My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

 Spoiler: I talk about the death of an animal here.  Also, a person. Both are fictional deaths. 

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due is the first the African Immortals quartet. I really wanted to like this book, but in the end I decided that I wasn't going to read any more books in the series, so I guess that tells you all you really need to know about my impressions of the it. 

Jessica, a journalist for a local newspaper, is married to David, and they have a five-year daughter.  But is there something more to David?  Turns out that 400 years ago David became an immortal and now he has to decide whether or not to take his wife and daughter along with him in his life or not. It's creepy. It's an interesting premise. 

The thing is that neither main character has a single redeeming character trait. We meet David as he's murdering an old lady in her bed. We meet Jessica as she's upset that her husband and daughter are upset over their dog getting sick and dying (page 14 and the dog dies - it's that kind of book), but she's not actually upset about a seemingly sweet dog dying.  

(One time my sister-in-law laughed when I got choked up about talking about how my parents had to put down one of their dogs.  I was appalled and it started a fight and it was a whole thing and she tried to apologize and I accepted, but it turns out that I am still bitter over this and I really need to let it go. Thanks for being my therapist.)

Anyway. Due did a great job building suspense and creating tension. If only there'd been some sort of moment built into the narrative so that I would want to root for one of these characters, it might be a book I'd recommend to readers who enjoy thrillers.  As it is, it was really hard to find (I had to use the University library system) and not worth the hassle.

Lines of note:

"That's the difference between us and white folks, she told herself. They don't stop to say 'I can't' or "Should I,' they just do.  And it was a skill, sooner or later, she would need to pick up despite herself." (page 24)

"'My mother used to say to me that she collected sorrows and put them in her pocket. Walking around with them that way, by and by, you just learn to carry them all a bit better, to stand up a bit straighter.'" (page 100)