
The story and characters were interesting. Jack is a remnant keeper, a telepath who reads the last moments of a person’s life to try to solve murders. While reading an important case he is attacked and when he awakens finds his wife’s body in the room. Jack sets out to solve his wife’s murder. The book contains creepy details, strong emotions, and leaves you with more questions than answers. I’m not sure whether I will continue with the rest of the series, but have not ruled it out.
Profile Image for Leona Grace.
Author 22 books16 followers
July 8, 2017
This was a real gem of a book. The word-building was deft and also discreet without the 'inf0-umps' that so often accompany sci-fi novels. The plot was not so complex that I lost touch with what was happening and I read through with real enjoyment, keen to find out what happened in the end.

A great read and an author to follow.
133 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2017
Telepathy and surgery join together to make a Remnant Keeper

Jack is a Remnant Keeper. His job is to use his physical modification and his telepathy to find out what caused the death of a person. Unfortunately, most of the dead people are connected to Jack and that is making the police suspicious.
Profile Image for Keith McDonagh.
78 reviews1 follower
September 16, 2017
Cool story

Overall this was a good book. The concept was unique and there were some good surprises. There were parts where the verbiage was off, and the writing didn't flow very well. At times, the story line was a bit difficult to follow.
Overall, though, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.
Profile Image for Angel Graham.
Author 1 book33 followers
May 15, 2018
This had potential, but squandered it.

Too many inconsistencies already pointed out by other reviewers.

Ends with a cliffhanger, though at least one reviewer said it didn't. Except the author HIMSELF says, oh yes, I did that on purpose, now buy me second book.

Nope. The first wasn't good enough and the cliffhanger just pissed me off.
Profile Image for Dana Wood.
631 reviews3 followers
May 28, 2018
This book reminded me of the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report. I think the ending wasn’t built up enough. Or it just got me with the “who”. Which is possible. I just felt that the clues pointing to This who person were vague. Wasn’t shocked....just more like...”hmmm”. Ok so that’s the mysterious person.
2,416 reviews13 followers
July 31, 2018
I've heard the theory of trying to use the last image before death as a way to uncover the crime (using photography). This book uses telepaths who swap their own eye for the death eye to recover the crime. Jack is investigating the murder of a woman - but, to hide the crime, his whole world is destroyed. Interesting concept and an enjoyable story.
Profile Image for Tina.
1,298 reviews9 followers
March 2, 2019
Telepathic

Abilities seems to be the norm but hated! Remnant keepers can see the last moments of murder victims by having the eye placed into their own socket. Trying to keep crime down but the Hunter becomes the hunted by a Prime telepath desperate to stay out of the clutches of the powers that be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
40 reviews
May 24, 2017


This is a clever and intriguing plot which engages the reader/ listener from beginning to the end . I was particularly absorbed by the detailed descriptions of other cultures, people and beliefs. Very interesting story.

I received a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for my review
35 reviews1 follower
July 24, 2017
Sci-fi twist on a classic murder mystery

What would crime be like if you could provide eyewitness testimony to your own murder? That's the premise of this sci-fi/mystery. It was creative enough to maintain my interest. I look forward to reading more stories by this author.
Profile Image for Katie Ipfritsch.
190 reviews1 follower
October 3, 2017
3.5 stars, was a fun enough read but the ending kind of fell apart for me and I was like huh and not really interested in reading the sequels. I found it hard to keep track of characters because there were so many unnecessary characters and the names kind of just ran together for me.

Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews

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