KEEP ME ALIVE: A TRISH MAGUIRE MYSTERY

A Novel By Natasha Cooper

St. Martin's Minotaur: 352 pp; $24.95


You Don't Want to Know How Sausage Is Made

Reviewed by Paula L. Woods, December 19, 2004, Washington Post

Scary indeed are the two central premises of Natasha Cooper's Keep Me Alive (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95), the sixth mystery to feature barrister Trish Maguire. Stuck in London in the heat of summer and without their families, Trish and another barrister, Antony Shelley, are flirting like crazy as they argue the case of a group of plaintiffs, small food producers who were allegedly run out of business by giant Furbisher Foods, "one of the biggest and most ruthless of the supermarket chains" and a chilling stand-in for England's Tesco or the United States' Wal-Mart. Will Applewood, a meat supplier whose business was ruined by Furbisher's tactics, is understandably bitter and nearly rabid about making the company pay. So when Trish asks him to help her find the source of contamination in sausages that left her with a case of food poisoning and her friend police inspector Caro Lyalt gravely ill, Applewood takes on the assignment as if it's a redemptive crusade.

While Caro is in a hospital battling for her life, Trish (somewhat improbably) pinch hits on the case of Kim Bowlby, a child who Caro and her detective team believe is being mistreated by her stepfather. Can Trish determine whether Kim's stepfather is abusing her in time to prevent the child's return home? Can Applewood's investigation into Smarsden Meats, one of Furbisher's vendors and a likely source of the sausages, produce the proof Trish needs without endangering himself and others in the process? And what are Bob and Ron Flesker, two Smarsden employees, smuggling across the English Channel with a hapless local farmer and amateur pilot?

Cooper's thorough research is enough to turn readers against both chain food stores and processed meat forever, and her insights into the nature and motivations of her characters are often compelling. Yet her technique of frequent cross-cutting between various points of view results in a novel that is oddly imbalanced and overly detailed at times while glossing over key action at others. By the time the final twists are revealed and the world is set to rights, readers may be too worn out to care.