Summon the Keeper: Entertaining urban fantasy

Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff’s KEEPER’S CHRONICLES is about a family of Keepers, descendants of Lilith who have the power to close up holes in the fabric of the universe that appear when evil things happen. Keepers get supernaturally summoned toward these holes, so they’re often on the go, traveling from place to place as they feel the pull of their summons.

Claire, a Canadian Keeper in her late 20s who travels with Austin, an elderly talking cat, has been summoned to a bed & breakfast called the Elysian Fields Guesthouse. When she arrives, the owner turns his establishment over to Claire and quickly bolts.

That’s because there’s an unconscious evil Keeper in room six, the place is haunted by a dead (but still horny) Frenchman, the elevator travels to other dimensions (including one that’s inhabited by tentacled horrors), the next door neighbor is nosy and obnoxious, a few imps are running amok, the bust of Elvis talks (“Thank you. Thank you very much.”), and did I mention there’s a portal to hell in the furnace room?

The situation must have been too much for the former owner, so now Claire’s in charge, but it’s taking a while to sort things out. Claire feels trapped at the B&B, like her talents are being wasted while she’s stuck there. The one bright spot is the maintenance guy who works at, and lives in, the hotel. He does all the work around the place, including the cooking. And he’s super hot.

Summon the Keeper (1998) is a light, amusing, fast-pace read that is sometimes too silly. I loved the bed & breakfast setting and the strange situation Claire found herself in. She isn’t planning to stay at the B&B after this job is done, yet she’s redecorating and making improvements. Meanwhile Hell, down in the furnace room, talks to itself, heckles the other characters (sounding a lot like Statler and Waldorf), and plots mischief. This is going to be too silly for many readers.

As for the characterization, Claire doesn’t have much personality (or maybe it’s just that she’s kind of rigid and a little too sensible), and the French ghost is too much of a cliché, but I loved the cat and, especially, the hot maintenance guy. The nosy neighbor is somewhat entertaining, but a bit over the top.

Summon the Keeper will appeal to fans of light urban fantasy and cozy paranormal mysteries. I was entertained enough to take a look at the next volume, The Second Summoning. I’m reading the audio versions that were recently produced by Tantor Audio and are narrated by Amy Melissa Bentley. She’s really great and I think the book was more entertaining because of her performance. Summon the Keeper is 14.5 hours long.