Summary of Becky Cooper's We Keep the Dead Close

By IRB Media

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#1 On January 7, 1969, the second day of reading period, five anthropology doctoral students were assembled in a lecture hall at the top of the Peabody Museum. If they failed, they risked getting moved off the PhD track into a terminal master’s.

#2 I live in a mansion called Apthorp House, which is part of Harvard’s Adams House dorms. It is haunted, and the ghost is General Burgoyne, a British officer who was held captive in the house during the Revolutionary War.

#3 I have been haunted by a murder that took place a few steps away. It was told to me like a ghost story: a young woman, a Harvard graduate student of archaeology, was bludgeoned to death in her off-campus apartment in January 1969. Her body was covered with fur blankets and the killer threw red ochre on her body.

#4 I had grown up in a family where ordering a drink with dinner was considered an unnecessary indulgence. At Harvard, I could talk about philosophical pragmatism over breakfast and spend hours picking apart David Foster Wallace with my tutorial leader. I learned that I was supposed to choose courses based on the professors rather than the course content.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543584

IRB Media

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Insights on Becky Cooper's We Keep the Dead Close

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

On January 7, 1969, the second day of reading period, five anthropology doctoral students were assembled in a lecture hall at the top of the Peabody Museum. If they failed, they risked getting moved off the PhD track into a terminal master’s.

#2

I live in a mansion called Apthorp House, which is part of Harvard’s Adams House dorms. It is haunted, and the ghost is General Burgoyne, a British officer who was held captive in the house during the Revolutionary War.

#3

I have been haunted by a murder that took place a few steps away. It was told to me like a ghost story: a young woman, a Harvard graduate student of archaeology, was bludgeoned to death in her off-campus apartment in January 1969. Her body was covered with fur blankets and the killer threw red ochre on her body.

#4

I had grown up in a family where ordering a drink with dinner was considered an unnecessary indulgence. At Harvard, I could talk about philosophical pragmatism over breakfast and spend hours picking apart David Foster Wallace with my tutorial leader. I learned that I was supposed to choose courses based on the professors rather than the course content.

#5

I had a complicated relationship with the final clubs, as I felt they were elitist and controlled the parties and alcohol. But I had to admit there was a sense of security in knowing my name was on the list.

#6

I remember the moment when I heard the story of the woman named Lily, but I can’t remember anything about the experience itself. When police found her body, they found cigarette butts burned into her stomach in a ritualistic pattern.

#7

From the moment I heard the story, I was drawn to it. It was outlandish and obviously embellished, but it was also believable because it reflected Harvard’s omnipotent nature.

#8

The story of the murdered archaeology student was told to me by Morgan. It was a tale of intrigue and double identities, and I began to retell it. But I stopped when James said something: It was in her apartment, not the Peabody.

#9

The exams finished around noon. Jim Humphries, Jane’s boyfriend, had taken the test that day. He had seen her the night before and, other than being nervous about the test, she had seemed fine. But when she wasn’t in the exam, he knew something had gone wrong.

#10

Jim began walking the short distance from the museum to Jane’s apartment, a four-story walk-up on a side street that connected Mount Auburn Street to the Charles River. The building was commissioned by Harvard in the late 1890s to provide a less expensive housing option for students.

#11

Jane’s apartment was a chaotic mess. Books, ashtrays, and manuscript pages were everywhere. Her bedroom was full of long-haired sheepskin rugs and her fur coat was on the bed. She was buried facedown underneath.

#12

The story about the professor and his student was that he had an affair with his student, and when she threatened to tell either his wife or the university, he killed her.

#13

I began to research the case, and found out that Jane had a reputation for being extremely blunt. She had a secret abortion, and affairs with at least one professor.

#14

I wanted to see Jane’s face. The first season of Tepe Yahya, 1968, had a photograph of the eight-person crew that summer, plus Karl’s wife, the government’s antiquities representative, the cook, and a few local villagers. Jane was six months shy of her end.

#15

I was old enough to know that my belief that I could solve a murder on my own might be as naive as the belief that I could find the whereabouts of Jesse James.

#16

The police found that there was no evidence of a struggle in the apartment, except for the bloodstained bed. Two of Jane’s windows were open, despite the freezing Cambridge winter.

#17

The police investigated the crime, and while they found nothing amiss, they did not find a weapon. They did, however, find a strange noise coming from Jane’s apartment.

#18

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