Keep Me Alive

Trish Maguire #6

by Natasha Cooper

Why did investigative journalist Jamie Maxden die? The coroner says it was suicide. The case is closed. Only one man fights to reopen it. Will Applewood is sure Jamie was about to expose a scandal that would shame the British food industry. But Will is notorious for his conspiracy theories. No one listens to him. In despair he turns to his barrister, Trish Maguire.
Felled by food poisoning in the middle of Will's case against a huge supermarket chain, Trish is ready to believe any story about dangers lurking inside the pretty packaging of the food we eat. Even though she has more than enough to do already with the trial, an attempt to save a child at terrible risk, and plenty of emotional complications of her own, she agrees to help.
Will's campaign takes her deep into the countryside, revealing a world that seems quite different from the metropolitan life she knows. But human nature doesn't change---whatever the environment.
Moving between the ravishing landscape and the grim depths of the inner city, trying to save lives and sanity, inexhaustible Trish is driven into a crusade---both personal and professional---that combines excitement, drama, and agonizing human tragedy.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2004

About the author

aka N.J. Cooper, Kate Hatfield, Clare Layton, Daphne Wright.

Natasha Cooper was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2000/2001. She reviews books in THE TIMES, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT and the NEW LAW JOURNAL. She is the author of, among others, FAULT LINES and PREY TO ALL.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Trish Maguire books... but sometimes I feel she is the most dense woman ever. Who just walks into a murder suspect's house- invited no less?! Ugh. Needless to say, she made it out just fine... but still! How stupid can you be Trish? This book was largely void of George and David and very full of flirtations between Trish and Antony... Can't wait to see what that means in the next book!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always thought author Cooper pays a lot of attention to what her characters eat. In this story, the food supply is a theme. Events start happening when Trish takes on co-prosecution of a civil suit by small independent food processors (who made gourmet items), who contract w. a large grocer, which runs them into the ground by switching terms on them.

Trish is solo during the book, in that brother David and lover George are away on vacation, until the book's very end.

book makes interesting revelations about Cooper's repeat characters:
- Trish knows how to flirt, w. her boss, Anthony, no less
- Caro and lover Jess have a relationship conflict
- Caro's prior lover is still in her (Caro's) life
- a legal client (a pate maker) comes on to Trish


I'm not sure what the title refers to - keep WHO alive?
the pate maker? the pate maker's heritage, in the form of the farmhouse which he had to sell, when his business failed, even tho it had been in his family for generations? Caro, whose life is jeopardized by contaminated food?

(pretty daring that Cooper has the ultimate source of the contamination be human feces, deliberately applied to sausages that Caro-Trish ate, by Caro's former lover (-- who wants to support Jesse in not being dominated by Caro. weird logic, there) Somehow Cooper handles this delicately enough that I was not grossed out in the reading (just later, when I'd thought the plot over.)

it's clear who's no longer alive in this book, or by end of book:
pate maker's journalist friend
pate maker's short-term girl friend (from Ivydale)

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I struggled to finish this. So very boring

[Gill Adshead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read!

[Amy Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Trish McGuire series but I'm still confused about the whole barrister vs solicitor thing.

[Judith Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting plot, a little convoluted but quite well tied together. Makes you wonder a bit about the meat trade however given the current horse meat issue

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough mystery but the characters aren't interesting enough to make me try again.