By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
New York Times best-selling author Charles Martin has just released his fourth installment of the Murphy Shepherd Series, and this one is called The Keeper. I will admit that after I heard it was coming out, I was a bit reluctant to read it. This was because I simply didn’t think anything else could be said after the first three made me chuckle, sob, and fight with the temptation to, shall we say, speak inappropriately. Boy, was I wrong—it is a definite keeper; the kind that makes you feel like a kid who once again snuck the flashlight into their room and stayed up all night to read beneath the covers because you just couldn’t put it down. This was the first time I had listened to one of Charles’s books on Audible, and found myself making excuses to drive places and do errands just so I could listen. It is, on both platforms, a most satisfying read as well as a listen.
The hero in all four is a highly successful author whose “day job” involves complex, special ops-style rescues of mostly girls and some boys from the darkest of all worlds: sex trafficking. He has a team, he has a mentor, he has the coolest dog ever, he falls in love, and he travels all over this big blue marble to get the kids to safety and restoration in a place called Freetown. In addition, he doesn’t rest until he has dismantled the organizations that enslaved the children in the first place.
There are so many things I appreciate about Martin’s treatment of the subject of trafficking and the characters he creates to fully tell the tale. The hero is a man of faith, as are the members of his team, but they are raw, real, and have struggles and strengths that make their individual and corporate journeys entirely credible. Charles has the skill as a writer that paints enough of a picture to vividly and accurately describe the darkness without making you feel like you need to shower or book a session with your pastor, priest, or therapist when you have read the last page.
The fierce battle against evil has just the right level of spiritual warfare, and not a one of the victories comes easily or quickly. And, as a reader, just when you need some relief in the form of comedy, parables, romance, history, or the beauty of nature, those topics arrive in the narrative to help you breathe again. Then, the battle starts right back up before you have the chance to back out.
Not one of the books in this series could be described as an easy read, nor are they supposed to be. The Keeper was the toughest for me personally because of the level of commitment needed to demonstrate the “greater love” of the Shepherd that is required of the characters, and by extension, the reader. I recommend you start with the first three: The Water Keeper, The Letter Keeper, and The Record Keeper before you tackle The Keeper because of how richly they set the stage for The Keeper to do its work. That “work” is to remind us once again that “the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the ninety-nine.” Find out how and why, and let me know if you need to borrow a flashlight.
May 16, 2025
